motoric

American  

[moh-tawr-ik, -tor-] / moʊˈtɔr ɪk, -ˈtɒr- /

adjective

1. motor.

2. (of music or musical performance) full of movement or energy.

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Other Word Forms

• motorically adverb

Etymology

Origin of motoric

First recorded in 1925–30; motor + -ic

Example Sentences

Even so, Wang’s motoric energy all but set a Frankenstein orchestra in motion, and her sheer élan provided motivation.

From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2017

At the end, in curt, biting phrases, he delivered the line “By far the best life is the one that cannot be lived” over motoric arpeggios in the strings.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 20, 2016

There was a pervasive thinness about the sound that robbed Haydn’s — and Mozart’s — often brilliantly athletic music of much of its vigor, reducing organic drive to nothing more than motoric energy.

From Seattle Times • May 3, 2013

His remake of “Massachusetts,” a song on Ra Ra Riot’s 2010 album, “The Orchard,” sets a template: high vocals, repeating catchphrases, motoric patterns and a goofy noise or two.

From New York Times • Aug. 6, 2011

This acts upon the responsive portions of the brain, influences them according to its own intensity, and this influence is then transferred to the motoric nerve-centres which are concerned in music-making.

From Piano Playing: With Piano Questions Answered by Hofmann, Josef