Crossword clues for leitmotif
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Leading \Lead"ing\, a. Guiding; directing; controlling; foremost; as, a leading motive; a leading man; a leading example. -- Lead"ing*ly, adv.
Leading case (Law), a reported decision which has come to
be regarded as settling the law of the question involved.
--Abbott.
Leading motive [a translation of G. leitmotif] (Mus.), a guiding theme; in the musical drama of Wagner, a marked melodic phrase or short passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play; a sort of musical label. Also called leitmotif or leitmotiv.
Leading note (Mus.), the seventh note or tone in the ascending major scale; the sensible note.
Leading question, a question so framed as to guide the person questioned in making his reply.
Leading strings, strings by which children are supported when beginning to walk.
To be in leading strings, to be in a state of infancy or dependence, or under the guidance of others.
Leading wheel, a wheel situated before the driving wheels of a locomotive engine.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1876, "a musical figure to which some definite meaning is attached," from German Leitmotiv, literally "lead motive," from leiten "to lead" (see lead (v.1)) + Motiv (see motive). A term associated with Wagnerian musical drama, though the thing itself is at least as old as Mozart. "The leitmotif must be characteristic of the person or thing it is intended to represent." ["Elson's Music Dictionary"]
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context music English) A melodic theme associated with a particular character, place, thing or idea in an opera. 2 A recurring theme.
WordNet
n. a melodic phrase that accompanies the reappearance of a person or situation (as in Wagner's operas) [syn: leitmotiv]
Wikipedia
A leitmotif or leitmotiv is a "short, constantly recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of idée fixe or motto-theme. The spelling leitmotif is an anglicization of the German Leitmotiv, literally meaning "leading motif", or perhaps more accurately, "guiding motif". A musical motif has been defined as a "short musical idea ... melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic, or all three", a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity."
In particular, such a motif should be "clearly identified so as to retain its identity if modified on subsequent appearances" whether such modification be in terms of rhythm, harmony, orchestration or accompaniment. It may also be "combined with other leitmotifs to suggest a new dramatic condition" or development. The technique is notably associated with the operas of Richard Wagner, and most especially his Der Ring des Nibelungen, although he was not its originator and did not employ the word in connection with his work.
Although usually a short melody, 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.
By association, the word has also been used to mean any sort of recurring theme, (whether or not subject to developmental transformation) in literature, or (metaphorically) the life of a fictional character or a real person. It is sometimes also used in discussion of other musical genres, such as instrumental pieces, cinema, and video game music, sometimes interchangeably with the more general category of theme. Such usage typically obscures the crucial aspect of a leitmotif—as opposed to the plain musical motif or theme—that it is transformable and recurs in different guises throughout the piece in which it occurs.
Leitmotif is Dredg's first full-length concept album, originally released on May 30, 1998. The album was re-released by Interscope Records, with different artwork, on September 11, 2001. A " leitmotif" is also a recurring musical theme associated within a particular piece of music with a particular person, place or idea. The album is currently out of print.
Usage examples of "leitmotif".
This is the leitmotif of Kantian philosophy: the necessity of the transcendental, the impossibility of every form of immediacy, the exorcism of every vital figure in the apprehension and action of being.
Thus the leitmotif of the whole span of the Hard Left's conduct these past forty months has been a return to that clandestinity that worked so well through the early and mid-1970s.
Thus the leitmotif of the whole span of the Hard Left’s conduct these past forty months has been a return to that clandestinity that worked so well through the early and mid-1970s.
Here the leitmotif was Iranian, with M-and-M leading a now-zombielike Marvin through the rooms of the former "spy nest," pointing out various telex machines and descanting upon their counterrevolutionary functions.
Since midday a certain leitmotif of disease had come jittering in, had half-revealed itself, latent in the music of Cairo's afternoon.
And we also find this same vicariousness to be a characteristic, or, as the musician would put it, a leitmotif of Nature.