What is "secular music"

Secular \Sec"u*lar\, a. [OE. secular, seculer. L. saecularis, fr. saeculum a race, generation, age, the times, the world; perhaps akin to E. soul: cf. F. s['e]culier.]

1. Coming or observed once in an age or a century.

   The secular year was kept but once a century.
   --Addison.

2. Pertaining to an age, or the progress of ages, or to a long period of time; accomplished in a long progress of time; as, secular inequality; the secular refrigeration of the globe.

3. Of or pertaining to this present world, or to things not spiritual or holy; relating to temporal as distinguished from eternal interests; not immediately or primarily respecting the soul, but the body; worldly.

   New foes arise, Threatening to bind our souls with secular chains.
   --Milton.

4. (Eccl.) Not regular; not bound by monastic vows or rules; not confined to a monastery, or subject to the rules of a religious community; as, a secular priest.

   He tried to enforce a stricter discipline and greater regard for morals, both in the religious orders and the secular clergy.
   --Prescott.

5. Belonging to the laity; lay; not clerical.

   I speak of folk in secular estate.
   --Chaucer.

   Secular equation (Astron.), the algebraic or numerical expression of the magnitude of the inequalities in a planet's motion that remain after the inequalities of a short period have been allowed for.

   Secular games (Rom. Antiq.), games celebrated, at long but irregular intervals, for three days and nights, with sacrifices, theatrical shows, combats, sports, and the like.

   Secular music, any music or songs not adapted to sacred uses.

   Secular hymn or Secular poem, a hymn or poem composed for the secular games, or sung or rehearsed at those games.

Secular music; Secular means being separate from (not associated or concerned with) religion. In the West, secular music developed in the Medieval period and was used in the Renaissance. Swaying authority from the Church that focused more on Common Law influenced all aspects of Medieval life, including music. Secular music in the Middle Ages included love songs, political satire, dances, and dramatic works. Drums, harps, recorders, and bagpipes were the instruments used in secular music because they were easy for the traveling musicians to tote about. Instruments were taught through oral tradition and provided great dancing music and accompanied the stanzas well.

Words are an important part of secular music. Words were added for most and many common people to sing songs together for entertainment. Music styles were changed by secularization. The motet, for example, moved out of the Church and into the courts of nobility which then caused the motet to be forbidden in the Church. 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.

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.

Category:Music genres