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A rhythmic motif is the term designating a characteristic rhythmic formula, an abstraction drawn from the rhythmic values of a melody. A motif thematically associated with a person, place, or idea is called a leitmotif or idée fixe. [7] Occasionally such a motif is a musical cryptogram of the name involved.
The spelling leitmotif is a partial anglicization of the German Leitmotiv (IPA: [ˈlaɪtmoˌtiːf] ⓘ), literally meaning "leading motif", or "guiding motif". A musical motif has been defined as a "short musical idea ... melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic, or all three", [1] a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that ...
In music, the BACH motif is the motif, a succession of notes important or characteristic to a piece, B flat, A, C, B natural. In German musical nomenclature , in which the note B natural is named H and the B flat named B , it forms Johann Sebastian Bach 's family name .
The Encyclopédie Fasquelle defines a theme (subject) as "[a]ny element, motif, or small musical piece that has given rise to some variation becomes thereby a theme". [ 4 ] Thematic changes and processes are often structurally important, and theorists such as Rudolph Reti have created analysis from a purely thematic perspective.
A riff is a short, repeated motif or figure in the melody or accompaniment of a musical composition. [2] Riffs are most often found in rock music, punk, heavy metal music, Latin, funk, and jazz, although classical music is also sometimes based on a riff, such as Ravel's Boléro.
In music theory, a phrase (Greek: φράση) is a unit of musical meter that has a complete musical sense of its own, [5] built from figures, motifs, and cells, and combining to form melodies, periods and larger sections. [6] A phrase is a substantial musical thought, which ends with a musical punctuation called a cadence.
In music, form refers to the structure of a musical composition or performance.In his book, Worlds of Music, Jeff Todd Titon suggests that a number of organizational elements may determine the formal structure of a piece of music, such as "the arrangement of musical units of rhythm, melody, and/or harmony that show repetition or variation, the arrangement of the instruments (as in the order of ...
A musical figure or figuration is the shortest idea in music; a short succession of notes, often recurring. It may have melodic pitch, harmonic progression, and rhythmic meter. The 1964 Grove's Dictionary defines the figure as "the exact counterpart of the German 'motiv' and the French 'motif '": it produces a "single complete and distinct ...