History Of Western Music :: essays research papers

Most of the early medicament that we possess at once thus far in print is primarily sacred music. This music, for the most part, is in the radiation diagram of sections of the Mass, such as the Gloria, Kyrie and Agnus Dei. Most people of the Middle Ages were poor peasants who worked exclusively day for meager wages and had no idle time lounging the dash the upper classes did. Therefore, there are a few(prenominal) extant secular compositions of music from this era. The come of a new middle class, however, gave financial freedom for about people to spend time and money on entertainment in the form of music and dance. Thus, the rise of the middle classes also gave way to the rise in composition and performance of secular music, which became the music of choice for composers of that day. umteen of the songs we moderate today of the Middle Ages were in Latin, and are by unknown composers. Many were written by wandering people, numerous of them men and churchmen without eve rlasting residences of their own. Men who could not obtain a position in the church building and had to drop out were called goliards. These goliards wandered around the land, composing and performing for people. Their music was in general comprised of the "eat, drink, and be merry type, appropriate to the wanton kind of life the goliards lived" (Stolba, 99). Carl Orff, the composer of the Carmina Burana, utilize the poems found in the largest surviving records of Latin secular music that we have today. The Codex latinus 4660 was held in the Benedictine monastery at Benediktbeurn. Many of the songs speak of love, many of them lascivious. Others speak of drinking, satires of the religious life and even liturgical plays. A few of them are even written in the rough-cut of the region in that time (Stolba, 99). Following the history of the era in literature, many authors were fascinated by the courtly tradition, chivalry and a higher love. Therefore, we have today musical comp ositions that speak of many of the same ideas. French composers wrote songs in the vernacular called chansons de geste . These songs spoke of the heroic acts performed by knights for their ladies in the name of love. The French have a national epic called the Chanson de Roland which related the life and death of Charlemagnes nephew and his endeavor to rid France of the Basques.