Melody and motif: melodic shape and contour, conjunct and disjunct movement, intervals, phrasing, ornamentation, motifs and motivic development including sequence, inversion and augmentation.

What this dot point is asking

Melody and motif are core elements of the Component 1 appraising toolkit, tested in Section A listening questions and supporting the Section B essay. AQA wants you to describe melodic shape, movement and intervals, identify phrasing and ornamentation, and explain how a short motif is developed through techniques such as sequence, inversion, augmentation and diminution in the set works and in unfamiliar extracts.

Describing a melody

Contour is the single most useful word to reach for first: most melodies form an arch (rising then falling), a wave, a falling line or a static, repeated-note shape, and naming the shape gives an immediate, creditable observation. Movement is then a matter of degree. A predominantly conjunct melody (moving by step) sounds smooth and vocal, which is why Classical themes and chorale tunes are largely stepwise, while disjunct writing (leaps of a fourth or more) sounds angular or fanfare-like and suits instrumental and dramatic music. Range matters too: a narrow range of a fifth or sixth feels folk-like or restrained, while a range of two octaves or more is virtuosic. Phrasing organises all of this into units. A classic eight-bar period divides into a four-bar antecedent that ends open (often on an imperfect cadence) and a four-bar consequent that answers it with a closed perfect cadence, the melodic equivalent of a question and answer.

Motif and development

A motif can be purely rhythmic (the famous short, short, short, long figure that opens Beethoven's fifth symphony), purely melodic, or both. Its power lies in being recognisable while flexible enough to be transformed. The core development techniques are: sequence (immediate repetition of the pattern at a higher or lower pitch, which drives music forward and is very common at moments of build), inversion (the intervals turned upside down, so an upward third becomes a downward third), retrograde (the motif played backwards), augmentation (note values lengthened, broadening and grandeur) and diminution (note values shortened, urgency and excitement). Composers also fragment a motif (using only its opening cell), transpose it to a new key, or change its instrumentation. In a Classical development section, several of these techniques are combined, which is exactly what an "explain how the composer develops" question is testing.

Ornamentation

Ornaments decorate a melody and are examinable by name: the trill (rapid alternation with the note above), the turn (a four-note figure around the main note), the mordent (a quick flick to an adjacent note and back), grace notes including the acciaccatura (a very short crushed note) and the appoggiatura (a longer leaning note that takes time from the main note and adds expressive dissonance), and the slide or glissando. Ornamentation is especially heavy in Baroque melody, where performers were expected to add it, and in folk and jazz, where it is a stylistic fingerprint.