# Almost cliched motifs/features of composers



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Lets identify some examples in composers' music that a serviceable pastiche would contain in abundance, the parts that in less capable hands would become tedious. I tend to get them in my head after I've been binging on a composer. Since they are hard to describe, we'll rely on familiarity with the composer to help understand which motif/feature we are talking about, unless you'd like to do some extra work and post a link and time. I hope somebody points something out that I wouldn't have thought of.

Obvious example is the Mozart rhythm that features in many of his themes and elsewhere. It's like a quarter note, followed by a shorter note and an even shorter broken up 3/4 and 1/4(I think), then another quarter note and usually it ends in a long or non staccato note. Harder to describe than I thought.

Another noteworthy one is the Schubert 5 time repeated note triplet.

I hesitate on this one because it seems so ubiquitous in all music, but Beethoven kind of owned it in his 5th symphony, so maybe we can give it to him.

I've noticed Mahler often does a dotted, long-short long-short long short long short on either a descending or ascending scale, often in the lower instruments.


Others?


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## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

When Mozart writes for the piano, there is usually at least one cadence consisting of fast notes followed by a measure-long trill on the second scale degree followed by the tonic. I haven't gone back to verify this but I'm willing to bet all of his piano concertos have a moment like this.


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## arnerich (Aug 19, 2016)

The way Rossini writes for flutes in triplets?


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Rachmaninoff had a melodic mannerism, a main pitch alternating with notes of a descending or ascending scale (for example: F-E-F-D-F-C etc.) Critics and biographers have connected the descending form with the Dies Irae plainchant. It is also used to evoke pealing bells and carillons. Figures like this can be found in many of his best-known works.


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## Vasks (Dec 9, 2013)

LOL! Bruckner's rhythm of "One, Two, Tri-po-let"


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## Tallisman (May 7, 2017)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruckner_rhythm


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## Eschbeg (Jul 25, 2012)

There's also the Landini cadence.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

The Martinu syncopation. Dum da dum da dum dum da dum da dum


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## Bluecrab (Jun 24, 2014)

Philip Glass


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## mathisdermaler (Mar 29, 2017)

Mozart - trill into the tonic


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Debussy - parallel chords
Liszt - chromatic scales in octaves (in piano pieces)
Beethoven - final cadence repeated over and over again


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