Editing Leitmotif (section)

==Classical music==

===Early instances in classical music===
The use of characteristic, short, recurring motifs in orchestral music can be traced back to the early seventeenth century, such as ''[[L'Orfeo]]'' by [[Monteverdi]]. In French opera of the late eighteenth century (such as the works of [[Gluck]], [[André Grétry|Grétry]] and [[Étienne Méhul|Méhul]]), "reminiscence motif" can be identified, which may recur at a significant juncture in the plot to establish an association with earlier events. Their use, however, is not extensive or systematic. The power of the technique was exploited early in the nineteenth century by composers of Romantic opera, such as [[Carl Maria von Weber]], where recurring themes or ideas were sometimes used in association with specific characters (e.g. Samiel in ''[[Der Freischütz]]'' is coupled with the [[chord (music)|chord]] of a [[diminished seventh]]).<ref name=":0" /> The first use of the word ''leitmotif'' in print was by the [[critic]] [[Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns]] in describing Weber's work, although this was not until 1871.<ref name=":1" />

Motifs also figured occasionally in purely instrumental music of the [[Romantic music|Romantic]] period. The related idea of a musical ''idée fixe'' (i.e. the object of fixation — a term [[Idée fixe (psychology)|borrowed from medicine]] and also found in literary works of the period) was employed by [[Hector Berlioz]] in his ''[[Symphonie fantastique]]'' (1830).<ref name="Brittan2006">{{cite journal |last1=Brittan |first1=Francesca |title=Berlioz and the Pathological Fantastic: Melancholy, Monomania, and Romantic Autobiography |journal=19th-Century Music |date=2006 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=211–239 |doi=10.1525/ncm.2006.29.3.211 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249981352}}</ref> This purely instrumental, programmatic work (subtitled ''Episode in the Life of an Artist ... in Five Sections'') features a recurring melody representing the object of the artist's obsessive affection and depicting his presence in various real and imagined situations.<ref name="Brittan2006"/>

Though perhaps not corresponding to the strict definition of leitmotif, several of [[Giuseppe Verdi|Verdi]]'s operas feature similar thematic tunes, often introduced in the overtures or preludes, and recurring to mark the presence of a character or to invoke a particular sentiment. In ''[[La forza del destino]]'', the opening theme of the overture recurs whenever Leonora feels guilt or fear. In ''[[Il trovatore]]'', the theme of the first aria by Azucena is repeated whenever she invokes the horror of how her mother was burnt alive and the devastating revenge she attempted then. In ''[[Don Carlos]]'', there are at least three leitmotifs that recur regularly across the five acts: the first is associated with the poverty and suffering from war, the second is associated with prayers around the tomb of Carlos V, and the third is introduced as a duet between Don Carlo and the Marquis of Posa, thereafter accentuating sentiments of sincere friendship and loyalty.

===Wagner===
[[File:Siegfried's Horn Call E flat version 02.png|thumb|350px|[[Siegfried (opera)|Siegfried]]'s heroism leitmotif, a variation of his horn call motif, from the prologue to act 1 of Wagner's opera ''[[Götterdämmerung]]'', the fourth of his ''Ring'' cycle The theme is broader and more richly orchestrated than its earlier appearances, suggesting the emergence of Siegfried's heroic character.[[File:Siegfried's Horn Call E flat version 01.wav|center]]]]

[[File:Leitmotif transformed in Hagen's Watch 02.png|thumb|350px|A more sinister version of the horn call motif, articulated as a [[half-diminished seventh]] [[arpeggio]], "music of dark strength and magnificence", occurs in "Hagen's Watch" towards the end of act 1 of ''Götterdämmerung''. Hagen, who eventually murders Siegfried, contemplates ways of using the benighted hero to further his own ends.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Donington|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Donington|title=Wagner's 'Ring' and its Symbols|publisher=Faber and Faber Limited|year=1976|isbn=978-0571048182|pages=226}}</ref>[[File:Leitmotif transformed in Hagen's Watch 01.wav|center]]]]

[[Richard Wagner]] is the earliest composer most specifically associated with the concept of leitmotif. His cycle of four operas, ''[[Der Ring des Nibelungen]]'' (the music for which was written between 1853 and 1869), uses hundreds of leitmotifs, often related to specific characters, things, or situations. While some of these leitmotifs occur in only one of the operas, many recur throughout the entire cycle.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Wagner Compendium: A Guide to Wagner's Life and Music|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=2001|isbn=978-0500282748|editor-last=Millington|editor-first=Barry|pages=234–235|orig-year=1992}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Grout|first1=Donald|author1-link=Donald Jay Grout|title=A Short History of Opera|last2=Williams|first2=Hermine|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2003|isbn=0-231-11958-5|edition=4th|location=New York}}</ref> Wagner had raised the issue of how music could best unite disparate elements of the plot of a music drama in his essay ''[[Opera and Drama]]'' (1851); the leitmotif technique corresponds to this ideal.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sutton|first=Richard|title=The Wagner Companion|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1979|isbn=0-571-11450-4|editor-last=Burbidge|editor-first=Peter|location=London|pages=345–346}}</ref>

Some controversy surrounded the use of the word in Wagner's own circle: Wagner never authorised the use of the word {{lang|de|leitmotiv}}, using words such as {{lang|de|Grundthema}} (basic idea), or simply {{lang|de|Motiv}}. His preferred name for the technique was {{lang|de|Hauptmotiv}} (principal motif), which he first used in 1877;<ref name=":0" /> the only time he used the word {{lang|de|Leitmotiv}}, he referred to "so-called Leitmotivs".

The word gained currency with the overly literal interpretations of Wagner's music by [[Hans von Wolzogen]], who in 1876 published a ''Leitfaden'' (guide or manual) to the ''Ring''. In it he claimed to have isolated and named all of the recurring motifs in the cycle (the motif of "Servitude", the "Spear" or "Treaty" motif, etc.), often leading to absurdities or contradictions with Wagner's actual practice.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Richard Wagner and His World|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-571-11450-4|editor-last=Grey|editor-first=Thomas|location=Princeton}}</ref> Some of the motifs he identified began to appear in the published [[Sheet music|musical score]]s of the operas, arousing Wagner's annoyance; his wife [[Cosima Wagner]] quoted him as saying "People will think all this nonsense is done at my request!".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wagner|first=Cosima|author-link=Cosima Wagner|title=Cosima Wagner's Diaries|publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich|year=1978|isbn=978-0151226368|editor-last=Gregor-Dellin|editor-first=Martin|editor-link=Martin Gregor-Dellin|volume=2|translator-last=Skelton|translator-first=Geoffrey|translator-link=Geoffrey Skelton|orig-year=1878–1883|editor-last2=Mack|editor-first2=Deitrich}}</ref> In fact Wagner himself never publicly named any of his leitmotifs, preferring to emphasize their flexibility of association, role in the musical form, and emotional effect. The practice of naming leitmotifs nevertheless continued, featuring in the work of prominent Wagnerian critics [[Ernest Newman]], [[Deryck Cooke]] and [[Robert Donington]].<ref name=":2" />

The resulting lists of leitmotifs also attracted the ridicule of anti-Wagnerian critics and composers (such as [[Eduard Hanslick]], [[Claude Debussy]], and [[Igor Stravinsky]]). They identified the motif with Wagner's own approach to composing, mocking the impression of a musical "address book" or list of "cloakroom numbers" it created.

However, later commentators have defended Wagner's use of the leitmotif. According to [[Pierre Boulez]], "Wagner's was the first music in which forms never return literally, are never repeated. As the music progresses, it carries all the thematic elements with it, linking them in new ways, placing them in different relations to each other, showing them in unfamiliar lights and giving them unexpected meanings." Boulez adds: "''Leitmotivs'' are in fact anything but the traffic signals to which they have been mistakenly compared, for they have a double virtue – both poetic and dramatic, as well as formal. They are essential to the structure of both music and drama as well as to the different characters and situations. Their evolution is a kind of 'time-weave', an integrating of past and present; and they also imply dramatic progression."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Boulez|first=Pierre|author-link=Pierre Boulez|title=Orientations: Collected Writings|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=1990|isbn=978-0674643765|editor-last=Nattiez|editor-first=Jean-Jacques|editor-link=Jean-Jacques Nattiez|pages=251|translator-last=Cooper|translator-first=Martin|translator-link=Martin Cooper (musicologist)}}</ref>

===After Wagner===
[[File:Salome leitmotif salome.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The leitmotif associated with Salome herself in Richard Strauss's opera ''[[Salome (opera)|Salome]]''{{Audio|Salome leitmotif salome.mid|Listen}}]]

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 poem]]s. Despite his sometimes acerbic comments on Wagner, [[Claude Debussy]] utilized leitmotifs in his opera ''[[Pelléas et Mélisande (opera)|Pelléas et Mélisande]]'' (1902). [[Arnold Schoenberg]] used a complex set of leitmotifs in his choral work ''[[Gurre-Lieder]]'' (completed 1911). [[Alban Berg]]'s opera ''[[Wozzeck]]'' (1914–1922) also utilizes leitmotifs.<ref name=":1" /> The leitmotif was also a major feature of the opera ''[[The Immortal Hour]]'' by the English composer [[Rutland Boughton]]. His constantly recurrent, memorably tuneful leitmotifs contributed significantly to the widespread popularity of the opera. In [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofiev]]'s ''[[Peter and the Wolf]]'' (1936) each character or animal has its own leitmotif played on a particular instrument.

===Critique of the leitmotif concept===
The critic [[Theodor W. Adorno]], in his book ''In Search of Wagner'' (written in the 1930s), expresses the opinion that the entire concept of the leitmotif is flawed. The motif cannot be both the bearer of expression and a musical "gesture", because that reduces emotional content to a mechanical process. He notes that "even in Wagner's own day the public made a crude link between the leitmotifs and the persons they characterised" because people's innate mental processes did not necessarily correspond with Wagner's subtle intentions or optimistic expectations. He continues:
<blockquote>The degeneration of the {{lang|de|leitmotiv}} is implicit in this&nbsp;... it leads directly to [[film score|cinema music]] where the sole function of the leitmotif is to announce heroes or situations so as to allow the audience to orient itself more easily.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Adorno|first=Theodor W.|author-link=Theodor W. Adorno|title=In Search of Wagner|publisher=Verso|year=2009|isbn=978-1844673445|location=London|translator-last=Livingstone|translator-first=Rodney|orig-year=1952}}</ref></blockquote>