leitmotivn.

1880 K. M. Ross in J. Stainer & W. A. Barrett Dict. Musical Terms (new ed.) 53/2 Leitmotiv, a theme constantly recurring in association with a particular person or action throughout an opera.

1880 Parry in Grove Dict. Music II. 115/2 When these situations recur, or the personages come forward in the course of the action, or even when the personage or idea is implied or referred to, the figure which constitutes the leit-motif is heard.

1881 F. Hueffer Wagner (1883) 120 Another feature of the score of Parsifal is the variety and number of its representative themes, or ‘leit-motives’.

1896 H. Ellis in Savoy i. 70 Zola..introduced this sort of leit-motiv into literature.

1898 G. Meredith Let. 6 July (1970) III. 1303 I long to hear from him of [the] Leit~motif—though indeed he has taken the world more or less into his confidence.

1899 R. Kipling Stalky & Co. 84 A tune whose leit-motif was the word ‘stinker’.

1912 P. G. Wodehouse Prince & Betty iv. 61 The name Scobell had been recurring like a leit motif in Mr Crump's conversation.

1937 A. Koestler Spanish Test. iv. 94 It provides the leitmotif of German foreign policy in Spain.

1955 Times 28 May 8/4 But the method remains, the orchestral tapestry of leitmotifs is more resplendent than ever, the drama is even more closely knit into the texture of sound.

1970 G. Greer Female Eunuch 151 Self-sacrifice is the leit-motif of most of the marital games played by women.

1972 Composer & Conductor Aug. 1/1 Ninety-nine music graduates out of a hundred..will say that the Leitmotiv (or Leitmotif, or leading motive)..was invented by Wagner. Wrong... The correct answer is: Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns, and even he applied it not to Wagner but to Weber.

1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Feb. 162/4 There are plenty of leitmotivs which recur time and time again.