richard wagner is the earliest composer most specifically associated with the concept of leitmotif. his cycle of four operas, "der ring des nibelungen" (the music for which was written between 1853 and 1869), uses hundreds of leitmotifs, often related to specific characters, things, or situations. while some of these leitmotifs occur in only one of the operas, many recur throughout the entire cycle. wagner had raised the issue of how music could best unite disparate elements of the plot of a music drama in his essay "opera and drama" (1851); the leitmotif technique corresponds to this ideal.