The two most popu­lar main categories of mo­tifs in our known mu­sic his­tory are those of the mas­cu­line and the femi­nine motif. They find their per­fec­tion in the first move­ment of the sym­phony – in the art of the sonata. This first move­ment, which is al­ways in the form of the sonata, rep­re­sents the dra­matic and play­ful con­fron­ta­tion of mas­cu­line and femi­nine quali­ties – the path of mutual hu­man sup­port on the road to hap­pi­ness.

In gen­eral, the mas­cu­line theme – ide­ally rep­re­sent­ing mas­cu­line quali­ties of the hu­man char­ac­ter – is rather harsh, rhyth­mi­cally prominent, crea­tively ac­tive, and striv­ing for change.

Thus, the mas­cu­line theme embod­ies not only the crea­tive, con­structive prin­ci­ple but also the dis­solv­ing, de­struc­tive prin­ci­ple.

Its natu­ral coun­ter­part, the femi­nine theme, is tender, charm­ing and con­cerned with uphold­ing the ex­ist­ing or­der. It com­forts the mas­cu­line theme, which strives for change, and it cre­ates a bal­anc­ing ef­fect.

Embodying the sus­tain­ing prin­ci­ple the femi­nine theme smoothens the waves of the oc­ca­sion­ally rough-edged mas­cu­line crea­tiv­ity and thus main­tains the natu­ral flow of the com­po­si­tion.

How­ever, the categories of the mas­cu­line and the femi­nine motif are only a part of the world of mo­tifs and do not even rep­re­sent its high­est val­ues.

Just as there are prin­ci­ples su­pe­rior to the mas­cu­line and the femi­nine ele­ment, there are also mu­si­cal mo­tifs which stand above the mas­cu­line and the femi­nine mu­si­cal motif.

In dif­fer­ent times – in dif­fer­ent cul­tural eras and on dif­fer­ent lev­els of cul­tural evo­lu­tion – com­pos­ers select the mu­si­cal mo­tifs of their re­spec­tive time.