The Inner Breath
of the Motifs

The Sustaining
Force in the
Musical Unfoldment
of the Motif

The Growth
of the Melody

Sequence-Technique

The Personal
Journey of the
Musical Listener

The Growth
of the Motif

The Whole of the
Melody is more
than the Sum
of the Parts
of the Motifs

The sequence is that force which, from within, sustains the aspects of the motif in their diversity as the melody. When the motif elements of the melody tend to fall apart – which would disrupt the description of the motif’s life – the sequence unites the waves of music even stronger.

As the motif sets out on its individual path of life, it expands into the melody, and this is due to the natural formative power of the sequence which permeates it from within with the harmonizing qualities of joy.

The compositional rules according to which the sequence guides the motif on its life-path in the melody are called the “sequence-technique.”

To the listener the melody is his personal journey through the worlds of the motifs; and the melody appears to him as a more comprehensive form of the motif, as the more manifold expression of the motif.

The melody, by nature, is not a sum of motifs, rather it has grown entirely from a single motif, just as a tree grows from a single seed.

A sum of motifs, therefore, does not yet constitute a naturally grown melody but is comparable to a tree that has been artificially assembled.