motivic

[ moh-tiv-ik ]

adjective

, Music.

1. of or relating to a motif.

Example Sentences

Like some of her works on the recent portrait album “Tachitipo,” this one derives momentum from hairpin turns that link together drone-ish states and startling streams of motivic activity.

From New York Times

But before long, Wollschleger’s piece works a gorgeous changeup by allowing its more striated tones to flower into full motivic passages, beautiful on their own terms even as the overall harmonic world remains somber.

From New York Times

The symphony can come off as an exercise in motivic obsession on the level of Beethoven’s Fifth, and even has that work’s style of a soaringly ecstatic finale.

From New York Times

Though there was a greater sense of motivic development in Wiancko’s 10-minute piece than is possible with a film score’s short cues.

From New York Times

Rogister’s steering of the music’s violent weather had me loosening my tie, and his finely attuned management of its mess of motivic gestures and granular details was superb.

From Washington Post