Hello,
Can a recurring single note throughout a piece be considered a motif? Also can contemporary expressive techniques that are repeatedly used throughout a piece be a motif?
If there is a lack of motifs in a piece, how can we justify this in our response if the question is in relation to "motivic development"?
Hey, svnflower!
A good place to start would be to look at definitions for what a motif is. Wikipedia, though definitely not the most reliable source in the world, does provide some pretty solid descriptions in its definition; "a short musical phrase, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition." I would basically say that a motif is any collection of notes that reappear multiple times in a piece of music and has a significant melodic, harmonic and/or rhythmic role. This definition is still flawed and over-simplified though because I think it really depends on how the musical ideas behave whether they can be labelled a motif or not. If that single note is recurring throughout the piece to function within the character and story of the music, I would consider it a motif. However, if its repetition is more sporadic and seems more to be of a coincidence, rather than an intentional development of itself and previous iterations, I would probably not consider it one. I think it really depends on the context so if you have a piece or song which demonstrates this, perhaps I can provide a clearer answer
I also don't think that using expressive techniques, contemporary or not, repeatedly is really a motif. You could just argue that the repeated use of those techniques is a prevalent/salient feature that gives the music its character (through creating tension, unity etc.).
Overall, a question in the HSC exam wouldn't ask you to justify you to discuss motivic development if there wasn't a somewhat obvious motif. If you struggle to locate them, I have found that quickly scanning and looking for similar melodic contours and motions across all the parts in the music is the best way to identify them visually on a score or to listen out for any repeated passages/phrases/cells when dealing with a purely aural excerpt. You would then try to discuss how that motif has been re-contextualised in some way and transformed at a different point in the music (has it become louder, made more rapid from diminution, been moved in register to a lower instrument etc.) to justify that it has been developed for compositional and/or aesthetic purposes. Hope that helps but do let me know if you have any further questions!
Angelina