What is a leitmotiv?

Music AppreciationFeatures
Written By Edward Wolfe

Our experience watching a film can be enhanced dramatically when we notice the use of leitmotivs in the film score. The composer can subtly comment on and highlight the emotional presence of a character or theme.

At the beginning of my score of Richard Wagner’s (1813-1883) Tristan und Isolde, we can see an index of the various leitmotivs he used in the opera. The names of these include “Liebestrank” (Love Potion), “Sehnsuchts” (wistful longing), and “Zorn-Motiv” (Anger); along with about 12 or 13 others. The Love Potion leitmotiv begins the Prelude to Act I of Tristan and Isolde.

The leitmotiv technique has been used by film composers with great skill in many of the great films of the last half century. Here are some examples.

  • Jurassic Park theme (1993)

  • Hedwig’s Theme (2001)

  • Batman Theme (1989)

  • Ten Commandments (1956, God theme, Slaughter of the Newborn, Red Sea Parts, others)

  • Parade of the Charioteers (from Ben Hur 1959)

    The film score affects the viewers’ attitudes about what they are seeing. For example, the movie Jurassic Park is not just about creepy, dangerous dinosaurs. We are influenced to perceive these as majestic—if terrifying—animals because of the musical score.

    For more on film scores and leitmotivs see this post.

Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe has been a fan of Christian apologetics since his teenage years, when he began seriously to question the truth of the Bible and the reality of Jesus. About twenty years ago, he started noticing that Christian evidences roughly fell into five categories, the five featured on this website.
Although much of his professional life has been in Christian circles (12 years on the faculties of Pacific Christian College, now a part of Hope International University, and Manhattan Christian College and also 12 years at First Christian Church of Tempe), much of his professional life has been in public institutions (4 years at the University of Colorado and 19 years at Tempe Preparatory Academy).
His formal academic preparation has been in the field of music. His bachelor degree was in Church Music with a minor in Bible where he studied with Roger Koerner, Sue Magnusson, Russel Squire, and John Rowe; his master’s was in Choral Conducting where he studied with Howard Swan, Gordon Paine, and Roger Ardrey; and his doctorate was in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature, where he also studied group dynamics, humanistic psychology, and Gestalt theory with Guy Duckworth.
He and his wife Louise have four grown children and six grandchildren.

https://WolfeMusicEd.com
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