Musical Motives

Download or read book Musical Motives written by Brent Auerbach and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The da-da-da-DUM motive from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is an undeniably evocative moment for any music fan. Whether it be a first foray into classical music, childhood piano lessons, or the soundtrack to a beloved movie scene, this is a moment not easily forgotten. So what makes this and other musical motives so memorable? In Musical Motives, author Brent Auerbachs look at the ways that motives - or the small-scale pitch and rhythm shapes ever-present in music - tie musical compositions together, and why we remember some more than others. Musical motives function like motifs in visual art, tying together sonic space. They repeat frequently, either as perfect copies or with slight variation. With presence in all musical genres from classical and popular to jazz and world music, motives are ideal tools for musical analysis. Opening with an introduction to motives, Musical Motives offers a new and universal system of motivic nomenclature, then demonstrates how motives - both in small and in expanded forms stretching over many measures - help explain the structure and drama of musical works. Taking amateurs and experts alike into consideration, Auerbach provides two tiers of analytic method: Basic and Complex Motivic Analysis. To illustrate these methods, he offers large-scale analyses of pieces by Handel, Beethoven, Mozart, Chaminade, Radiohead, and others.