Cell (music)

The 1957 Encyclopédie Larousse[1] defines a cell in music as a "small rhythmic and melodic design that can be isolated, or can make up one part of a thematic context".

"A cell can be developed, independent of its context, as a melodic fragment, it can be used as a developmental motif.

It can be the source for the whole structure of the work; in that case it is called a generative cell.

The term "cell" (German: Keim) derives from organic music theorists of the nineteenth century.

Arnold Schering adopted the term, along with "melodic kernels" (Melodiekerne) in his analysis of 14th-century madrigal, one of the first uses of Gestalt psychology in music theory.