The 1957 ''Encyclopédie Larousse''
[quoted in ]Nattiez, Jean-Jacques
Jean-Jacques Nattiez (; born December 30, 1945 in Amiens, France) is a musical semiologist or semiotician and professor of musicology at the Université de Montréal. He studied semiology with Georges Mounin and Jean Molino and music semiolog ...
(1990). ''Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music'' (''Musicologie générale et sémiologue'', 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990). . defines a cell in
music as a "small
rhythm
Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular rec ...
ic and
melodic
A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combinati ...
design that can be isolated, or can make up one part of a
thematic context". The cell may be distinguished from the
figure or
motif:
the 1958 ''Encyclopédie Fasquelle''
defines a cell as "the smallest indivisible unit", unlike the motif, which may be divisible into more than one cell. "A cell can be
developed, independent of its context, as a melodic fragment, it can be used as a developmental motif. It can be the source for the whole
structure of the work; in that case it is called a generative cell."
A rhythmic cell is a cell without melodic connotations. It may be entirely percussive or applied to different melodic segments.
History
The term "cell" (German: ''Keim'') derives from organic music theorists of the nineteenth century.
Arnold Schering Arnold Schering (2 April 1877 in Breslau, German Empire – 7 March 1941 in Berlin) was a German musicologist.
He grew up in Dresden as the son of an art publisher. He learned violin at the from which he graduated in 1896. Thereafter he studied ...
adopted the term, along with "melodic kernels" (''Melodiekerne'') in his analysis of 14th-century
madrigal
A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th c.) and early Baroque (1600–1750) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the number ...
, one of the first uses of
Gestalt psychology in music theory.
See also
*
Clave (rhythm)
The clave (; ) is a rhythmic pattern used as a tool for temporal organization in Cuban music. In Spanish, ''clave'' literally means key, clef, code, or keystone. It is present in a variety of genres such as Abakuá music, rumba, conga, son, ...
*
Hauptrhythmus
In music, (German for ''primary voice'') or is the main melody, voice, chief part (music), part; i.e., the counterpoint, contrapuntal or melodic line of primary importance, in opposition to . (German for ''secondary voice'') or is the second ...
*
Ostinato
In music, an ostinato (; derived from Italian word for ''stubborn'', compare English ''obstinate'') is a motif or phrase that persistently repeats in the same musical voice, frequently in the same pitch. Well-known ostinato-based pieces includ ...
*
References
{{Musical form
Formal sections in music analysis