THEME (MUSIC)

(Redirected from Polythematic)
In music, a 'theme' is the initial or primary melody. The 1958 ''Encyclopédie Fasquelle'' defines a theme as follows:

★ "Any element, motif, or small musical piece that has given rise to some variation becomes thereby a theme."

Contents

Explanation

Music without themes

See also

References

Explanation

After the principal theme is announced, a second melody, sometimes called a ''countertheme'' or ''secondary theme'', may play.
In a three-part fugue, the principal theme is announced three times in three different voices -- soprano, alto, bass -- or some variation of that.
In a four-part fugue, the principal theme is announced four times. A motif is a short melodic figure used repeatedly which may be used to construct a theme.
A ''leitmotif'' is a motif or theme associated with a person, place, or idea. See also figure and cell.
Thematic changes and processes are often structurally important, and theorists such as Rudolph Reti have created analysis from a purely thematic perspective. Fred Lerdahl describes thematic relations "associational" and thus outside his cognitive based generative theory's scope of analysis.

Music without themes

Music without themes, or without recognizable, repeating, and developing themes is called 'athematic'. Examples include the pre-twelve tone or early atonal works of Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and Alban Berg. Schoenberg (1975): "intoxicated by the enthusiasm of having freed music from the shackles of tonality, I had thought to find further liberty of expression. In fact...I believed that now music could renounce motivic features and remain coherent and comprehensible nevertheless."
Music based on one theme is 'monothematic' while music based on several themes is 'polythematic'. For example, most fugues are monothematic and most pieces in sonata form are polythematic. (Randel 2002, p.429).
Musipedia has a large, searchable collection of themes.

See also

★ Ritornello

★ Rondo

★ Theme music

References

★ Arnold Schoenberg (1975). "My Evolution", ''Style and Idea'', p.88. Ed. Leonard Stein, trans. Leo Black. London.

★ Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). ''Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music'' (''Musicologie générale et sémiologue'', 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990). ISBN 0-691-02714-5.

★ (1958). ''Encyclopédie Fasquelle'', cited in Nattiez 1990.

★ Randel, Don Michael (2002). ''The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. ISBN 0-674-00978-9.