Leitmotifs

Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) is the largest well-known work of music ever written. The epic cycle of four operas written by Wagner, totalling fifteen or so hours, tells a tale of gods, dwarves, giants and heroes engaged in a struggle over a ring which gives the power to rule the world. In popular culture, it is probably most well known for the exciting opening to the third act of Die Walküre (the Valkyrie), known as Walkürenritt (the Ride of the Valkyries). This is another great piece of music which has become sadly overused and cliché.

The music of the Ring cycle is famous for its use of leitmotifs. This is a device used in storytelling music (here I mean a literal narrative story, not a figurative musical story as I have discussed previously) where specific musical ideas (the leitmotifs) are associated with specific ideas in the story. Wagner was not the first with the idea to use leitmotifs, but the scale on which he used them here was unprecedented and probably still unmatched. There are somewhere on the order of a hundred different leitmotifs recurring over the four operas. Each character has their own leitmotif, sometimes several to capture their different aspects. Various objects, such as the ring and the sword Nothung, also have leitmotifs, as do various places, such as Valhalla (the home of the gods) and the river Rhine. There are even leitmotifs for more complex ideas such as love, fear and renunciation. Towards the end of the opera cycle, as the number of musical associations rises, the usage of the leitmotifs becomes more sophisticated and dense, with several different leitmotifs often being quoted simultaneously in counterpoint.

The leitmotifs are not simply there to tell the audience what they can already see by watching the action on the stage. They frequently add another layer of meaning to what the characters are saying or doing which can only be perceived by those listeners in the know. It becomes a fun game to spot the leitmotifs and try to glean whatever extra connotations they may endow on the story.

To show some examples of this, I'm going to track one of the most important leitmotifs over the course of the cycle. I'll begin near the start of Act III of Die Walküre, the second opera in the cycle. Brünnhilde, the Valkyrie for whom the opera is titled, is trying to save Sieglinde from the god Wotan. Sieglinde is distraught over the death of Siegmund, her lover (and brother, ick), and says she doesn't want to be saved, until Brünnhilde announces:

Brünnhilde:
The world's most glorious hero bears,
o woman, thy sheltering womb!

The melody Brünnhilde sings while telling Sieglinde she is pregnant is the first appearance of a new leitmotif, which will only appear once more in Die Walküre. In the final scene, Wotan casts Brünnhilde into an enchanted sleep on a mountaintop and surrounds her by a magical fire, and the opera ends with him proclaiming:

Wotan:
He who my spearpoint's sharpness feareth
shall cross not the flaming fire!

Wotan uses the same heroic melody to declare that only one who knows no fear can wake Brünnhilde. Thus, the savvy attendee need not return to the opera house the following night to deduce that the fearless hero to rescue her will be none other than Sieglinde's unborn child.

Indeed, the third opera in the cycle is titled Siegfried, and this and the following opera, Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) centre around the hero Siegfried to whom this leitmotif refers. As a result, his leitmotif appears dozens of times; here are just a few of the notable occurrences.

The first instance is around ten minutes into the first scene of Siegfried.

Here we have Siegfried testing the sword that Mime has just forged for him, then, finding it unworthy, smashing it to pieces. He's a jerk. We just hear the first half of his leitmotif from the horns: as he wields the sword, we get just a glimpse of what Siegfried the hero might look like. This leitmotif is used specifically in moments where we see his larger destiny (and there are other leitmotifs used for other aspects of his character).

The second time we hear the leitmotif is when Siegfried tells Mime about the first time he looked upon his own reflection.

Siegfried:
And there in the stream I saw my face.

This moment is significant because, at that moment, Siegfried realises he cannot possibly be the son of a disgusting creature like Mime. As I said, he's a jerk.

Here is an example of two leitmotifs being combined. Mime is talking about the sword Nothung which Siegfried will use to slay the dragon Fafner. He sings Siegfried's leitmotif, and on his last note a trumpet enters playing the leitmotif associated with Nothung.

Here a woodbird has told Siegfried about Brünnhilde and her plight. Siegfried wonders, to the tune of his leitmotif, "Can I awaken the bride?" Of course, soon he does indeed pass through the magical fire and awaken Brünnhilde, resulting in the following climactic scene between Siegfried and Brünnhilde.

In the excerpt, we hear Brünnhilde's Valkyrie leitmotif as she sings (which should be familiar to you from Walkürenritt), but this turns to Siegfried's leitmotif as she finally embraces him. Thus, the third opera ends with them singing of their love.

Unfortunately, things don't go so well for them in the final opera, Götterdämmerung. Here are Siegfried's dying words:

And here is his funeral march:

And finally, we hear Siegfried's leitmotif once more just before the end of the entire opera cycle:

Following Wagner, many composers have made use of leitmotifs, not only in operas but in programmatic instrumental music. (Programmatic means that the music is intended to communicate a story or some other nonmusical ideas.) It has spilled over into other media as well. There is one particular use of leitmotifs which is much, much more well known than the Ring cycle: John Williams' scores for the Star Wars films.

Of course there are plenty of action films (mostly superhero films) with recognisable main themes, but the Star Wars scores go much further with a large number of leitmotifs. I'll bet that most Star Wars fans and even many non-fans will be familiar with a majority of the leitmotifs below, and perhaps be able to pinpoint their meanings also.

When the prequel trilogy was in production, I have to admit that I was far more excited about the prospect of new John Williams Star Wars scores than I was about the actual films. The highlight of Attack of the Clones for me was finally hearing the Imperial March in the penultimate scene, then having it modulate abruptly into Anakin and Padmé's love theme which in turn segues into the end credits music. However, in general I was disappointed to find that the prequel scores were not as extensive in their use of leitmotifs, so for me they do not stand up to the original scores.

I can only think of one other example in the medium of film where leitmotifs have been used so extensively: Howard Shore's scores for Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings films. It seems though that Shore's leitmotifs have not managed to permeate the public consciousness as Williams' have; it's hard to say whether this is because of the greater popularity (or at least rewatchability) of the Star Wars films, or simply because Williams' themes are more catchy and hummable.

Why haven't more film score composers utilised leitmotifs? Well, it just isn't possible within the scope of a two hour film to introduce and develop a bunch of leitmotifs; the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings films provided unique opportunities with both their length and the breadth of their stories.

Fortunately, there is another medium which allows for the telling of stories with even greater length and breadth than these film series: namely, television shows! A long-running TV show may continue for a hundred episodes or more, and contains dozens of recurring characters, locations and situations. They are almost the ideal candidate for the usage of leitmotifs, and there are many examples of TV shows whose composers have realised this.

There are two particularly outstanding examples of TV shows using leitmotifs that I'm familiar with. The first is the recently completed Battlestar Galactica, whose music by Bear McCreary is one of the main reasons I fell in love with the show. The other is Lost, whose idiosyncrasy of focusing on a particular character each episode makes it particularly suitable for the leitmotif approach.

I'm going to introduce just a few of the leitmotifs that composer Michael Giacchino uses on Lost, and then I'll demonstrate how he puts them all together into a cue.

In the first season of the show, this motif was used very frequently and served as a kind of main theme for the show. Since then, it has been used more sparingly, and generally underlines an emotional moment for any of the original Flight 815 survivors.

Kate's leitmotif has a very unsettled feel to it which suits her tendency to not stay in one place (or with one man) for very long.

Of course, the two most sentimental themes belong to the show's two greatest couples. The one heard above is Sun and Jin's theme. (The theme for Desmond and Penny is just as beautiful and also has an extremely similar harmony; I've always wondered whether this was deliberate.)

This leitmotif was initially used for the Others, but eventually it has come to be used specifically for Ben.

This is one of many action leitmotifs used on the show. This particular leitmotif is often used for explosive action involving dynamite or the smoke monster (when he's exploding trees).

This leitmotif was introduced in season four and represents the freighter. The leitmotif gives a sense of hope for our protagonists getting off the island, but also one of foreboding.

Now you can listen for all of these leitmotifs in a continuous five minute cue. The music is taken from the season four finale, "There's No Place Like Home".

We begin with Kate's leitmotif on the harp, as we see her on the helicopter reflecting on Sawyer's jump into the ocean. Then we hear the freighter leitmotif on the violins accompanied by brass, as the helicopter spots the freighter behind them. The action turns to the Orchid station, and we hear Ben's creepy leitmotif on the violins as he watches Keamy die. It ends on a wrong note as Keamy's death triggers the bomb.

What follows is a couple of minutes of tension-building music as everyone runs around on the freighter. The explosive leitmotif is used a few times in this section. Eventually the mood shifts and the violins play a repeated note suspensefully until the cellos enter with the Lost main theme. At this point, Michael is telling Jin to leave him alone with the bomb. The hopeful main theme pushes us to believe that Jin is going to make it onto the helicopter with his wife.

However, back on the deck we see that the helicopter is about to depart, and the main theme takes on a much more urgent tone in the violins and starts modulating crazily. It then becomes the freighter leitmotif as the helicopter takes off. As Jin reaches the deck and sees the helicopter in the air, we hear the frantic chords of Sun and Jin's theme. Finally we hear the desperate freighter leitmotif once more, then the music quietens for the final creepy scene between Michael and Christian before the freighter explodes.

The usage of leitmotifs in opera, film and television is very rewarding for that small minority of people like myself who enjoy obsessively poking for every hidden connection. But more than that, leitmotifs implant subconscious associations in the minds of the general audience which enhances the resonance of the characters and ideas in the story.