the music itself; with the result that the composition is often
well on its way before such people have found their bearings.]
Every piece of music, with the exception of intentionally rhap-
sodic utterances, begins with some group of notes of distinct
rhythmic and melodic interest, which is the germ—the genera-
tive force—of the whole, and which is comparable to the text of
a sermon or the subject of a drama. This introductory group of
notes is called, technically, amotiveor moving force and may
be defined asthe simplest unit of imaginative life in terms of
rhythm and sound, which instantly impresses itself upon our
consciousness and, when heard several times, cannot be forgot-
ten or confused with any other motive. A musical theme—a
longer sweep of thought (to be explained later)—may consist
of several motives of which the first is generally the most im-
portant. Just here lies the difference between the Heaven-born
themes of a truly creative composer and the bundle of notes put
forth by lesser men. These living themes pierce our imagina-
tions and sing in our memories, sometimes for years, whereas
the inept and flabby tunes of certain so-called composers make
no strong impression and are forgotten almost as soon as heard.
Motives obviously differ from each other in regard to the inter-
vals of the tones composing them,i.e., the up and down rela-
tionship in pitch, the duration of the tones and their grouping
into metric schemes. But a real motive is always terse, concise,
characteristic and pregnant with unrevealed meaning. The chief
glory of such creative tone-poets as Beethoven, Wagner, Brahms
and Franck is that their imaginations could give birth to musi-
cal offspring that live for ever and are loved like life itself. The
first step, then, in the progress of the appreciator of music is the
recognition of the chief motive or motives of a composition and
the development of power to follow them in their organic growth.
This ability is particularly necessary in modern music: for fre-
quently all four movements of a symphony or string-quartet are
based upon a motive which keeps appearing—often in altered
form and in relationships which imply a dramatic or suggestive
meaning. A few of such motives are cited herewith, taken from
works with which, as we proceed, we shall become familiar.
[Music: CÉSAR FRANCK:Symphony in D minor]
[Music: BRAHMS:First Symphony in C minor]
[Music: TCHAIKOWSKY:5th Symphony]