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How musicals use motifs to tell stories

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Explore motifs from Hamilton, Wicked, and Les Misérables.

Listen to this line from the musical Wicked. Or click anywhere to begin This same melody repeats three times during the show, each at a pivotal moment for the main character, Elphaba. 🎧 Click play and see if you can hear how the melody is the same in each clip. A chart with time on the x-axis depicting the occurence of the “unlimited” motif in wicked. This sort of thing happens in lots of art forms, from film scores to standup sets. Depending on the medium, you might call it a theme or a callback. In music, the word motif describes a short, distinctive musical idea that recurs in a…

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