PARAPHRASE

in music, the recomposition of a phrase, melody, section, or entire piece for use in another, favoured especially during the Renaissance for masses and motets, but also for keyboard works, where the melody is frequently broken up, with new notes interpolated occasionally, and condensed. A paraphrased melody may appear in one voice part of the new composition, as in the motet Alma redemptoris mater (Beloved Mother of the Redeemer) by Guillaume Dufay, or in all voice parts through the technique of melodic imitation, as in the Missa pange lingua (mass on the plainsong hymn Pange lingua [Sing, My Tongue]) by Josquin des Prez. In 19th-century music, the term acquired slightly different connotations, when piano and other virtuosos engaged in elaborate paraphrases of operas as well as of each other's works.