(from medieval Lat. contrafacere: ‘to imitate’, ‘counterfeit’, ‘forge’).
In vocal music, the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music.
The term is most commonly applied to the practice of composing new poems to older melodies, particularly in the secular monophonic repertory of the 12th and 13th centuries. But it is found equally in the plainchant repertory, where the texts of new feasts, for example, were routinely adapted to older melodies. Many sequence and hymn melodies too were retexted numerous times. Contrafacta are also found in medieval polyphony. A number of 13th-century motets, for example, survive with both Latin and French texts; thus Philip the Chancellor’s Agmina milicie appears with the texts Quant froidure and L’autr’er cuidai. The constant re-use of older, particularly sacred, melodies is so fundamental to both the technique and spirit of medieval music that it does not constitute a special usage.
Although the word ‘contrafactum’ (or ‘contrafacere’) is not part of the classical language, it was used in the Middle Ages to mean imitation in general, though often with the more negative connotation of counterfeit, its nearest English equivalent. Although the term is not used in medieval music theory, melodies are occasionally identified in rubrics such as ‘un lais de Nostre Dame contre le Lai Markiol’, which accompanies the Marian contrafactum Flours ne glais (R.192) attributed to Gautier de Coincy. But this usage is not consistent and the phrase ‘super cantilenam’ is equally common. The earliest use of the term contrafactum in the modern sense is in the 15th-century German Pfulligen manuscript, where it is restricted to the textual adaptation of secular melodies for sacred use.
As the term is used in the modern sense, no precise limits have been observed in the designation of a song or composition as a contrafactum. There is no general agreement as to whether the term should be restricted to sacred adaptations of secular melodies, or the degree of correspondence necessary before a contrafactum becomes a free adaptation, or when conscious adaption becomes coincidental similarity. In the strictest sense, a contrafactum would not only employ the melody, rhymes and metric scheme of the model, but would also be in some sense an adaptation of the meaning of the original poem. Gautier de Coincy’s Amours dont sui espris (R.1546) is a case of this kind: it not only employs the melody of Blondel de Nesle’s Amours dont sui espris (R.1545), but also retains the first line of the poem. Here there can be no doubt about the intention of the author of the contrafactum, but this is the exception rather than the rule. More common is the contrafactum which employs an older melody, but whose verbal text leaves room for doubt about the intentions of its author. In such a case it is impossible to know whether a contrafactum is a conscious and deliberate imitation of a known model or simply the casual re-use of a well-known melody or common melodic type. Gennrich called this type the ‘regular contrafactum’, and from here it is a short step to what he called the ‘irregular contrafactum’: the newly composed song adopts certain features of an older song, without imitating every detail of its melodic or metrical structure. An extreme example is shown in ex.1, containing the first two lines of two songs in entirely different metres, of which the second (Douce dame) is derived indirectly from the first (see Falck, 1967).
The scarcity of authentic melodies for German Minnesang has led scholars to supply melodies from trouvère or troubadour songs when the German poems can be shown to be contrafacta from French or Provençal models. That this method may be appropriate is suggested by Walther von der Vogelweide’s Allerêrst lebe ich mir werde, for which the surviving melody is closely related to that of Jaufre Rudel’s Lanquan li jorn son lonc en may. Such methods must be used with care, however, since songs may employ identical rhyme and metrical schemes without necessarily having the same melody. Indeed there are several medieval poems with three different melodies.
A number of melodies enjoyed great popularity in the Middle Ages. Each of the melodies in ex.1, for instance, has a Latin contrafactum, and the first (Quant li rossignol) also has one in French. The sequence Letabundus inspired countless sacred and secular contrafacta, and the melody of Bernart de Ventadorn’s Quan vei la lauzeta mover was used for a number of new songs in Latin, German and French. The melody to Blondel’s Amours dont sui espris, mentioned above, was also used for three Latin conductus, two of them set polyphonically (Purgator criminum, Procurans odium and Suspirat spiritus).
HMT (R. Falck); MGG1 (‘Parodie und Kontrafaktur (bis 1600’; L. Finscher)
K. von Fischer: ‘Kontrafakturen und Parodien italienischer Werke des Trecento und frühen Quattrocento’, AnnM, v (1957), 43–59
U. Aarburg: ‘Melodien zum frühen deutschen Minnesang’, Der deutsche Minnesang: Aufsätze zu seiner Erforschung, ed. H. Fromm (Darmstadt, 1963), 378–423
F. Gennrich: Die Kontrafaktur im Liedschaffen des Mittelalters, SMM, xii (1965)
R. Falck: ‘Zwei Lieder Philipps des Kanzlers und ihre Vorbilder’, AMw, xxiv (1967), 81–98
H.H.S. Räkel: Die musikalische Erscheinungsformen der Trouvère poesie, Publications de la Société Suisse de Musicologie, Série 11, xxvii (Berne, 1977)
R. Falck: ‘Parodie and Contrafactum: a Terminological Clarification’, MQ, lxv (1979), 1–21
In the 15th and 16th centuries contrafactum often involved substitution of a sacred text for a secular one; only rarely did the reverse take place. The following examples illustrate varieties of contrafacta in this period. French chansons were sometimes given sacred Latin texts in 15th-century German sources (e.g. Busnoys' Quant ce vendra becomes Gaude mater). Some English songs of the 15th century were twice transformed, first into French, then Latin (e.g. Walter Frye's So ys emprentid appears in continental sources as Soyez aprantiz and Pour une suis and as Sancta Maria succurre). Josquin's chanson Plusieurs regretz appears in 16th-century German sources as both O Virgo genitrix and Sana me Domine. Transformations of secular music into sacred continued throughout the 16th century (e.g. Lassus's Mon coeur se recommande à vous becomes the chanson spirituelle to the words Mon coeur se rend à toy, Seigneur). An opposite example, of a secular text replacing a sacred one, is Senfl's lied Wohlauf, wohlauf, which is musically identical with the motet Ave ancilla Trinitatis by Senfl's teacher Isaac.
In the 15th and 16th centuries contrafactum often involved substitution of a sacred text for a secular one; only rarely did the reverse take place. The following examples illustrate varieties of contrafacta in this period. French chansons were sometimes given sacred Latin texts in 15th-century German sources (e.g. Busnoys' Quant ce vendra becomes Gaude mater). Some English songs of the 15th century were twice transformed, first into French, then Latin (e.g. Walter Frye's So ys emprentid appears in continental sources as Soyez aprantiz and Pour une suis and as Sancta Maria succurre). Josquin's chanson Plusieurs regretz appears in 16th-century German sources as both O Virgo genitrix and Sana me Domine. Transformations of secular music into sacred continued throughout the 16th century (e.g. Lassus's Mon coeur se recommande à vous becomes the chanson spirituelle to the words Mon coeur se rend à toy, Seigneur). An opposite example, of a secular text replacing a sacred one, is Senfl's lied Wohlauf, wohlauf, which is musically identical with the motet Ave ancilla Trinitatis by Senfl's teacher Isaac.
Pieces composed for specific occasions sometimes had their texts altered to fit new circumstances: for example, Festa's Quis dabit oculis, lamenting the death of Anne of Brittany (1514), was transformed by Senfl into a funeral piece for the Emperor Maximilian I (d 1519) by substitution of a few words. Similarly, texts of motets were changed, sometimes drastically, to make them suitable for different liturgical occasions (examples in manuscript I-TVd 29). A more complex example, approaching recomposition, is Isaac's lament for Lorenzo de' Medici on a text by Poliziano, Quis dabit capiti meo aquam (1492). Most of the music is identical with portions of Isaac's Missa ‘Salva nos’, but these passages are ordered differently and incorporate a new section based on an ostinato, refocussing and intensifying the effect of the borrowed music.
Contrafacta are specially common among Italian laude from the 15th century to the 17th. Many laude borrow their music from frottolas (e.g. Tromboncino's Eterno mio signor, derived from his frottola Quando fia mai). An important collection of works of this type is Giovanni Razzi's Libro primo delle laudi spirituali (Venice, 1563), which contains music taken from carnival songs of Lorenzo de' Medici's time.
The Protestant reformers, eager to provide appropriate music for their devotions, drew on both popular and courtly secular music as well as older sacred music, altering texts as needed. The Genevan Psalter borrows heavily from popular chanson melodies, while many Lutheran chorales derive their music from traditional sacred melodies and secular songs (e.g. Isaac's Innsbruck becomes O Welt ich muss dich lassen). Sacred texts of Catholic flavour were changed to suit the Lutheran viewpoint: La Rue's Ave regina caelorum becomes Ave apertor caelorum in Rhau's Symphoniae iucundae (Wittenberg, 1538). The Counter-Reformation responded with such examples as a Te Deum laudamus transformed into Te Lutherum damnamus (Maistre Jhan). The English church occasionally used contrafacta; among the earliest is an anthem derived from Taverner's famous ‘In Nomine’: In trouble and adversity, attributed to Thomas Caustun (1565). Throughout the later 16th century and the early 17th Latin motets were ‘English'd’ to render them suitable as anthems.
Contrafacta continued to be made in the early 17th century, in spite of the increasing union of words and music characteristic of the seconda prattica. Monteverdi, for example, transformed his Lamento d'Arianna into Il pianto della Madonna, and a number of his madrigals were ‘spiritualized’ by Aquilino Coppini, who supplied sacred Latin texts carefully matching the affect of the original words and music (1607–8). Later in the 17th century and throughout the 18th contrafactum tended to merge with parody (see Parody (i)), the generic term describing adaptation of pre-existing music to new texts. It is often difficult to separate contrafacta from the manifold degrees of recomposition that occur in such genres as opéra-comique, ballad opera, church cantata and oratorio: Bach's and Handel's self-parodies are perhaps the most notable examples.
Contrafacta virtually disappeared in 19th- and 20th-century art music. This can be attributed to the premium placed on originality and the belief in the uniqueness of the individual work of art that has prevailed since the 19th century.
D. Alaleona: ‘Le laudi spirituali italiane nei secoli XVI e XVII e il loro rapporto coi canti profani’, RMI, xvi (1909), 1–54
K. Hennig: Die geistliche Kontrafaktur im Jahrhundert der Reformation (Halle, 1909/R)
E.J. Dent: ‘The Laudi Spirituali in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’, PMA, xliii (1916–17), 63–95
E.E. Lowinsky: ‘Two Motets Wrongly Ascribed to Clemens non Papa’, RBM, ii (1947–8), 21–30
F. Ghisi: ‘L'“Aria di Maggio” et le travestissement spirituel de la poésie musicale profane en Italie’, Musique et poésie au XVIe siècle [Paris 1953], ed. J. Jacquot (Paris, 1954, 2/1974), 265–70
F. Ghisi: ‘Strambotti e laude nel travestimento spirituale della poesia musicale del Quattrocento’, CHM, i (1953), 45–78
H. Albrecht: ‘Zur Rolle der Kontrafaktur in Rhaus “Bicinia” von 1545’, Festschrift Max Schneider zum achtzigsten Geburtstage, ed. W. Vetter (Leipzig, 1955), 67–70
S.W. Kenney: ‘Contrafacta in the Works of Walter Frye’, JAMS, viii (1955), 182–202
J. Kerman: ‘An Elizabethan Edition of Lassus’, AcM, xxvii (1955), 71–6
A. Main: ‘Maximilian's Second-Hand Funeral Motet’, MQ, xlviii (1962), 173–89
W. Lipphardt: ‘Zur geistlichen Kontrafaktur’, Festschrift für Walter Wiora, ed. L. Finscher and C.-H. Mahling (Kassel, 1967), 284–95
W.H. Rubsamen: ‘The Music for “Quant'è bella giovinezza” and Other Carnival Songs by Lorenzo de' Medici’, Art, Science, and History in the Renaissance, ed. C.S. Singleton (Baltimore, 1967), 163–84
R.T. Daniel: ‘Contrafacta and Polyglot Texts in the Early English Anthem’, Essays in Musicology: a Birthday Offering for Willi Apel, ed. H. Tischler (Bloomington, IN, 1968), 101–6
W. Lipphardt: ‘Kontrafakturen weitlicher Lieder in bisher unbekannten Frankfurter Gesangbüchern vor 1569’, Quellenstudien zur Musik: Wolfgang Schmieder zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. K. Dorfmüller and G. von Dadelsen (Frankfurt, 1972), 125–35
H.C. Slim: ‘An Anonymous Twice-Texted Motet’, Words and Music: the Scholar's View … in Honor of A. Tillman Merritt, ed. L. Berman (Cambridge, MA, 1972), 293–316
T. Noblitt: ‘Contrafacta in Isaac's Missae Wohlauf, Gesell, von hinnin’, AcM, xlvi (1974), 208–16
R. Taruskin: ‘Settling an Old Score: A Note on Contrafactum in Isaac's Lorenzo Lament’, CMc, xxi (1976), 83–92
J. Milsom: ‘Songs, Carols and Contrafacta in the Early History of the Tudor Anthem’, PRMA, cvii (1980–81), 34–45
A.M. Cummings: ‘Bemerkungen zu Isaacs Motette “Ave ancilla trinitatis” und Senfls Lied “Wohlauf, wohlauf”’, Mf, xxxiv (1981), 180–82
M.A. Rorke: ‘Sacred Contrafacta of Monteverdi's Madrigals and Cardinal Borromeo's Milan’, ML, lxv (1984), 168–75
G. Cattin: ‘“Contrafacta” internazionali: musiche europee per laude italiane’, Musik und Text in der Mehrstimmigkeit des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts [Wolfenbüttel 1980], ed. U. Günther and L. Finscher (Kassel, 1984), 411–42
B.J. Blackburn: Music for Treviso Cathedral in the Late Sixteenth Century (London, 1987)
M. Staehelin: ‘Zur Begründung der Kontrafaktur praxis in deutschen Musikhandschriften des 15. und frühen 16. Jahrhunderts’, Florilegium musicologicum: Helmut Federhofer zum 75. Geburtstag, ed. C.-H. Mahling (Tutzing, 1988), 389–96
J.W. Hill: ‘Handel's Retexting as a Test of His Conception of Connections Between Music, Text, and Drama’, Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, iii (1989), 284–92
M. Just: ‘Josquins Chanson “Nymphes, Napées” als Bearbeitung des Invitatoriums “Circumdederunt me” und als Grundlage für Kontrafaktur, Zitat und Nachahmung’, Mf, xliii (1990), 305–35
K.J. Snyder: ‘Text and Tone in Hassler's German Songs and Their Sacred Parodies’, Musical Humanism and Its Legacy: Essays in Honor of Claude V. Palisca, ed. N.K. Baker and B.R. Hanning (Stuyvesant, NY, 1992), 253–77
P. Macey: ‘Some New Contrafacta for Canti Carnascialeschi and Laude in Late Quattrocento Florence’, La Musica a Firenze al tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico [Florence 1992], ed. P. Gargiulo (Florence, 1993), 143–66
ROBERT FALCK (1), MARTIN PICKER (2)