Film Music
Information sheet 3
Composing a character motif
In this lesson you will:
•
Learn about character motifs and leitmotifs
•
Compose character motifs and
leitmotifs using a variety of melodic
patterns
What is a ‘leitmotif’?
Leitmotif (German for ‘leading motif’) is a word used to describe the main musical theme of a
film. It may represent a particular object, idea or character in the film and often recurs
throughout the film.
Sometimes it's form is altered (eg. played by different instruments) to reflect a change in mood.
Star Wars (1977), Superman (1978) and Harry Potter and the philosopher's Stone (2001) all have
very effective leitmotifs, which also have been used in their sequels.
A leitmotif is based on a short musical fragment or idea (a motif ), which is recognisable by at
least one characteristic. The main theme from James Bond is as follows:
The theme starts with the following 4-note backing followed by the main theme coming in over
the top.
Listening
1.
Listen to the James Bond motif, then answer these questions.
a.
What makes this motif so effective?
b.
How might the motif be used and developed in different scenes in the film?
Composing a character motif
Below is a list of things that need to be
considered when creating a leitmotif
for a character.
•
Timbre: what instrument or what
type of sound would be
appropriate?
•
Tempo: what speed will reflect
the chosen character?
•
Rhythm: how could choice of
rhythm help to create an effective
motif?
•
Pitch: Will the character motif be
developed using high notes, low
notes or a combination of
pitches? What type of scale would
be used (major, minor, modal,
chromatic, pentatonic, wholetone, blues)?
How are the elements of music
combined in the James Bond motif to
represent a heroic character?
Composing
Character types
2.
3.
You're about to compose a character motif it should be 20 to
30 seconds long.
a.
You will need to take into account the type of
character you want to represent through the music, for
example a villain, hero, adventurer.
b.
Think carefully about how you will combine the
elements of music in order to create an effective and
convincing character motif that will enhance the
action of the character. Refer to the list above the help.
c.
Select a character from the list opposite and compose
a motif to represent back character.
Once you've composed your motif, you can start to play it in
different ways, to describe different moods or situations that
your character might experienced during the course of the
film.
•
Alien
•
Lion
•
Soldier
•
Villain
•
Ghost
•
Secret
agent
•
Superhero
•
Witch