Musical Motives

In Musical Motives, author Brent Auerbach look at the ways that motives--or the small-scale pitch and rhythm shapes ever-present in music--tie musical compositions together, and why we remember some more than others.

Brent Auerbach, Associate Professor of Music Theory, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Brent Auerbach is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research focuses on formalizing the concept of the musical motive and extending its applications for analysis. Other research interests include the music of Brahms, the aesthetics of Baroque composition and counterpoint, harmonic sequences, and music theory pedagogy. Dr. Auerbach has published articles in The Journal of Music Theory, Music Theory Online, Theory and Practice, Intégral, and in The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy, ed. by Leigh VanHandel (2020).

PART I: Establishing Grounds for a Discipline of Motivic Analysis
Chapter 1: Introduction to Motives
Chapter 2: A Brief History of Motives, Composition
Chapter 3: A History of Motives, Theory and Analysis
PART II: Methodology
Chapter 4: A Universal Nomenclature for Pitch and Rhythm Motives
Chapter 5: Basic Motivic Analysis (BMA)
Interlude 1 - On the Role of Narrative in Motivic Analysis in General and Its Role in BMA in Particular
Chapter 6: Exemplars of Basic Motivic Analysis
Interlude 2 - Narrative Archetypes of Complex Motivic Analysis (CMA)
Chapter 7: Complex Motivic Analysis 278
PART III: Analysis and Conclusion
Chapter 8 - Analysis of Three Works in Contrasting Styles
Chapter 9: Conclusion - The Future Promise and Persistent Limitations of Motivic Analysis
Selected Bibliography
Index