3.4 Building on identity through fragmentary repetition

In Great Expectations , the orphan Pip released from his apprenticeship to his blacksmith stepfather and invited to a life of fortune in London.“I had scant luggage to take with me to London, for little of the little that I possessed was adapted to my new station.”Leaving behind most of his belongings gives Pip the freedom to be transformed . In music, the same objective is accomplished by fragmentary repetition. Fragmentary repetition enables music to evolve rapidly and flexibly.

In fragmentary repetion, the composer takes only a segment of a musical idea and uses it to create new music. The following excerpts from Beethoven’s Sonata in E-Major, opus 109 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 demonstrate the expressive richness of fragmentary repetition.

Let us remind ourselves of Beethoven’s theme:

In the excerpts that follow, Beethoven uses the theme’s basic short-long motive to create a variety of new textures.

Let us recall as well Shostakovich’s theme:

Just like Beethoven, Shostakovich uses his basic motive in different contexts. In the first excerpt, the short-long motive is center stage in a passage of anguished intensity.

In the second excerpt, the short-long motive anchors a soaring violin melody.

It is very common to focus on the head motive — the first few notes of a theme--as a source of motivic development.

The first movement of Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 8,“Unfinished,” opens with a somber melody played by the cellos.

In the passage that follows, Schubert dwells on the head motive of the theme: He stretches and compresses it and turns it upside down. By the end of the excerpt, he has twisted it quite out of shape: The motive’s rhythm is the same; but instead of rising and falling in a small arch, its contour plunges downwards.

At the close of the movement, Schubert creates another passage out of the head motive . Because the head motive’s repetition is more unmoving and insistent, the mood is more resigned.

The head motive of Arnold Schoenberg’s Fantasy for violin and piano is a repeated note.

Throughout this work, Schoenberg plays the head motive at different speeds. Here is a slow version:

Here is a rapid series of repeated notes.

Finally, here is a more extended passage in which repeated notes are generously woven into the melodic fabric. This passage acts as a preparation for the transformed return of the primary theme.

In addition to the head motive , other motives can be extracted from a theme. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6,“Pastorale,” opens with a bucolic melody:

The following excerpt is not built from the head motive, but rather from a motive from the interior of the theme. The elaboration of this motive is interrupted twice by more complete statements of the theme.

The first movement of Bela Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra introduces a fleet, agitated theme:

The excerpt that follows features an interior motive of the theme:

The contour of a theme can also serve as a main identifying feature in dynamic repetition.