The New International Encyclopædia/Quodlibet

QUODLIBET (Lat., what one pleases). A humorous combination of several melodies in use extensively during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To-day it is a favorite amusement at a ‘Commers’ (a students' gathering) in Germany to continue the singing of a popular folk or drinking song until a certain word is reached, which happens to be the first word of another well-known song. The air is then broken off suddenly and the new air begun at that word, until another word again affords an opportunity to pass into a new air. Many collections of quodlibets have been published.