Another word for leitmotif

This curse, the Leitmotif of the whole story, began to operate at once.

The method of presentation in both symphonies is by means of representative themes (Leitmotif), and their combination and interaction.

Inspired by the rich architecture of Wagner's music on an epic story, Williams chose to score the first Star Wars and subsequent films using leitmotif.

Let us illustrate Wagner's mature use of Leitmotif by the theme which happens to be associated with Alberich's ring.

The more subtle examples are inexhaustible in variety and resource; and perhaps the climax of subtlety is the almost entire absence of Leitmotif in the first scene of the third act of Gotterddmmerung, when Siegfried throws away his last chance of averting his doom.