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 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 "lead motif".) It is usually a short melody, although they can also be chord progressions or even simple rhythms. 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.

The word is usually used when talking about dramatic works, especially operas, although leitmotifs are used in instrumental pieces 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 idée fixe. There is also some similarity with Tchaikovsky's use of motto themes - in his Fifth Symphony, for example, when one particular melody is representative of fate.

Richard Wagner is the composer most often associated with leitmotifs, and his operas make liberal use of them. His cycle of four operas, The Ring of the Nibelung, has certain leitmotifs which occur in more than one opera, or even in all four. 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. Jähns 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 Blätter, in discussing Götterdämmerung. (Wagner had used "Grundthema" (basic idea) in speaking of his leitmotifs.)

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 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.

They are also very common in movie scores; a well known example is the Imperial March associated with Darth Vader in Star Wars. Among Westernss, 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.

The word leitmotif has been used by extension to mean any sort of recurring theme, whether in music, literature, or the life of a fictional or even non-fictional person.