A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Metamorphosis

by Hubert Parry

METAMORPHOSIS is the modification of a musical figure or idea, made with the view of putting it in a new light, or adapting it to changed conditions. In the later stages of the development of abstract music, composers have concentrated a great deal of energy on devising new ways of enhancing the intellectual interest of their works—as by making the continuity of the component sections more close, and giving a new aspect to the relationship of various movements, or distinct portions of single movements; and most of these are based upon some variation or modification of a well-defined melodic or rhythmic figure. Such devices can be found occasionally in the early stages of modern instrumental music, as in J. S. Bach; and an example from Mozart, in which he welds together a Minuet and Trio, is quoted in the article Form, vol. i. p. 555. Beethoven was the first to make any very conspicuous use of them, and they are frequently met with in the 'working out' portion of the movements of his sonatas and symphonies. A very striking example is quoted in the article Working out, vol. iv. p. 489. The device is to be met with also in other situations, as in the first movement of the C minor Symphony, where the well-known figure

at the outset becomes

in the contrasting key. Berlioz makes ingenious and characteristic use of the device in his Symphonic Fantastique, in his treatment of what he calls the 'idée fixe.' Liszt also makes it a conspicuous feature in his experiments in programme music. Wagner makes more elaborate use of it than any one else in his great music dramas, and constantly transforms the character of his Leitmotiven in conformity with the varying nature of the situations. See also Leitmotif and Working out.

[ C. H. H. P. ]