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Year 10 - Music

Developing a leitmotif

Introduction to film music

Unit Summary

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Lesson Summary

You will learn to develop a leitmotif through motivic transformation.

Key Notes

  • Developing a leitmotif to reflect changes in the story is called motivic transformation.
  • Composers do this in many different ways, including extending or combining leitmotifs.
  • Reharmonising leitmotifs by changing the harmony but keeping the melody the same is an effective technique.
  • Changing features of the leitmotif such as rhythm, dynamics, articulation and tonality is also common.
  • Key to motivic transformation is keeping the leitmotif recognisable and matching the mood of the moment in the story.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • leitmotif: a musical idea that represents a specific character, place or idea
  • motivic transformation: when a motif is changed to represent a change in a story or character
  • reharmonisation: when a composer keeps a melody the same but changes the harmony

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • To create a contrasting version of a leitmotif, you should change lots of features of it.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain the lesson in two key points.

Developing a leitmotif to reflect changes in the story is called motivic transformation. Composers do this in many different ways, including extending or combining leitmotifs.

2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'leitmotif'

a musical idea that represents a specific character, place or idea.

3. Correct this common mistake.

Mistake: To create a contrasting version of a leitmotif, you should change lots of features of it. Correction: You must be careful to not change it too much. If you do, it becomes unrecognisable and will just sound like a different leitmotif. A leitmotif represents a character, place, or idea, so we need to be able to recognise it to link it to that thing.

More Lessons In This Unit

Browse all guides in the Year 10 Music guide library.