Quodlibet

(from Lat., as you like it). As cultivated by MEDIEVAL students in Central Europe, a free MEDLEY of popular melodies, religious HYMNS, and cosmopolitan MADRIGALS, rendered in French as fricassée (stewed meat). The secret of attraction of such fricassees was the joy of recognition of familiar tunes in an otherwise solemn context. Even JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH himself succumbed to the lure of the quodlibet by combining two popular melodies in the last movement of his GOLDBERG VARIATIONS.

In modern times, a quodlibet formed by the superposition of the Russian song Dark Eyes and FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN'S F-minor étude was popular among Russian conservatory students. Another popular modern quodlibet is a combination of the tunes La Matchiche and Petite Tonkinoise.

See also POTPOURRI.