Contrafact
Acontrafactis a musical work based on a prior work. The term comes from classical music and has only since the 1940s been applied to jazz, where it is still not standard. In classical music, contrafacts have been used as early as theparody massandIn Nomineof the 16th century. More recently,Cheap Imitation(1969) byJohn Cagewas produced by systematically changing notes from the melody line ofSocratebyErik Satieusing chance procedures.
Injazz,acontrafactis amusical compositionconsisting of a newmelodyoverlaid on a familiarharmonic structure.[1]
As a compositional device, it was of particular importance in the 1940s development ofbop,since it allowedjazzmusicians to create new pieces for performance and recording on which they could immediatelyimprovise,without having to seek permission or pay publisher fees forcopyrightedmaterials (while melodies can be copyrighted, the underlying harmonic structure cannot be).
Contrafacts are not to be confused withmusical quotations,which comprise borrowing rhythms or melodic figures from an existing composition.
Examples
[edit]Well-known examples of contrafacts include theCharlie Parker/Miles Davisbop tune "Donna Lee,"which uses the chord changes of the standard"Back Home Again in Indiana"[2]orThelonious Monk'sjazz standard[3]"Evidence", which borrows the chord progression from Jesse Greer and Raymond Klages's song "Just You, Just Me"(1929).[4]Examples from the classical oeuvre include Sinfonia byLuciano Beriousing fragments from Mahler,George Crumbborrowing Chopin's nocturnes, or Matt A. Mason's "Heiligenstadt Echo" which takes from Beethoven's Sonata in A♭ major, op. 110. The Gershwin tune "I Got Rhythm"has proved especially amenable to contrafactual recomposition: the popularity of its"rhythm changes"is second only to that of the12-bar bluesas a basic harmonic structure used by jazz composers.
See also
[edit]Sources
[edit]- ^Kernfeld, Barry,ed. (2002), "Contrafact",The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz;,vol. 1 (2nd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^Rosenthal, David, H. (1992).Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955-1965.New York: Oxford University Press.ISBN0-19-505869-0.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^Yanow, Scott (2008)."Thelonious Monk" biography,AllMusic.
- ^Williams, Martin (1 January 1992). "What Kind of Composer Was Thelonious Monk?".The Musical Quarterly.76(3): 433–441.doi:10.1093/mq/76.3.433.
Further reading
[edit]- Patrick, James S. (1975). "Charlie Parker and the Harmonic Sources of Bebop Composition: Thoughts on the Repertory of New Jazz in the 1940s".Journal of Jazz Studies.2:3–23.
- Baker, David (1988). "The Contrafact".How to Play Bebop.Vol. 3. Alfred Music Publishing. pp. 1–4.ISBN978-0-7390-2182-8.
External links
[edit]- Jazz Resource Library | GlossaryatJazz in America
- Helzer, Richard A. (2004)."Cultivating the Art of Jazz Composition"at theWayback Machine(archived September 28, 2007),iaje.