Early Latin secular song.

A repertory which, largely because of the nature of poetic

transmission in the Middle Ages, comprises much of the earliest
surviving European secular song with music. In contrast to the
many collections of liturgical chant and Latin sacred songs
surviving from the millennium before about 1300, Latin secular
songs with music are relatively rare; but secular poems that were
probably sung are more plentiful. Of the songs preserved with
music, very few notated before the 12th century can be transcribed
with any certainty.
1. Late antiquity.
2. The Carolingian renaissance.
3. The goliard period up to c1300.
GORDON A. ANDERSON/THOMAS B. PAYNE
Early Latin secular song
1. Late antiquity.
From the time of the late Caesars solo song, dance and music for
cithara, aulos and lyre accompanied tragedies and pantomimes;
other references indicate that the populace would sing and dance
in the forum, and many old musical traditions prevailed throughout
the first six centuries of the Christian era, though modified by
barbarian invasions and rapidly changing political and social
conditions. Christian teaching gradually prevailed over this pagan
background, so that by late antiquity the early Church Fathers had
considerably curtailed the use of pagan songs, at least among
Christians. A new tradition began, issuing from the lyrical hymns
and secular songs of writers such as Hilary of Poitiers (c315
c367), Ambrose (c34097), Prudentius (348410), Sidonius
Apollinaris (c43079) and Venantius Fortunatus (540c600). They
used simple metres in strophic form, and gradually introduced
rhymed couplets, as the quantitative metrical scansion of classical
Latin was superseded by a more popular rhymed rhythmic
structure based on the number of syllables per line. Other Latin
secular songs are found in the mixed proseverse forms of

Martianus Capella (early 5th century) and Boethius (c480c524).

Even by the 8th century the cloister schools had not completely
renounced secular song, and learned songs as well as those of a
popular nature were studied despite synodal admonitions against
base, over-exuberant, obscene and sacrilegious songs. From this
whole body of secular songs, stretching over some 500 years, no
melody has been preserved.
Early Latin secular song
2. The Carolingian renaissance.
The 8th and 9th centuries produced many sung Latin poems, not
only sacred, but also epics, odes, laments, satires, eulogies, and
lyric and didactic verses; yet a predilection for classical studies
restricted the use of rhymed rhythmic verse, and might even have
stifled it altogether had not a close association with music in the
following two centuries given it new vigour. Meanwhile poeticomusical activity continued in the monasteries of southern France
and northern Italy, an important outcome of which was the
development of refrain forms and the addition of partly diastematic
neumes to the texts in the manuscripts. The revival of classical
studies resulted in a number of contemporary musical settings of
ancient authors. Neumes survive for six Horace odes (i, 1, 3, 33;
iii, 9, 13; iv, 11); two extracts from Virgils Aeneid(ii, 281ff; iv, 651ff);
three extracts from StatiussThebais (v, 608ff; xii, 325ff, 336ff);
Juvenals Satires (viii, 78ff); Trajans Ut belli sonuere; Priscians Ad
Boree partes; Scande celi from Martianus Capellas De nuptiis
Philologiae et Mercurii(ii); and five poems from Boethiuss De
consolatione Philosophiae (metrum i, 1, 5; ii, 5; iii, 8; iv, 7). It is
possible that these simple settings were used for didactic
purposes, or to teach rhetoric or quantitative scansion: one of the
two tunes (Horace, Ode, iv, 11) that can reliably be transcribed is
set to the version of the hymn tune Ut queant laxis, which was
later adapted to didactic use by Guido of Arezzo, and the other
(Boethius,metrum iv, 7) occurs in the Dialogus de musica formerly
attributed to Odo of Cluny (ex.1).

Several laments and eulogies from the 9th century are transmitted
in partially heighted neumes in a manuscript probably from
Toulouse or Narbonne (F-Pn lat.1154). Subjects treated are the
death of Duke Eric of Frioul (799) by Paulinus of Aquileia, laments
for Charlemagne (814) and his son Hugh of St Quentin (844), the
Battle of Fontenoy (841) and the exile of Gottschalk (c840).
Although they cannot be transcribed melodically, the neumes
indicate simple melodies with occasional small melismas of two to
four notes; most of the poems appear to be set strophically, and
two of them have refrains. Scattered remains of Latin secular
songs with unheighted neumes are extant from many areas of
Europe. These include laments from Spain (7th10th centuries); a
lament on the destruction of the monastery of Glonnes, near
Saumur (850); festival songs and greetings, for Odos coronation
(888), Charles the Thick (883) and Konrad I (912); a song for the
watchers of the walls of Modena (after 892); a song by Leo of
Vercelli praising Gregory V and Otto III (998); and a song by Azelin
of Reims praising Henry III (c1050). Certain songs were
designated by the term Modus, presumably indicating a preexisting melody: Modus florum (flowers), Modus liebinc (love),
Modus qui et Carelmanninc (Charlemagne). Unfortunately these
are all without music; but one has the first of its six sequence-like
versicles set with neumes: the Modus Ottinc, in honour of Otto III
(9831002). Another interesting specimen is the Galluslied,
written in Old German by Radpert at St Gallen towards the end of
the 9th century; in the 11th century Ekkehard IV translated it into
Latin lest such a sweet melody be lost from memory; the neumes
in MS 353 in the Stiftsbibliothek, St Gallen suggest a song with a
lai-like structure of varied phrase repetition.
In a few secular Latin songs the use of an alphabetical notation
allows accurate melodic transcription. The best known of these is
the 10th-century song O Roma nobilis and its homoerotic
contrafactum (O admirabile Veneris ydolum), a simple strophic,
syllabic tune of a non-ecclesiastical character. Of two 10th-century

songs to celebrate the nightingale, one is notated in unheighted

neumes (Sum noctis socia), whereas the other, Aurea personet
lyra (ed. in Gillingham, 1993), is in alphabetical notation; its form
and melody are characteristic of the sequence and it contains
extensive internal repetition. A final group of these songs consists
of a lament by Guido of Luxeuil Hactenus tetendi liram, a short
didactic poem Hic poterit solers ignotum discere cantum (a
following eclogue on music and a song of the nine Muses
unfortunately lack notation) and Guidos famous
distinction Musicorum et cantorum magna est distantia.
A didactic purpose lies behind a number of melodies that
accompany 10th- to 13th-century computus verses, which link the
liberal arts studies of music and astronomy within the doctrine of
the music of the spheres. Some of their melodies are in lined
notation, and show a recitation style with some melodic emphasis
at the cadences. A few are strophic, though generally they are
through-composed, and some of them are of great length. The
opening of a 12th-century German example (ex.2) illustrates the
style.

Early Latin secular song

3. The goliard period up to c1300.
A last great flowering of Latin secular song follows the period of
Carolingian court songs. It issues principally from two interrelated
sources: the monasteries of southern France and the socalled Goliards or wandering scholars (the term has often been
associated with secular Latin poets of the later Middle Ages, but is
probably inaccurate). On the one hand, there occurred
unparalleled activity in creating new paraliturgical and sacred
musical works tropes, sequences, conductus and motets; on the
other hand, songs of a similar kind, but with secular texts love-

lyrics, spring songs, moral, satirical and drinking-songs were

written and preserved in great numbers, quite often in the same
sources that transmit sacred texts. From the extant sources it is
possible to trace the development of these forms from the 10th
century to their highest point in the 12th century and through their
gradual decline during the 13th century. The earlier period
established the principle of rhymed, rhythmic and strophic verse
meant for singing. During the ensuing development poetic rhyme,
verse structure and musical balance coalesced into free forms that
suggest increased attention to detail and formal design. Besides
sacred music, two further developments strongly influenced
secular Latin songs: the vernacular chansons of the troubadours
and trouvres, and the great popularity of Marian settings, the
texts of which varied from poetic fancy rich in imagery and Old
Testament exegesis to the most facile stringing together of Our
Ladys attributes. The music tended to be less learned and of a
popular cast. Owing to the close interaction of these various
elements it is often very difficult to separate secular from sacred;
manuscripts usually mix poems of both types, and the common
use of contrafactum texts tends to obscure the distinction even
further. Whereas vernacular song tended to become localized, the
Latin tradition became truly international, and many songs are
found separately transmitted in manuscripts from all over Europe.
A change of poetic-musical emphasis can be observed in several
transitional 10th-century works which, though belonging to the
older Carolingian tradition, point decisively to a new emphasis on
lyricism in the manner of the vernacular repertories. Ex.3(late 10th
century) illustrates this trend and emphasizes the close connection
between Latin and vernacular traditions, which in this dawn song
with Latin stanza and Provenal refrain also suggests a clerical
origin.

Both texts and music of the goliard songs display a wide range of
expression and musical forms. The poetry is often characterized
by verbal charm and simplicity though framed in sophisticated
verse forms enhanced by an interplay of rhymes and rhythms,
while intricate word play is common. The more scurrilous songs
display a penetrating understanding of the social and religious
structures of the times, so that a carefree and abandoned attitude,
often supremely witty and apposite, attacks by implication all that
established tradition held to be sacrosanct, while directing
trenchant satire and bitter polemic against official abuses.
Charming and graceful lyrics that evoke tender or erotic feelings
are also common. Similarly, the melodies range from simple
strophic settings to highly complex and melismatic throughcomposed forms; the latter style is illustrated by the opening of a
late 12th-century planctus from the Notre Dame conductus
repertory (ex.4).

Many fragmentary sources and several large collections of songs

are extant from the final period; taken together they present a
remarkable and diverse picture of late Latin secular song. The
main features of the repertory may be traced by reference to the
songs in the larger collections.The earliest of these is an 11thcentury manuscript known as The Cambridge Songs (GBCuGg.5.35; for illustration see Sources, MS, III, 2, fig.20), which
contains some pieces from previous centuries (such as O
admirabile Veneris ydolum and the Modus Ottinc already referred
to) and bridges the late Carolingian period and the newer trends of
the goliard poets. It is significant that many of the pieces are in
sequence form, and that this is the first extensive collection of
secular texts that are unequivocally connected with musical
settings. Also, these and the following secular Latin songs are
products of a learned society and, though influenced by folklore

and Latin colloquialisms, they would not have been understood by

the laity. A most diverse collection of sacred music, proses, tropes
and conductus, is contained in the four principal St Martial
manuscripts (see St Martial); among them are some 14 wholly
secular works, and others that belong to that indeterminate
position between sacred and secular. They are mostly strophic in
form, and show the influence of vernacular and sequence forms by
frequently having a formal repeat of the first phrase or versicle,
while many continue with still further repetition. Melismas and
melodic ornaments are also commonly used, indicating a
movement away from simpler syllabic styles for Latin secular
songs, so that beauty of melodic form now gains emphasis. Two
further collections of secular songs mixed with sacred, from a
slightly later period, continue the tradition there established: the 28
Arundel Songs (GB-Lbl Arundel 384; 14th century) lack notation,
and only a few of their melodies can be recovered from
concordances; in a second Cambridge collection (GB-Cu Ff.i.17;
13th century) of 35 songs, all have staves, but some lack notation.
Here we enter the mature period of songs with rhymed rhythmic
Latin verse.
The largest and most important collection of goliard songs is
the Carmina Burana (D-Mbs Clm 4660) probably from southern
Germany. Some 46 of its poems are provided with unheighted
neumes, and one must look to concordances to decipher the
melodies, about 30 of which have been recovered with some
certainty. Closely related to this tradition are many
LatinConductus, lyric songs and rondeaux of the Notre Dame
sources, and much of the Latin music in the Roman de Fauvel;
written in excellent notation, they form the last great repository of
medieval moral and secular songs. It would appear that with these
collections the centre of activity shifted to Paris, that with the
establishment of the university in the early 13th century the
goliard fraternity was replaced by resident teachers and scholars,
and that from this point secular Latin song quickly waned.
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For more specific bibliography see Carmina Burana and Goliards.