Ashort musical idea associated with a person, object, or thought, used by richard wagner in his operas, is called unending melody. leitmotif. speech-song. lied.

A short musical idea associated with a person, object, or thought, used by Richard Wagner in his operas, is called leitmotif.
It is a musical phrase that is usually very short, and appears constantly throughout an opera or something else each time a person associated with it appears on the scene. Richard Wagner used leitmotifs quite often, and they can especially be found in his Der Ring des Nibelungen.