Leitmotif

A leitmotif (also spelled leitmotiv) is a recurring musical theme, associated within a particular piece of music with a particular person, place or idea. The word has also been used by extension to mean any sort of recurring theme, whether in music, literature, or the life of a fictional character or a real person.

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The German word Motiv is borrowed from the French motif, meaning motive or theme. Prefixing it with Leit- (coming from G. leiten, to lead), produces Leitmotiv (G. pl. Leitmotive), meaning "leading motif".

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A leitmotif is usually a short melody, although it can also be a chord progression or even a simple rhythm. Leitmotifs can help to bind a work together into a coherent whole, and also enable the composer to relate a story without the use of words, or to add an extra level to an already present story.

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The word is usually used when talking about dramatic works, especially operas, although leitmotifs are also used in other musical genres, such as instrumental pieces, cinema or video game music as well. The Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz is purely instrumental, but has a recurring melody representing the love of the central character. Berlioz himself called this an id?e fixe. There is also some similarity with Beethoven's use of motto themes - in his Fifth Symphony, for example, when one particular melody is representative of fate.

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Richard Wagner is the composer most often associated with leitmotifs, and his operas make liberal use of them. His cycle of four operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen, uses dozens of leitmotifs, representing characters, things, or situations; while some of these leitmotifs occur in only one of the operas, many occur throughout the entire cycle. However, leitmotifs had been used by other composers before him, most notably Carl Maria von Weber, who was probably the first to make extensive use of them. The first use of the word "leitmotif" in print, however, was not until 1871, when critic F. W. J?hns used it in describing Weber's work. The first use of the term with reference to Wagner's music was apparently in 1887 by H. von Wolzogen, the editor of the Bayreuther Bl?tter, in discussing G?tterd?mmerung. (Wagner had used "Grundthema" (basic idea) in speaking of his leitmotifs.)

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Since Wagner, the use of leitmotifs has been taken up by many other composers. Richard Strauss used the device in many of his operas and several of his symphonic poems. The Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu used them in many of his Final Fantasy RPG series soundtracks, where many characters in the games had their own musical "theme". The Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev made heavy use of leitmotifs in his work Peter and the Wolf, a musical story with narration; in it, each character is represented by a specific instrument in the orchestra, as well as an associated melodic theme.

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They are also very common in movie scores; a well known example is the Star Wars Imperial March associated with Darth Vader and his previous self, Anakin Skywalker, in The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. In the James Bond films, the James Bond Theme music is heard during action sequences. Among Westerns, perhaps the most famous film to make use of leitmotifs is Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. The television soap opera Dynasty also used musical themes for each character, as did the action cartoon '. Angelo Badalamenti wrote possibly the most famous television example, Laura Palmer's Theme on Twin Peaks.

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Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails uses a leitmotif on the album The Downward Spiral. The motif is a downward chromatic scale followed by Eb x2, D, F, F (down one octave from previous F). The motif is used at the end of Closer, the high point of the album and foreshadows the death of the protagonist by the album's end "Hurt." The motif makes a brief appearance in Every Day is Exactly the Same off of With Teeth.

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Leitmotif is also the name of Dredg's first full length album.

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Music: Music is a natural intuitive phenomenon operating in the three worlds of time, pitch, energy, and under the three distinct and interrelated organization structures of rhythm, harmony, and melody....

Literature: :For other uses of Literature, see Literature (disambiguation)....

G: G is the seventh letter in the Roman alphabet....