leitmotif

leitmotif - noun - In music drama, a marked melodic phrase or short passage which always accompanies the reappearance of a certain person, situation, abstract idea, or allusion in the course of the play; a sort of musical label; a dominant and recurring theme.

I'm sitting here listening, as I frequently do while working, to the musical soundtracks from the StarWars movies. I'm a huge fan of John Williams' scores. He really seems to have a knack for emotionally charging a particular scene, or getting your to feel a certain dread, animation, excitement, or other emotional connection to the action or characters on-screen.

I'm sure just about anyone can hear the theme titled "A New Hope" and know it pertains to Luke Skywalker, or to certian other themes and know Jar Jar Binks is about to be on screen and do something ridiculous. The most famous, and probably most recognizable theme, is "Lord Vader's March".

The concept of musical labels goes back a long time (especially in movies) to early themes in which the music was played by the organist or some other player in the theater as the movie was run. The particular sounds emitted were cues the bad guy (or good guy, or beautiful damsel - possibly in distress) were about to be or were indeed on the screen. This particular idiom has become such a part of our current concept of entertainment - it makes it into tv shows, and children playing make their own music (humming tunes or singing in various voices) to indicate a particular suspensful or action packed time of their play. I can say I am guilty of having played in this fashion while I was a child - often with some comic interpretation by my parents who happened to overhear such renditions.