Jump to content

should this be considered themes or motifs


Recommended Posts

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 by Jqh73o
Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...