contrafactum means the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music. It carries an Arena rating of 1555, earned across 37 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, contrafactum ranks #252 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #1,183 of 17,104 for Most Storied Words, #1,384 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #3,181 of 17,149 for Most Exacting Words.
Why “contrafactum” is a great word
CONTRAFACTUM — [Noun] A vocal composition in which a new text is set to an existing melody, with the musical structure left largely intact. From Latin contrafacere ("to counterfeit, to imitate"), from contra- ("against") + facere ("to make, to do"). Earliest documented use: 1940. Unlike a "parody," which reworks musical material into a new compositional whole, or a "cover," which replicates both tune and words, a contrafactum is an act of lyrical graft. It is a secular love song sung to a sacred hymn's tune, a political broadside cloaked in a tavern melody, or a jazz standard built upon the hidden scaffold of a Broadway show tune. It is the old soul wearing new clothes, a testament to how human expression endlessly seeks new vessels for old breath.
Etymology
From Latin. Piecewise doublet of counterfeit.
noun
- The substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music.
- The use of a secular melody with a religious text.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- contrafact 76% match — A new musical composition built out of an already existing one, most often a new melody overlaid on a familiar harmonic structure. An important part of the development of bebop. Contrafacts are not to be confused with musical quotations, which borrow rhythms or melodies from an existing composition. vs contrafactum →
- rifacimento 58% match — A literary work or musical composition recast to adapt it to a change in the circumstances of the time. vs contrafactum →
- counterfact 54% match — Synonym of counterfactual (noun). vs contrafactum →
- remix 54% match — A rearrangement of an older piece of music, possibly including various cosmetic changes. vs contrafactum →
- counterfugue 53% match — A fugue in which the answer or imitation to the melody is played in an inverse manner. vs contrafactum →
- counterfactualism 53% match — Synonym of counterfactuality. vs contrafactum →
- farse 52% match — A vernacular paraphrase inserted into Latin liturgy. vs contrafactum →
- metaphrast 51% match — A person who uses metaphrase to re-cast a text in a different form, for example from poetry to prose. vs contrafactum →