User talk:Katarahm

I would like to update the page: Secular Music.

Would the original author accept this proposal? I have a Masters in Music Education. Thank you.

Secular and sacred music were the main genres of music during the Medieval period and Renaissance era. “The oldest written secular music are songs with Latin texts” (Grout, 1996, p. 60). However, many secular songs were sung in the vernacular language unlike the sacred songs that followed the Latin language of the Church. These earliest types were known as the chanson de geste (song of deeds) were popular amongst the traveling jongleurs and minstrels (professional men and women musicians of the time) (p. 61).

The largest collection of secular music from this period comes from poems of celebration and chivalry of the troubadours from the south of France. These poems contain clever rhyme-schemes, varied use of refrain-lines or words, and different metric patterns. “The minstrels of this time period were not poets or composers in the usual sense. They sang, played, and danced to songs composed by others in which they adapted into their own unique versions” (Grout, 1996, p. 61). Other styles included love songs, political satire, dances, chansons, and dramatic works.

According to Grout’s A History of Western Music (1996), common musical instruments of this time period included the Harp (imported to the Continent from Ireland and Britain sometime before the ninth century); Vielle (the prototype of the Renaissance viol and modern viola, five strings, one of which was a drone, popular amongst the jongleurs to accompany their singing and recitations); Organistrum (a three-stringed string instrument similar to the vielle but played by the turning of a crank, strings were ‘stopped by a set rods instead of the player’s fingers); and Psaltery (frequently appears in medieval art, a type of zyther played by plucking or ‘striking’ the strings). The most common Wind Instruments included both recorder and transverse style Flutes; the reeded Shawms (precursor to the oboe); trumpets and Bagpipes (universal folk instrument). (p. 68)

Drums, harps, recorders, and bagpipes were the instruments of choice when performing secular music due to ease of transportation. Jongleurs and minstrels learned their trade through oral tradition.

Composers like Josquin des Prez wrote sacred and secular music. He composed 86 highly successful secular works and 119 sacred pieces. Secular music also was aided by the formation of literature during the reign of Charlemagne that included a collection of secular and semi-secular songs. Guillaume de Machaut (Grout, 1996, p. 106) was another example of a leading composer who continued the trouvere tradition (p. 107).

Grout, Donald J., and Claude V. Palisca. A history of western music. 5th ed., New York, W. W. Nortan & Company, 1996.

Katarahm (talk) 01:27, 13 March 2017 (UTC)Katarahm