Sophie, Week #1 - Why Leitmotifs are Super Cool: Building Identity Through the Language of Music

When I first saw the theme for this quarter’s blog submissions, I was actually super happy! You may be thinking that I’m nuts for being excited about an assignment, but I was. I knew that I would have the chance to talk about one of my favorite things in the whole world—leitmotifs! You’ve heard the word “motif” before, a repeated idea or symbol throughout a work of literature that helps to develop a broader theme. Leitmotifs are sort of like that, but instead of a repeated written idea, they’re repeated musical phrases used to represent different things. Here, I'll discuss how they can be an invaluable technique for developing a character’s identity within a musical.

I’ll give some examples from one of my favorite musicals, Sondheim’s Into the Woods. In my opinion, the easiest leitmotif to grasp is something I think of as “The Royal Fanfare.” Basically, every time the princes come on stage, you hear a trumpet fanfare.


Sounds pretty simple right? The princes enter; the fanfare plays. However, Sondheim takes it a step further, in that almost every time something related to the royal family is happening, the notes that occur in the fanfare can be heard somewhere in the musical score. Even before the audience hears the trumpet fanfare for the first time, Cinderella sings about wishing to go to the royal festival. When she sings, “I wish to go to the festival,” she is singing those same notes! You can hear it here, if my custom embedded link ends up working properly.

Sometimes these things can be so subtle—I only realized this one on my most recent listen to the soundtrack! By the repetition of these notes, Sondheim has built an identity for the royal family that is able to be echoed through other characters in such a unique way. 

At this point, you may still not be impressed by what I’m telling you. In response to that, I offer you another super cool thing about leitmotifs! Once you understand a character’s leitmotif—their musical identity—you can predict parts of a story before they happen! I’ll give another Sondheim example, this time from Sweeney Todd. Sondheim uses “The Dies Irae,” which is generally understood as the musical representation of death. It can be heard in so many film scores, and you’ve probably heard it before.


Now, the clever thing that Sondheim does is within all but one of the characters’ leitmotifs, the “Dies Irae” is hidden in some way. This foreshadows their eventual death or murder of another person. The one whose leitmotif is missing the “Dies Irae” is Anthony, the only character that neither dies nor kills someone! That’s a huge part of his identity that was able to be shown through music alone.

I hope that I’ve been able to give everyone a new perspective on how identity can be represented! If anyone is interested in learning more, I will go on and on if given the chance!



(Photo credit to J.W Yablonsky - Substack)




Comments

  1. Riya PurumalaSeptember 2, 2026 at 9:08 PM

    Hi Sophie! I really enjoyed your riveting explanation of leitmotifs and why you have such love for them. Before reading your blog, I had never heard of leitmotifs, so you allowed me to learn something new! Through your examples such as the “Dies Irae,” you showed me leitmotifs that I had never realized were leitmotifs before. These examples helped me further my understanding of what leitmotifs are. I, too, have loved leitmotifs for a long time, although I have just discovered what the technical term for it is (thanks to you). Thank you for teaching me something new, and next time I hear a leitmotif, I will definitely think about your blog!

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  2. Maxwell WangSeptember 2, 2026 at 9:13 PM

    That's completely okay - you're not the only one who's "nuts"! It's great to be excited for an assignment. I am also excited to write more blog posts. I've never heard of leitmotifs before, and it was interesting to hear about them. I am a lover of music, and as I write this, there is music playing around me. The way the death motif is used in the musical you mentioned is very creepy! This is very interesting how music can be incorporated into someone's identity, even one created by an author. I wonder if I'll be able to identify any leitmotifs when I hear movie music in the future. Thank you for including YouTube snippets throughout your blog; this helped me easily access content to understand and enjoy what you shared.

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  3. Arya JohnsonSeptember 2, 2026 at 9:26 PM

    I thought this was so intriguing and helpful! I’ve never heard of a leitmotif before, so all of this was new and interesting for me. It’s very easy to understand and put into other situations because of all of the examples that you show along with your working videos. The vast amount of examples is actually so nice to listen to while reading your blog! Your answer the question of language and identity through the language of music, which is a more creative outlook that brings more discussion to the table. I definitely think you should continue more of this music/musical topic!

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