Motif (music)
（重定向自Motivic）
![A phrase originally presented as a motif may become a figure which accompanies another melody, as in the second movement of Claude Debussy's String Quartet (1893).[1] Play White would classify the accompaniment as motivic material since it was,](/Images/godic/202501/28/Debussy_String_Quartet_second_movement_opening3951.PNG")
![In Beethoven's Fifth Symphony a four-note figure becomes the most important motif of the work, extended melodically and harmonically to provide the main theme of the first movement. Play](/Images/godic/202501/28/FuenfteDeckblatt3952.png")
![Two note opening motive from Jean Sibelius's Finlandia.[3] Play](/Images/godic/202501/28/Sibelius_-_Finlandia,_Op._26_opening_motive3952.png")
![Motive from many of Bach's works including the first movements of the third and sixth Brandenburg Concertos and the third viol da gamba sonata.[4] Play](/Images/godic/202501/28/Bach_-_Brandenburg_motive3952.png")
In music, a motif (pronunciation) or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition: "The motive is the smallest structural unit possessing thematic identity".