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• Secular means being separated

or not associated with the church
or religion, Secular music in the
Middle Ages was influenced by
swaying authority that focused
more on the law or legal system
of the society. Secular music
included love songs that used
musical instruments such as the
harp, drums and bagpipes.

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Secular songs have the following distinguishing traits and
some comparisons with the Gregorian chants:
• Secular songs are written in monophonic texture with
only one melodic line notation just like chants.
• Secular songs employ more topics or themes than
plainsong.
• Usually, secular songs use traditional church modes,
but there are instances when Ionian mode (major
mode) and Aeolian mode (minor mode) are employed.
• Native languages are applied in creating secular songs
unlike the Latin of Gregorian chants.
• Generally secular song are syllabic.
• Unlike the free-flowing rhythm of Gregorian chants,
secular songs are mostly in triple meter. 3
• The performers of secular songs
during the Middle Ages are the
travelling minstrels. In France,
they are called jongleurs; In
Germany, gaukler; and in
England, gleemen. These
minstrels are low of social order,
along with the prostitutes and
slaves, who have no civil rights.
They usually sing songs
composed by others. They
entertain feudal courts with their
acrobatic shows, jugglery, and
trained animals. 4
In France, the Medieval secular songs are written by poet-
musicians troubadours and trouveres. They were educated
and cultured men from the nobility class residing in the feudal
courts. Poetry made by these poet-musicians is divided into
the following categories:
• Planh is lament on the death of a distinguished person.
• Chanson de toile is spinning song.
• Pastourelle is a song in dialogue form between a knight
and a shepherdess.
• Chanson de geste is a narrative poetry with extraordinary
characters.
• Chanso is a poem of love.
• Tenso is a poem in the form of dialogue.
• Sirventes and Enueg are poems that uses sarcasm in
exposing follies
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• Aube is a song of a friend watching over lovers.
TROUBADOURS TROUVERES
• Marcabru of Gascony • Conon de Bethune
• Guiraut Riquier • King Thibaut IV of Navarre
• Giraut de Bornelh • Blondel de Nesle
• Bernart de Ventadorn
• Adam de la Halle
• Bertran de Born

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 Adam de la Halle was also known as
the Adam the Hunchback. The nickname
“the Hunchback” was not a description
that he had a hunch in his back but
perhaps a family name. A trouvere, Adam
de la Halle was born in France probably in
1237. His other nickname, Adam of arras,
suggests that he came from Arras, France.
Cistercian abbey of Vaucelles is where he
studied theology, grammar, and music.
He composed the most famous of his
works: Le Jeu de Robin et Marion, and Le
Jeu de la Feuillee.
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• The songs of French poet-musicians are the
standards followed poet composers in Germany.
Minnesang was a tradition of lyric and song writing
in Germany that flourised in the twelfth century.
These German poet-composers are minnesingers
and meistersingers.
• Minnesingers literally means “singers of love
song.’’ They produce minnelied, literature of
German poetry and song. The main minnesingers
were Wislav von Rugen, Heinrich von Meisse,
Walther von der Vogelweide, Heinrich von
Morungen, and Neidart von Reuental.
• The meistersingers or master singers are the
successors to the minnesingers. They create their
musical called meistergesang. Some of the 9
meistersingers were Adam Puschmann, Kondrad
Nachtigall, and Hans Sacs.
 Latin secular songs called
conductus are created by wandering
students of the Medieval period.
Different topics such as drinking, love,
political satire, and the vulgar topics
that deal with sex humorously are
used in creating such secular songs.
An example of this conductus is The
Song of the Sibyl.The song was
declared as a Masterpiece of the Oral
and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
by UNESCO in November 2010.
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