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Breaking a theme into smaller fragments (motifs) and developing them independently.
Fragmentation is the most important development technique. Take a theme, break it into its component motifs, and develop each one separately — through sequence, inversion, augmentation, or combination with other fragments. This is how Beethoven builds entire development sections from the opening motif.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 — the famous four-note motif is a fragment of the opening theme, developed relentlessly throughout the entire symphony.
Fragmentation is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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