Both sacred and secular music has undergone many changes throughout history to adapt to people's interests and tastes. Sacred music can be defined simply as music for prayer and worship. Conversely, secular music is music for entertainment. Both sacred and secular music date back to the creation of man.
Traditionally, when asked to think about sacred music, many people associate it with its early works. An example of this is the Gregorian Chant, which dates back to approximately 650 AD. This type of music had no definite rhythm and was monographic, that is, a single melody sung in unison. .
Music changed throughout time as human beings became more advanced. Sacred music progressed greatly during the Renaissance because the church employed most of the great composers of that era. Josquin Des Prez was one of the most influential musicians of this time period. He preferred a polyphonic style, in which multiple melodies occur simultaneously. In addition to his renowned cantus firmus masses, such as his famous "Missa Pange Lingua," he also composed secular music. His most renowned secular piece is titled, "Milles Regretz." There were two forms of secular music during the time of the Renaissance. The first was based off of folklore. This type of music was passed down from one generation to the next by word of mouth. The other kind of secular music was art music, which, like sacred music, was searching for a higher truth.
Sacred music was again reformed approximately around 1600 after Martin Luther started the Protestant Reformation. Luther was very influential with his cultural views on prayer in your own language. This incorporated folk culture into sacred music. Johann Sebastian Bach, nicknamed the King of Polyphony and considered by many to be the greatest composer in the history of western music, spent most of his life working in a Lutheran church position as both organist and music director.
Comparing Secular and Sacred Music in the Middle Ages The Middle Ages was a time of diversity in music. ... Secular and sacred music. Sacred music was shaped by many different people. ... The second type of music in the Middle Ages is Secular music. ... As you can see there were a lot of differences between secular and sacred music in the middle ages. ...
A preference for sacred vocal music was developed and pagan secular music and instruments were rejected. ... Ambrosia, is a tuneful/ornate link with secular music. ... Considering all these factors it is not really surprising that the vast majority of music that survives from the Middle Ages is sacred music. ... And of course, the monks whose duty it was to notate and copy music would have a tremendous bias toward the sacred music. A second reason is that there really was a great deal of sacred music composed. ...
Hildegard of Bingen was one such woman who wrote sacred music for choirs in convents. Not only did Hildegard compose music for church choirs, but she also wrote pieces of music that could be performed outside of the church, otherwise known as secular music. 2 Troubadours and trouveres, also known as French nobles, were responsible for beginning the secular music movement. ... Sacred renaissance music came in two major forms: the motet, and the mass. ... Secular music in the Renaissance was spread with the help of the printing press. The madrigal was the most popular form for secular m...
Polyphony is music that is two or more melodic lines heard at the same time The music in the Middle ages could be Sacred or Secular. ... The music heard was usually Gregorian Chants, and later in the middle ages the polyphony music was discovered. Secular music also had started to spread among the people. ... Secular music was not. Minstrels were people that used non-secular music. ...
The sacred music was referred to as motets or masses and the secular music was referred to as madrigals; most of the music was a cappella, but there were some instrumental parts. ... In the Baroque period music became entertainment for a greater portion of society and servants or church music directors composed the music. ... The Classical period is the beginning of music for the masses; music was no longer limited to the aristocracy. ... Music in not just entertainment, it also fuels national pride. ... The role of music in this period is sacred, entertainment, national pride, and to communic...
Medieval Music The medieval musicians improvise, which means adding and changing musical materials as he or she performed a piece. ... The music ranges from the sacred to the wicked and from a solo with a single melody sung alone to the richly voices of several working all together. The church, the court, the university, the town, and the tavern have all contributed evidently to music. The most serious music, both sacred and secular, was song, involving words as an important part. ... They have been used in solo dances and monophonic music. ...
Sound is an important characteristic of music. ... Rhythm is the flow of music through time. ... Gregorian Chant, the official music of the Roman Catholic Church has a sacred, vocal, and monophonic texture. ... Guillaume de Machaut, a famous musician and poet, is world-renowned for his polyphonic sacred vocal piece of music called the Notre Dame Mass. ... The madrigal, a significant secular vocal music during the Renaissance, was similar to a motet, in its homophonic and polyphonic textures. ...
Se la face ay pale is probably the earliest surviving mass based on a secular theme. ... Though at that time Dufay had a "bad reputation for writing the music of masses with secular airs as Canti fermi"(Stainer). After so many years of using liturgical chant for the foundation of a Mass, Dufay helped infiltrate the world of sacred music by combining it with secular chansons. Dufay understood that good music was just good music and a good melody was no more secular than it was sacred. ... Although at first, Dufay had a couple critics, this method for using secular melodies as a foundation f...
Around 1100, a new type of music came up. ... Leonin composed music called organum. ... Motet could have been sacred (religious) or secular (nonreligious) music. ... It consisted of drinking song and secular music. Ars antiqua, or "old art" was sacred music. ...
