In music, a figure is a recurring fragment or succession of notes that may be used to construct the accompaniment. A figure is distinguished from a motif in that a figure is background while a motif is foreground: "A figure resembles a moulding in architecture: it is 'open at both ends', so as to be endlessly repeatable. In hearing a phrase as a figure, rather than a motif, we are at the same time placing it in the background, even if it is...strong and melodious." (Scruton 1997: 61) A figure may be melodic (pitch) and/or rhythmic (duration).
A phrase originally presented or heard as a motif may become a figure which accompanies another melody, such as in the second movement of Claude Debussy's String Quartet:
In music, a figure is a recurring fragment or succession of notes that may be used to construct the accompaniment.
In hearing a phrase as a figure, rather than a motif, we are at the same time placing it in the background, even if it is...strong and melodious." (Scruton 1997: 61) A figure may be melodic (pitch) and/or rhythmic (duration).
Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987).
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