Tropes/Trivia

• A system called Trope is used in Judaism for memorizing the melody of Haftorah and Torah portions.
• The word trope shares its source with the word trophy (τροπή could also refer to the turning of an enemy, that is, routing them, hence the tropaion, a monument dedicated to the victory over an enemy).
• In music, a trope is when a composer takes a piece of vocal music and replaces the lyrics. It was quite common in the late Medieval period in church music; composers would use the music from the motet a few weeks ago and replace the words with the relevant scripture passages thus saving time, ink, and paper and valuable brain space in the chorus.