r/classicalmusic • u/arssenalbro101 • 1d ago
Secular Medieval choral works recommendations
I’m aware of some composers but not many, any suggestions? It could also be from the Renaissance period.
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u/etzpcm 1d ago edited 1d ago
In France - Janequin, de Sermisy, Machaut, Josquin.
They wrote secular songs, chansons, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanson
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u/Complete-Ad9574 1d ago
Janequin wrote some great secular choral works. chant des oiseaux
Still most of these composers fit better in the Renaissance than in that of Medieval. Not that secular music was not out there. Just that it was not written down. The church was paying for most written music. Even in wealthy houses of the nobility, music was still in the hands of street musicians. It was learned by memory.
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u/AidanGLC 17h ago
Here’s a whole album of Janequin’s secular choral works. La Chasse (which mimics a hunt) is my personal favourite.
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u/menschmaschine5 1d ago
Folks, the musical medieval period is generally thought to be ~1000-1430ish. Your Renaissance and baroque suggestions are not within that period.
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u/Theferael_me 1d ago
Es ist ein Ros entsprungen by Praetorius is nice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG7DGZrHK50
I mean it's a carol so it's sort of religious but yeah...
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u/OliverBayonet 1d ago
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u/menschmaschine5 1d ago
Both Renaissance (flecha arguably so, gibbons even on the verge of baroque)
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u/HoxpitalFan_II 1d ago edited 1d ago
Not much outside of Chanson and Madrigals.
“My Bonny lass she smileth” is a classic.
The issue with folk and “pop” music of antiquity is that it just wasn’t preserved the same as sacred text, so much was lost. The vast majority of notated pre Baroque music was explicitly sacred, though there are plenty of madrigals to dig your teeth into.
There’s also Monteverdi and reneissance opera like Orfeo that has choral stuff.
I am fascinated by secular music from that time period because a lot of it is genuinely bizarre harmonically and rhythmically. There are levels of dissonance and atonality that were basically abandoned in the core Baroque period.
It can be very fun to sing if you have a group of singers that know how to sing straight tone and in tune.
In my opinion Monteverdi should be added to the Mount Rushmore of composers, he was incredibly influential and innovative and wrote tons of awesome music.
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u/menschmaschine5 1d ago
That madrigal is solidly Renaissance. Monteverdi is on the cusp of Renaissance an baroque.
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u/No_Quail_6150 1d ago
Many, many of Machaut's motets are "secular" in the upper voices even if their tenor line is borrowed from chant.