Secular music: History and Key Facts

Secular or saecular (Latin saecularis, "of the ages") is a term usually understood as meaning "worldly" or "non-religious", but when contrasted with cloistered monasteries a cathedral is technically a saecular institution with secular clergy. In vocal music of the classical tradition of western music,

secular music is distinguished from both liturgical and devotional religious music as the two main genres of Western music during the Middle Ages and Renaissance era. In such a context the oldest written examples of secular music are songs of the goliards with Latin lyrics. These were followed by vernacular chansons de geste (songs of deeds) and were popular amongst the traveling jongleurs and minstrels of the time.

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 were not themselves poets or composers. Instead they adapted the compositions of others to sing, play, and dance to in their own unique versions. Other styles included love songs, political satire, dances, chansons, and dramatic works.

Much non-vocal instrumental music also seems intended for non-religious use. According to Grout's A History of Western Music (1996), common musical instruments of medieval music included: harps, imported to continental Europe from Ireland and Britain sometime before the ninth century; Vielle, a prototype of the Renaissance viol and modern viola with five strings, one of which was a drone, popular amongst the jongleurs to accompany their singing and recitations; Organistrum, a three-stringed instrument similar to the vielle but played by the turning of a crank, with strings ‘stopped by a set rods instead of the player's fingers); and Psaltery, a type of zither played by plucking or ‘striking’ the strings, which frequently appears in medieval art. The most common wind instruments included both recorder and transverse style flutes; the reeded Shawms, a precursor to the oboe; trumpets and bagpipes.

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