Sacred Music Research Paper

There are many contrasts in the art and music of the Renaissance and the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was a time of great suffering, including famine and widespread disease, such as the Black Death. The Renaissance was revival of art, learning, and literature. The people’s attitude and fervor for religion had tremendous effects on the art and music produced. The Middle Ages also referred to as “The Age of Faith” was God centered and gave power to the church who dictated how the art should appear, and music should sound. The Renaissance was more concerned with individuals and their talents, the church was not the centralized power, the art exhibited influences from ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

Music was a very important asset to the peoples’ society. According to historians, the medieval period was the beginning of the unbroken tradition of notated Western music. Music was the one thing that all classes could enjoy, royals, nobles, women, slaves, anyone could listen to music being played out on the streets. Music was used in cathedrals and abbeys, dances and was even part of poetry. Most of the poetry from the Medieval Period known today were sung in front of crowds during events and festivals. Vocal music was very important in churches and worshipping. Back in the medieval time, there weren’t any radios, so all of the music was played live. Festivals, celebrations and the holiday season were very popular times for music. During an important holiday, Mayday, the dancers danced to high

From the beginning of times, music has played an important role in everyone’s life. At first, it started with drum-based and percussion instruments made out of what was available as rocks and sticks. Our ancestors proved that human beings have an innate need of music. Nowadays, no one teaches a baby to follow the beat of a song, he just naturally lets his body get involved with the rhythm. Since the prehistoric era to Christian times, several forms of music have developed leaving a trail to new genres of music. For Christianity, hymns and plainchants were the first forms of music considered as a worship to God. As time passed by, Christian music has evolved giving way to new and fresh sounds.

African American religious music is the foundation of all contemporary forms of so called “black music.” African American religious music has been a fundamental part of the black experience in this country. This common staple of the African American experience can be traced back to the cruel system of slavery. It then evolved into what we refer to today as gospel music. The goal of this paper is to answer three main questions. What are the origins of African American religious music? How did this musical expression develop into a secular form of music? What is the future of African American religious music? These questions will be answered through factual research of African American traditions, artists, and various other sources.

The Renaissance period, from 1450 A.D. to 1600 A.D., comprised of two main types of music, sacred and secular. In comparison with the Medieval period, where music was usually reserved for church purposes, the Renaissance period allowed music to expand beyond the church into upper aristocratic society. Sacred music included motets and mass, while secular included madrigals, instrumental and dance music. Motets initially came about during the late Medieval period, but grew sizably during the Renaissance,

Which of the following was NOT an activity associated with secular music in medieval society? Devotional services

African American religious music is the foundation of all contemporary forms of so called "black music." African American religious music has been a fundamental part of the black experience in this country. This common staple of the African American experience can be traced back to the cruel system of slavery. It then evolved into what we refer to today as gospel music. The goal of this paper is to answer three main questions. What are the origins of African American religious music? How did this musical expression develop into a secular form of music? What is the future of African American religious music? These questions will be answered through factual research of African American traditions, artists, and various other sources.

From 1400 to 1600 A.D., the Renaissance was a period of a rediscovery of Greek ideals for musicians to explore possibilities of their art. It was during this time that ideas were able to better circulate, because individualism began to increase, and the printing of music helped to preserve and distribute musical ideas (History). Also, as opposed to the medieval period, the Renaissance began to expand upon the type of sound that was created by adding the voices of women in choirs, as well as expanding instrumental music. The texture of music also began to change, with homophonic and polyphonic compositions. Sacred vocal polyphony was used rather than monophony in the form of masses and motets, while secular pieces also included madrigals and songs. Instrumental pieces usually were short during this time, and were for dancing (History).

Music has always played a vigorous role in religious celebrations throughout history. Religions across the world have shaped our nations through music. There are various types of music in diverse religions across the world. Music is used to worship in many religions and it is spread across communities of the same religion. Music helps spread the gospel that is being preached.

​ Life in the Middle Ages revolved around the Church, which was the Roman Catholic. So, we can imagine early music was pretty much from church. Every morning at 9 o’clock was Mass, a significant ceremony done to commemorate the Last Supper. At this church service, the music was the Gregorian Chant. The Gregorian chant is performed in the Latin language, unison voice and accompanied by no instruments which was believed that the text of the song which carried the divine message from God was more important. The music was just to help you get to a spiritual place (Wright, 4-1a).

During the middle Ages, the Catholic Church was the sole contributor to musical development. The music of the early church was monophonic, and had nonmetric melodies set in one of the church modes, or scales. The rise or development of polyphony came about during the Renaissance period; the Council of Trent wanted polyphonic church music to be created and Palestrina composed the Pope

Gospel music emerged during the twentieth century following the Great Migration of African American towards the north. Influenced by blues, gospel music is a religious genre. The use of gospel music is typically during religious practices, ceremonial purposes, pleasure and entertainment. During the Great Migration, two denominations followed by African Americans, Black Baptist and Methodists.

Music provided rhythm for chores, such as working in the field, and it was also used to celebrate important events as well as

Music not only has issues in discrimination and racism but also in religion. In an article by Lake State Publications (2002), the transformation of music started during the early Christian era. It said that only Gregorian Chants were recognized in sacred ceremonies. However, secular and non-religious songs became rampant when the church had an unlikely encounter with the French Nobles called troubadours causing them to write the very first secular songs and ask the ministers to sing them to the public. Secular music continued to gain importance to the masses and vocal music became more important

Beginning at around 476 AD, the medieval era is mostly related to the church as most music from this era is sacred. The style of this era, the Gregorian chant is monophonic only comprising of the plainchant (or the single- line melodies of early church music) in texture only comprising of the plainchant (or the single- line melodies of early church music). It is not until the arrival of the French composers Léonin and Pèrotin in 1100 and 1200 respectively that polyphony would be incorporated into musical worship with the “decoration” of Gregorian chant with one or more simultaneous musical lines, thus transitioning from Gregorian chant to Organum. During this era, most of the music and roles for musicians belonged to the church except for the troubadours of southern France and the trouvères of northern France. The music was responsorial between the mass and the father during church and was