Development of Motives

When reporter Thomson, in the end of the film, realizes he’ll never find out about the meaning of Rosebud, he makes a statement which, in it’s core applies to the musical motives as well. He says that Rosebud was maybe something Kane couldn’t get or something he lost.
Apparently Kane’s will to power finds its source in the fact that as a child he was in tutelage of powerful Wallstreet banker Thatcher, who took him away from his parents since they couldn’t provide him a decent upbringing. He develops into a man that is constantly wanting to prove a point, at first towards Thatcher, later towards his employees but especially towards his two wives.
Derived from it, the power motive struggles with the Rosebud motive the moment Kane and Thatcher meet. This is in 1871 when little Charley is playing in the snow with his sled, before he gets to hear from his mother that he will have to go on a trip with ‘this gentleman’. One could say it is the moment the power of Kane surfaces (in anger he pushes over Thatcher who falls down in the snow) and his childhood, the sled Rosebud which he has to leave behind, is lost. In the beginning of the movie, a joke is made among reporters who are looking for the Kane story: "Kane is striking Thatcher in the stomach with a sled."

Ex Rosebud, Kane as a boy playing with his sled in the snow.

listen to Rosebud

The innosence of Rosebud is again heard when later in the movie, Kane meets his second wife Susan for the first time. Kane’s mother passed away and her stuff is stored somewhere in town. Kane was on his way to a sentimental journey to his youth as he says himself to Susan in her appartment. A flute playing the Rosebud motive accompanies them.
The power motive occurs all the time when Kane is dealing with Thatcher, the person who in a way is responsible for it’s birth. Power is also heard when he fires his best friend Leland. In one of the final sequences, in the echoing giant spaces of Kane’s mighty castle Xanadu, his wife Susan is working on jigsaw puzzles to kill boredom. The powermotive sounds when Kane enters the room. The next day they go on a by Kane initiated picnic; the power motive is heard played in a jazzy way by a bigband.
When Kane in total anger, smashes up the room right after Susan left him, he comes about the glass ball which is lying on a table; it is the ball which was already seen in the prelude. He calms down and whispers the word "Rosebud". The Rosebud motive sounds.