Contrafactum


In vocal music, contrafactum is "the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music". The earliest known examples of this "lyrical adaptation" date back to the 9th century in Gregorian chant.

Categories

Types of contrafacta that are wholesale substitution of a different text include the following:

Significantly different lyrics in another language

While a direct translation that preserves original intent might not considered a "substitution", the lyrics of the following songs redone in another language have a substantially different meaning:

Poems set to music

An existing tune already possessing secular or sacred words is given a new poem, which often happens in hymns, and sometimes, more than one new set of words is created over time. Examples include:

Self-reworking

A lyricist might re-cast his/her own song in the same musical but with new lyrics. Examples include:
Other songs which have been re-written by the same writer with different lyrics include:

Parody

Intentional parody of lyrics, especially for satirical purposes, has been the core of the following musical acts:
Writers of contrafacta and parody tried to emulate an earlier song's poetic metre, rhyme scheme, and musical metre. They went further by also establishing a close connection to the model's words and ideas and adapting them to a new purpose, whether humorous or serious.
Humorous contrafacta might be called "parody" even without being especially satirical, for instance:

Other