musical theme
1
3.4
- noun
- /ˈmjuːzɪkəl θiːm/
- Specialized
:
tema musical
- [TRIUMPHANT MUSICAL THEME PLAYING]
Examples
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"The mother with her young daughter in her arms looks from behind, among flags and baroque music (as explained later, this type of music was more effective than musical themes specially written for the YES campaign).
Academic text (1992) -
Teachers can use Cinemania to show clips from movies, play movie musical themes, and locate information about stars and performers.
Academic text (1996) -
Maybe get together to develop some kind of new rock and roll musical theme.
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It's set like a chamber opera, but there are a lot of popular musical themes in it.
Blog text (22) -
Other specially composed YES musical themes of rather poor quality were used.
Academic text (1992) -
This same year he composed the musical theme of the first talking movie, Santa, based on the novel by Federico Gamboa.
Academic text (1996) -
Every one of them had a distinctive musical theme that put fear in the hearts of their opponents, which rendered them defeated even before their match began.
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(upbeat musical theme plays)
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Scenes in black and white of street riots, violence, and terrorist weapons, to the music of Strauss's "Imperial Waltz" (one of the musical themes adopted by the NO campaign), ended with the screen getting gradually covered in blood.
Academic text (1992) -
The composer developed a beautiful musical theme that recurs throughout the symphony.
Synonyms
173
3.4
A melody that repeats and becomes the main musical idea
146
1.8
A series of musical notes that form the main tune of a song
88
7.5
A short melody that returns and changes in a musical piece
6
7.4
A short musical idea that repeats or changes through a piece
3
6.7
A short musical idea that repeats and is changed in a piece
1
9.1
A short musical idea that returns to show a person, place, or feeling
1
3.4
A short group of notes that sounds complete in a piece of music
1
5.8
A main tune that returns and shapes a musical piece
1
4.5
A line of musical notes that forms the main tune
1
9.9
A short tune that comes back in music to represent a person or idea
1
4.9
A short group of notes that sounds like one musical idea
The main idea of a talk, text, or piece of music
How Prominent
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'musical' (related to music) modifies 'theme' (a recurring melodic idea), so the phrase simply denotes a theme in music. This is a regular noun + modifier construction found across languages and contains no idiomatic shift, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily grasp the meaning.
Etymology
The noun musical theme comes from the image of a short tune that keeps returning in a piece: musical means about music and theme means a repeated idea. So a musical theme is the short tune you hear again and again, the 'main melody' or idea that often stands for a character or a feeling.