Latin song is a song with Latin poetry as its lyrics, and it is the oldest existing secular music.
Conductus 1
Konduktus, a single voice, belongs to a kind of Latin songs. It was originally used for liturgical parades. As a transition, after 1 1 century, it generally refers to serious non-ritual Latin songs with metrical lyrics. Its characteristic is that melody is freely created, not attached to hymns, and its content is religious and secular. Later, it gradually lost contact with sacrificial activities and became a genre of free creation.
2. Goliath songs
The earliest Latin song was the song of Goliath, composed by students and clergy who called themselves Goliath. Goliath means wandering poets and vagrants, both students who are uneasy about their studies and bohemian monks. They live a wandering life, full of entertainment and enjoyment. Their lifestyle is despised by the so-called "decent people", but the songs they write are still loved by some people. There are three themes in the song: wine, women and satire (the symbol of men, now three possible themes: women, houses and cars). Goliath's famous manuscript (poetry part) is Kamena Brana, also known as Bran's poetry anthology (once written into a large vocal work-oratorio by Orff, a musician and educator in the 20th century).
Second, dialect songs.
In the 12 century, the popularity of Latin changed with the gradual prosperity of secular cultural life in various regions, and France, Germany, Italy and other places began to produce their own secular songs.
1, early dialect songs
Dialect songs can best reflect the secular spirit of the Middle Ages. The earliest known dialect song is Hero Performance Song, which is an epic long narrative poem with the content of praising heroes. The famous work is Song of Roland (that is, a musical work as well as a literary work), which is a representative French national epic. The singer who sings secular songs such as heroic deeds is called Jungler. Unlike Goliath, although they are also vagrants, they appear as professional musicians. They make a living by performing, singing and even juggling (in fact, they are similar to ancient artists in China, performing rap operas and attending a church temple fair). Later, they organized musicians' associations to provide it. Jungler's tradition and skills promoted the development of Budd's music.
2. French poet
Bards' music first flourished in France. It has become a pioneer of western secular music and an important part of medieval dialect songs. But when it comes to bards, we can't help but mention "knights", which is a special class that appeared in the Middle Ages. Literally, a knight is a soldier riding a horse. In fact, he has a dual identity. When he took part in military operations, he was a cavalry soldier riding a horse to fight. In peacetime, he is a landlord (belonging to the aristocratic class). Only those who come from the upper class and own property can be awarded the title of knight. They all brought their own weapons, horses and equipment to the war. Knights are important members of the Crusaders. Their life is to exercise by participating in wars and competitions, show exaggerated respect for women, hold luxurious and spectacular feasts (usually not allowed for outsiders), and take the pursuit of material enjoyment as the top priority. In this atmosphere, bard music came into being. Of course, bard includes not only knights, but also some court nobles, poets and musicians at the bottom, and even emperors.
French bards can be divided into southern bards and northern bards according to the language of lyrics. The name means "inventor" or "creator", which may refer to the poet's outstanding creative talent and imagination. The bard's music art originated in Provence in the south of France, at the end of 1 1 century. The bard in the south wrote words and composed music in the ancient Provencal dialect (or Oak language). The earliest famous southern poet was William IX, Duke of Aquitaine. 1 102 after returning from the first crusade, he was keen to perform heroic songs for aristocratic audiences. Another very famous South Bader Ventadong, one of the last songs he saved was "I saw a lark flapping its wings", which was very popular at that time. There are eight sections, each with eight lines, and each section has its own music, which describes the lovesickness of a lady (to be exact, a married lady).
Love for married women, especially the love of knights for married women, is the central theme of Budd's songs. This is an important feature of chivalry. Knights are eager to make great achievements, not to lead an army to fight everywhere, nor to dream of gaining much power, but to fully show their courage on the battlefield and win women's hearts. In their view, winning a lady's heart and winning in an adventure is the highest honor for a knight. If viewed subjectively from a modern point of view, men may think that this idea is too worthless; Women will be proud of these heroes falling at their feet. However, from the objective point of view of history, the knight's love for a lady is not sex and love in the general sense. In fact, it does not lead to marriage. It is more like Platonic spiritual love (the object of fantasy). The worship of the Virgin Mary in Christian tradition also directly or indirectly influenced the knight's love for ladies. Maria is a great symbol of maternal love and a model of ideal women. The worship of Maria provides a religious example for the knight to idealize women, and the knight's worship of ladies is probably a secular reflection of the worship of the virgin Mary.
Most of the minstrels in southern France are love songs, praising the knight's love and worship for women. The content of the lyrics is not about the charm and beauty of women, but about lovers and their thoughts, focusing on inner feelings. It was very popular at that time.
The main schools of bard in southern France are: Zuo Kang, who expresses love; Morning Song (Alba); Pastorella, who later developed into an idyllic drama; Other categories-sylvain, Elegy, Debate Song, etc. They are all short song types.
When the art of southern bards developed to a quite mature stage, the first batch of northern bards began to write songs. It seems that the northern bard is not influenced by religious factors like the southern bard, and there is no fundamental difference in music, but the language used is different. Bards in the north use Oyi, that is, ancient French to write lyrics, which is more elegant and sophisticated than bards in the south.
The main types of bards in northern France are adult narrative poems: romance, historical songs and Lai. Since13rd century, they have created three "fixed forms" of overlapping songs (the same music matched by repeated verses in poetry): Ville, Narrative and Rondo. During the Art Nouveau Movement, French composer Matthew created a large number of secular songs in these three forms.
The famous northern poet is Adam de la Alai. According to folklore, his ancestors were Alaskans, so he was called "Humpback" and nicknamed "Humpback of Alaska". The pastoral drama Robin and Marion is a very famous one of his works. It is simple, humorous and contains certain plots, so it is called "the first comedy opera".
3. Dialect songs in other regions
Under the influence of the French minstrel art, German knights and nobles are also creating their own secular music, and a number of Minasingh have appeared. Their musical activities are similar to those of minstrels. They write and perform in person. The song they sang became "minesang", which strictly refers to the poem that shows how the knight is loyal to his wife in his heart, but generally refers to 12 to 65433. German love songs are not imitations of French bards' poems, and their sources are not limited to France, including the oldest Gregorian chant, Latin literature and poems with unified rhythm. The genre of poetry lovers' songs is mainly bars. The poet's lover walked on and a famous singer appeared. Wagner's opera The Famous Singer in Nuremberg described the secular artists at that time, and the famous singer in the play had a prototype called hans sachs, which was very famous.
In addition, Italian secular music began to flourish, which originated from the dancer balata and later appeared in the form of polyphony. Landini, an Italian musician during the Art Nouveau Movement, was good at writing this genre. There is also Lauda, a non-ceremonial religious song, which was popular until the Renaissance.
A song named Cantiga appeared in Spain. In the13rd century, more than 400 cantiga were preserved in the manuscripts compiled by the Spanish king.