leitmotif
noun
a motif or theme associated throughout a music drama with a particular person, situation, or idea.
leitmotiv
-
a variation of
leitmotif.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Gorbachev's stormy relations with sometime enemy, sometime ally Yeltsin are woven through the narrative like a leitmotiv from the Wagnerian music he so much admires.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Coming across" has been the leitmotiv of the Somoza regime.
From Time Magazine Archive
Hallucination again, the decade's leitmotiv of illusion: now you see it, now you don't.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the first four sections of the work, Robbins uses the waltz almost as a leitmotiv.
From Time Magazine Archive
The first is of the theatrical type: it is a leitmotiv of the same sort as Lohengrin's warning to Elsa; the other is a miracle, one of the wonders of music.
From Richard Wagner Composer of Operas by John F. Runciman
