Privileged pattern

In music a privileged pattern is a motive, figure, or chord which is repeated and transposed so that the transpositions form a recognizable pattern. The pattern of transposition may be either by a repeated interval, an interval cycle, or a stepwise line of whole tones and semitones. The pattern is said to be privileged because it requires no context and is a precompositional technique. (Wilson 1992, p. 39-40)