Sigh motif
A sigh motif usually consists of a second step down or (less often) up, in which the first tone is clearly emphasized and the following is tied, unstressed and quieter. Under certain circumstances, corresponding tone connections with larger intervals can also be interpreted as sighs. The sigh motif is one of the most widely used means of expression in music from the baroque to the romantic and beyond. Depending on the musical context, the expressive content can vary from pain, sadness and lamentation to grief, fear, despair and nervousness to positive feelings such as bliss or joyful excitement.
Examples
Sigh motifs with second increments
The adjacent example from Mozart's D minor fantasy contains typical motifs of sighs, whose (fearfully breathless) character is reinforced by the inserted pauses ( suspiratio ).
An example of a particularly rich and expressive use of motifs of sighs is Adolf Jensen's Cross on the Path from the Wanderbilder cycle . Here the sighs are used to express the pain that emulates the sufferings of Christ:
Sigh motifs with the inclusion of larger intervals
The sigh motifs with which the Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem begins consist of second steps in the first bar, but other (larger) intervals are also used in the second bar, without losing the sighing character. The larger intervals even give the sighs an increased pathos.
Also in the bass aria groaning and pitiful cry of the Bach cantata Meine Seufzer, Meine Tränen , BWV 13, the “sighs” do not only occur in small seconds (yellow and brown). Unusual progressions are also used: tritone (green) and excessive seconds (red)
Chains of sighs
Motifs of sighs are often connected to ascending or descending chains, whereby often (though not always) the stressed tone of the following group is a repetition of the unstressed tone of the preceding group. A typical example of this is the chorale O Mensch Weein thy Sünde great in the St. Matthew Passion BWV 244.
Hector Berlioz does not seem to have recognized the chains of sighs in Wagner's opera Tannhäuser , which are intended to underline the suffering of the pilgrims : “When the chorale finally returns, [...] the violin figure, which must accompany him to the end, is necessarily repeated with a persistence terrifying for the listener. […] The obstinate, or rather cruelly stubborn figure appears […] a hundred and forty-two times in the overture. Is that not too much? It also recurs frequently in the course of the opera, which could lead me to the assumption that the composer ascribes a meaning to the plot to it that I miss. "
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Musical parameters , accessed on November 15, 2018 (PDF)
- ↑ quoted from Uwe Krämer: Composers on Composers , Wilhelmshaven 1972, ISBN 3-7959-0082-4 , p. 202 f