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Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as a ritual. Religious songs have been described as a source of strength, as well as a means of easing pain ...
Music in Medieval England, from the end of Roman rule in the fifth century until the Reformation in the sixteenth century, was a diverse and rich culture, including sacred and secular music and ranging from the popular to the elite. The sources of English secular music are much more limited than for ecclesiastical music.
Medieval music encompasses the sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, [1] from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the first and longest major era of Western classical music and is followed by the Renaissance music; the two eras comprise what musicologists generally term as early music, preceding the common practice period.
Surviving sources indicate that there was a rich and varied musical soundscape in medieval Britain. [1] Historians usually distinguish between ecclesiastical music, designed for use in church, or in religious ceremonies, and secular music for use from royal and baronial courts, celebrations of some religious events, to public and private entertainments of the people. [1]
In the strictest sense, English folk music has existed since the arrival of the Anglo-Saxon people in Britain after 400 AD. The Venerable Bede's story of the cattleman and later ecclesiastical musician Cædmon indicates that in the early medieval period it was normal at feasts to pass around the harp and sing 'vain and idle songs'. [1]
The sources of Christian music are the Jewish tradition of psalm singing, and the music of Hellenistic late antiquity. Paul the Apostle mentions psalms, hymns and sacred songs (Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16) but only in connection with the Christian behavior of the Christians, not with regard to worship music.
The Church of England's Latin liturgy was replaced with scripture and prayers in English; the Great Bible in English was authorised in 1539 and Thomas Cranmer introduced the Book of Common Prayer in 1549. [14] [15] These changes were reflected in church music, and works that had previously been sung in Latin began to be replaced with new music ...
The songs they played and sang were traditional favourites, "a far cry from the sophisticated and refined music of the Elizabethan court." Theater became increasingly popular when music was added. Location on stage meant everything to a theatre musician. The location gave certain effects to the sound produced.