Leitmotiv

Leitmotiv (from the German leiten, 'guide', 'direct', and < i>motiv, 'motive' [ˈlaɪtmoˌtiːf]), a term coined by analysts of Richard Wagner's dramas, is the "recurrent musical theme in a composition" and, by extension, "recurring central motif of a literary or cinematographic work". It can be replaced by the Spanish words motive or theme, accompanied by the adjectives conductor, central, main or recurring.

Depending on the discipline (music, painting, architecture or literature) different motifs are introduced and developed. Thus, colors, compositions, symbols, people, melodies, phrases, etc., can be used as leitmotiv. In that case, within the work they are fully identified with its represented content and are only used in relation to this content. It is the inspirational constant in a work.

Origin

The leitmotif has its origin in opera, being used for the first time in 1871 in the works of Carl Maria von Weber. Later, it will be Wagner who will be in charge of exploiting this element in his musical dramas.

Literature

The term was born in music but later spread to other arts such as film and literature, when Thomas Mann, the German writer, used it to refer to the individual elements of a story that authors used repeatedly to contribute to the general narration of the story. In literature, such recurring images, actions, words, or other often metaphorical elements that contribute to the narrative are known as leitmotifs.

Architecture

The leitmotif being a driving motif, in architecture the works or buildings represent an idea or the central motif. Being a symbol that is fully identified with its figure or being a link with another element of the work.

You can also connect with music like in the movie Manhattan.

Music

In music, the leitmotif is generally a short, characteristic melody or tonal sequence, recurring throughout a work, whether sung (as in opera) or instrumental (as in a symphony). By association, it is identified with a certain poetic content, and refers to it every time it appears. Thus, a certain melody can symbolize a character, an object, an idea or a feeling.

Theatre

The use of leitmotifs in theater is characteristic of the theater of the absurd and not so absurd, with Samuel Beckett and Ionesco as its main representatives.

It is a situation or an action that is repeated indefinitely during the course of the dramatic situation.

The leitmotif is also fundamental in comic theater, in genres such as clown and comedy del arte.

Repetition has been one of the great comic effects since the time of Aristophanes.

Cinema and other audiovisual media

It is a tool also widely used in film soundtracks, such as The Lord of the Rings, Jaws, James Bond, < i>Indiana Jones, The Exorcist, Star Wars, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Back to the Future, Gladiator, Superman, Batman, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mission Impossible, Conan, etc... In 2001: A Space Odyssey, Richard Strauss' piece, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, became the story for its recurring use in this film.

It is mainly used for musical themes of characters, places, situations and even ideas in cinematographic audiovisual works. The leitmotifs develop throughout the film, along with the other themes of a soundtrack. For example, there may be one associated with death, and just when a character is about to die, his passage will sound to indicate that he will die, it could also be that a place has its own composition, as is the case withChristmas Town and Halloween Townin The Nightmare Before Christmas, one of Danny Elfman's many soundtracks, which by the way, is a technique widely used by him.

In those television series (whether acted or animated) where background music plays a really important role, this resource is used extensively to add atmosphere. It is not uncommon to hear a specific leitmotif in various themes to indicate that it belongs to an important character or group of characters. The sound of the famous shower scene in Hitchcock's Psycho, for example, is often used to give an atmosphere of danger or fear.

In video games, it is also used as a resource in the representation of settings, characters or moments whose objective is to associate any of these resources with the music (whether in the background or not) played at that moment; In this case, the musical piece becomes an auditory representation of the represented resource.