should this be considered themes or motifs

I don’t know if these are motifs or themes
 

The themes are played twice, first by themselves, then with harmonic context

Please tell me what you think

thank you

Edited January 4, 20242 yr by Jqh73o

Hi Jqh73o.

I personally think that if anything, they may be motifs (but according to some authors, that would depend on how much present these are in your piece) I would prefer to judge with the score at hand too, but that's my opinion. Can you easily divide your themes or motifs in smaller meaningful and identifiable units? If you can't then you likely found they are motives (or cells, or whatever you call the smallest analyzable stuff).

Themes are usually (cause I don't think there's a definition for this written in stone) conceived as larger units of melody made from one or various musical phrases. These phrases in turn may contain one or various motifs. So you may say your excerpts are motifs; that perhaps and only perhaps they are phrases but in my opinion, not themes. Colloquially speaking, though, you will find that often theme == motif.

Kind regards,
Daniel–Ømicrón.

Thank you for the clarification