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 :

Roger Scruton (1997: 63) describes some music by Philip Glass as "nothing but figures...endless daisy-chains," such as Ekhnaton.

The 1964 Grove's Dictionary defines figure as follows:

• "any short succession of notes, either as melody or group of chords, which produces a single complete and distinct impression. The term is the exact counterpart of the German 'motiv' and the French 'motif'. It is the shortest idea in music."

Source

• Scruton, Roger (1997). The Aesthetics of Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198166389.
• Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990). ISBN 0691027145.
  • Scruton, Roger (1997).
  • (1964). Grove's Dictionary.