The Music Stem / The Musician's Library / Composer's Handbook / Motivic Cell
Composer's Handbook
A motivic cell is a short, recognizable figure that a passage is built from.
Write a three-note idea and build eight bars from it and its variants.
C–D–G and then D–E–A and then G–D–C and then C–D–G with a longer last note.
Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, first movement