Culture of Urcea: Difference between revisions

The culture of Urcea is influenced a great deal by the cultural legacy of the Latinic people and Great Levantia, which existed for nearly a millennia ending in 503 AD. During that time, Great Levantia became the primary cultural, military, and political force in Levantia.

Sarpedon and Levantia's increasing interaction in the twentieth century - which culminated with the Great War - left a considerable impact on Urcean culture, especially with regards to music. Sarpedonian musical traditions were first heard by most Urceans as they fought Caphiria in or around Veltorina, exposing them to long-extant musical traditions.

In recent years, the culture of Urcea has been substantially influenced by cultural interaction with the peoples of Western Crona via Urcea's involvement in The Deluge. In particular, the growing prevalence of "crossover culture" in New Yustona has introduced new types of food and music into mainstream Urcean culture, though many social scholars have noted that it will take several decades before elements of Cronite culture are fully embedded in everyday Urcean life. Most prevalent by the late 2030s was the introduction of certain Cronite words as slang in everyday Urcean language.

==Social class==

Urcea is a relatively class-mobile country without rigid social distinction, though the most common observation is that there are three "soft" classes; a lower or working class, a middle class, and an upper class. Historically, Urcea employed a distinct class system based on property requirements, inheritance, and heredity, and, during the high medieval period, serfdom. Much of the social structure was disrupted during the Saint's War and Great Confessional War, leading to a weakening of the class system and end of serfdom following the latter conflict. Formal class distinctions remained on the books until the end of the Red Interregnum, when they were functionally abolished by King Patrick III during the restoration.

Since the restoration, informal class structures have taken root within Urcean society primarily based on the amount of property and income held by individuals; contemporary Urcean class has no basis in law and Urcea enjoys high degrees of socioeconomic mobility. According to 2035's Gini Index, Urcea placed with 28.6%, indicating the country experiences fairly low levels of income inequality.

According to multiple studies conducted in the 2030s, the vast majority of people in Urcea belonged to the middle class, ranging from 52.5% to 68% depending on the definition.

There are also notable families in the "upper class" without considerable wealth but otherwise command prestige and influence by merit of their position. These are a handful of families at the heads of the Estates of Urcea or otherwise higher up within their particular estates. This group of people are commonly referred to by the nickname "not-timates", and according to studies conducted in 2034 these individuals are disproportionately represented within all levels of the Government of Urcea due to their popular middle class appeal in addition to their name recognition.

==Heritage==

===Ethnicity===

The issue of Urcean cultural identity, sometimes referred to as "Urceanity", has long been a topic of discussion, especially among academics. Popular opinion, along with academic consensus, has established a few basic criteria of who Urceans are, especially including a joint Latinic and Gaelic ethnic and linguistic heritage. Many Urceans view neither Adonerum nor Gallawa as their direct ancestral state, and many national historians view Great Levantia with skepticism, although the Royal Institution for National Heritage along with the majority of scholars at the Collegium Scientificum argue that the hybridization of Celtic and Latinic cultures began under the auspices of Great Levantia or earlier, and that the so-called "Latin invasion" of Adonerum and Great Levantia involved a great deal of cultural mixing.

====Caenish people====

Caenish people are the descendants of Gothic people who migrated out of Gothica to the southern parts of Levantia in the late 3rd and early 4th century. Following initial efforts by Great Levantia to defeat the Caens, they were eventually settled as Foederati in modern Canaery. After further raids and wars, the Caens eventually settled in and rapidly intermarried with the local Gaels and Latins, forming a unique culture similar to that of the Urcean people by the 800s. Incorporated into the Holy Levantine Empire, Caens became increasingly exposed to the culture of other South Levantines such as the Urceans, increasing cultural exchange and integration. The Urcean Crown received Canaery in 1144, though it would remain separately governed for centuries. Despite this, the Caenish nobility increasingly adopted Urcean styles and customs, strengthening the cultural ties between the two peoples. By the time Canaery was fully integrated into the Apostolic Kingdom, there was very little resistance as the Caens and Urceans saw each other as brothers rather than that of conquered and conqueror.

====Garán people====

Garán people, sometimes also called "Carolines", are the people native to the lands of the Grand Duchy of Carolina, now split into the provinces of Lower Carolina and Upper Carolina. During the collapse of Great Levantia, many Gaelic people were pushed south into modern Carolina by advancing Gothic people, overwhelming local Levantine authorities and creating a large demographic shift away from previously Latinic majorities, especially in the cities. Despite their common heritage, the Gaels in Carolina resisted the advance of Gallawa until they were overwhelmed and added to the new Levantine Empire in the 8th century. Carolina became the center of the Southern Kingdom of the Levantines, when it earned its name. The establishment of the Kingdom saw an influx of foreigners from throughout Levantia as the territory was divided into fiefs, creating a large landowning class primarily of Latinic and Gothic people among others. The noble classes eventually integrated with the mostly-Gaelic peasant class, evolving into the unique Garán culture. The Garáns spoke varieties of Lebhan and Julian Ænglish until their incorporation into Urcea after the War of the Caroline Succession. Many Urcean people relocated to Carolina before and after the war, creating yet another blend of traditions and cultures. The similarity between the Garáns and Urceans lead to a kinship that transcended the loss of the territory during the Second Caroline War, and many locals welcomed the final annexation of the territory into Urcea during the Third Caroline War. Unlike many of the other post-Great Levantine cultures in south Levantia, the Garán retained a mostly Gaelic identity rather than that of a mixed identity or a Latinic identity, despite their common Latinic heritage.

====Gassavelian people====

Gassavelian people are descendants of Uzdehzani people, Nestorian refugees who fled from Audonia during the rise of Islam and the Oduniyyad Caliphate. The relatively small group of refugees founded the Principality of Hištanšahr, establishing themselves as the small ruling caste over the indigenous majority, a mix of primarily Gaelic and Istroyan people with a few Latinic settlements to the northwest. The Kingdom of Gassavelia succeeded Hištanšahr, incorporating the area into the Holy Levantine Empire and breaking down the boundaries of intermarriage between the Uzdehzani and the local gentry and peasant classes. The mixing of these three primary cultures established the Gassavelian people, who, like the Caenish people and Carán people, are considered by some to be related to the Urcean people with a unique Audonian influence. The Uzdehzani people gradually faded away by the sheer weight of demographics, but their influence - and, in some cases, family lineage - remain to this day, giving the Gassavelian people a distinct culture from their neighbors. Urcea acquired the western half of the Kingdom of Gassavelia following the Great Confessional War in the 1500s. Given some autonomy behind local Dukes, the Gassavelians nonetheless were partly integrated into Urcean culture, adopting the Julian Ænglish language of their new Kingdom and abjuring their previous Protestant faith to embrace Catholicism. Gassavelians have held positions of prominence in Urcean society since, and Gassavelia is one of the largest subdivisions of Urcea.

====Ænglish people====

Like the Caenish people, the Ænglish people were descended from [[Gothic people]] who settled on the northern mountain region of [[Great Levantia]] in a region approximately including northeastern Urcea and the southeastern portion of the United Kingdom. The Ænglish people are relatively closely related to the people of the United Kingdom. Loosely recognized as foederati but mostly keeping to themselves, there was no unified Ænglish realm but rather a network of petty kings recognizing the loose suzerainty of a high king. The Ænglish embraced the Christian religion of Great Levantia in the late 5th century. The Ænglish were conquered by King Conchobar of [[Gallawa]] in the mid 8th century and were organized as the Ænglish March in the Holy Levantine Empire, a name that would remain associated with the territory even as it was elevated to a Kingdom in 1278. Many of the Ænglish in northern Angla embraced Protestantism while the southern minority - those in closer proximity to Urcea and Carolina - retained their Catholic heritage. The Protestant-dominated Kingdom of Angla was destroyed in the Nordmontaine War, and several decades later part of the territory was assigned to Urcea at the end of the Great Confessional War. Like Gassavelia, the Ænglish were governed with some autonomy by local Dukes until the territory was reorganized in the 19th century into Ænglasmarch. Unlike most of the other minority groups, the Ænglish do not see themselves as part of the Urcean people but nonetheless view themselves as a distinct culture of Urcean Ænglish, who pride themselves on their Catholic faith and history of military service to Urcea. Also unlike the other minority groups, the Ænglish integrated into Urcean society with somewhat ease due to the common language and religion they share, though the Ænglish of Ænglasmarch has differences from Julian Ænglish.

====Derian people====

Derians, the native people of the Deric States, historically integrated into the identity of the Urcean people as Urcea expanded eastward into lands traditionally part of the Kingdom of Dericania. Despite this, the Derian identity survived in parts of Eastvale and Burgundie. Surveys have suggested that anywhere from 10% to 25% of people in Eastvale view themselves as Derians. The majority of Derians in Urcea, however, are immigrants from Dericania from the last century; many Derians resettled in Urcea as refugees during the Second Fratricide. The Derian identity of the descendants of these refugees has been waning in the last few decades, and the number of Urceans identifying themselves as Derian people as opposed to Urcean people has declined precipitously since 1980.

====Cronin people====

Cronin people are descendants of Urceans or other Levantines living in [[Crona]], or ethnically native Cronites adhering to Levantine religion and culture in Crona. Most Cronin families in Urcea originated in [[New Yustona]] and immigrated to Urcea since its foundation in the 19th century, but the Cronin population in metropolitan Urcea and its overseas possession has been increasing dramatically since The Deluge and the exposure of Levantine culture to an increasing number of native peoples of Crona.

==Education==

Education in Urcea is conducted according to the principles of the Catholic faith as well as classical education. The stated goal of Urcean education according to the Collegium Scientificum is to mold students into more complete people and able citizen-subjects" by "freeing (them) from their basest desires and creating them as individuals capable of self-rule in the most direct sense" and to create a population "free to pursue the intellectual and religious pursuits of their longing in addition to being capable in their duties to state in life" as well as a people "capable of self-governance by means of self-rule". Urcea uses a K-12 system divided into two portions which focus on the seven liberal arts.

The "First Sextet", a period of education which can be roughly equated with "primary education" in other countries, is the first six grade levels (and kindergarten), focused primarily on teaching the trivium. The First Sextet includes the years K-6.

The "Second Sextet", a period of education which can be roughly equated with "secondary education" in other countries, is the second six grade levels, focused primarily on teaching the quadrivium. The Second Sextet includes the years 7-12.

==Attitudes and worldview==

===Social ideals===

===Politics and statecraft===

====Role of government====

Urcea is well known for its relatively expansive understanding of the role of government in public morality, but this application of moral laws derives from the Urceans' understanding of the relationship between man and the state. As the organic outgrowth of society, there is usually widespread support for implementation of moral laws within society. Consequently, things such as adultery, sodomy, and abortion are not only illegal but punishable by severe fines. Most Urceans throughout the political spectrum either support moral codes or at least have no opinion on them besides the far-left part of the spectrum represented by the Social Labor Party which actively calls for the creation of something resembling a free marketplace of subjective morals and social ideals.

====League of Nations====

====Foreign cultures and nations====

As a consequence of their joint heritage, most Urceans view most Occidental nations as their cousins. In particular, Urceans view those from Dericania and especially Burgundie and Caphiria, despite the historical geopolitical animosity between the two countries, as "national cousins". Non-Levantines are often viewed with attitudes characterized as either "paternalistic" or "chauvinist" depending upon the point of view of the author.

==Kinship==

The family in Urcea is usually group consisting of a married pair of a woman and a man (adults) and their children (one or more). These so-called "Nuclear families" typically center on the married couple; the nuclear family may have any number of children. The familial definition in Urcea includes blood children, adopted children and step-children in certain circumstances; for tax purposes, the reason for the annulment of the previous marriage or if it was a separation via death is considered. The family structure of a married couple and their children were present since the 6th century, influenced by church and Royal governments. Outside of the nuclear families exist bonds with extended family, including those within the Estate system. Family is considered the fundamental cornerstone and "basic unit" of society.

In the Ionian Highlands, a similar but separate loose clan structure is in use. While Highlanders live as nuclear families, it is often in close proximity to others, and typically first and second cousins are raised together. These smaller clan units retain loyalty to their kinsmen even outside of the direct mini-clan unit, and even in the 21st century a single, distantly-related clan can make up a plurality of dioceses within the Highlands. Accordingly, consanguinity laws (within four degrees) are strictly enforced. Highland clans are known to form local sports teams and leagues with other clans, and though ancient rivalries have mostly subsided, sometimes these matches can result in violence by hooliganism.

Urcean families with a lineage in the country typically older than fifty years are part of the Estates of Urcea, a system of kinship ties descending, supposedly, from the period of Great Levantia. These Estates are descended from 25 Latinic families and their wards from Urceopolis and its hinterlands as well as 25 Gaelic families integrated during the Great Levantine period. In antiquity, this served a function similar to the Caphirian tribal system, where groups of individuals were divided for voting purposes. From the 50 estates is derived the Medieval landed gentry class of Urcea, and each estate has a so-called "great house" at its head, with the head of household holding the title of "Guardian (Lebhan: Custóir) of the Estate". Legal estate distinctions were largely abolished by the 18th century, but to this day one's Estate is an important source of identity.

==Cuisine==

A family-style fried chicken dinner, consumed traditionally on the King's birthday but popular throughout the year, is traditionally consumed with potato-based sides. "Callangrain", a spicy rice-and-sausage side shown to the left, has become increasingly popular for holiday and family consumption.

Mainstream Urcean cuisine is similar to that in other Levantine countries. Wheat is the primary cereal grain with about three-quarters of grain products made of wheat flour and many dishes use indigenous ingredients, such as turkey, venison, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and maple syrup which were consumed by Gaels as well as early Latinic settlers. In addition to wheat, rice and pecans are the minor staple crops of Urcea, with pecans serving as both a delicacy and as a major cooking ingredient.

There are several traditional types of food descending primarily from Gaelic customs shared with most other southern Levantine countries. Perhaps most famous of these is corned beef, which is traditionally eaten exclusively on holidays, but also many lamb-based recipes including Gaelstew.

Unique to Urcea is the Coque cuisine tradition, a style of cooking which emphasizes slow cooked meats which are traditionally smoked. Likely introduced from Audonia in the 1500s, the Coque style was quickly adopted in the rural parts of Urcea and became associated with traditional lifestyles during the 19th century. Significant regional differences emerged historically between types of Coque, especially with regards to treating meat with either sauce, as is the tradition in southern Urcea and thought to be inherited from Caenish cuisine, or with dry rubs as is more common in the north and especially the Ionian Highlands.

Since the 2020s and the beginning of The Deluge, cuisine from Urcean territories and protectorates in Crona have entered into popular consumption within Urcea. These cuisine styles are referred to as "colonial cuisine".

Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in Urcea by a significant margin, and per capita consumption exceeds more than fifty liters annually. The most popular kind of beers are goldwheats and pilsners. Many of the most popular brands of beer are domestic with hops and wheat grown in the province of Goldvale and brewed elsewhere. Wine, especially wines from southern Urcea and particularly from Canaery, is growing in popularity, and the industry is a major source of economic growth in Canaery and parts of Gassavelia.

==Religion==

The Catholic Church's influence in Urcea is well known around the world, and it has been said that unifying element of the Urcean national culture - which includes many local cultural variation - is the Catholic faith. The Church is also responsible for organizing local governments in the Provinces through the Bishops and Dioceses. The Catholic Church is also headquartered in Urceopolis, and the Holy See resides there, making the Urcean capital the center point through which all Catholics share communion. Additionally, the Church, in the person of the Pope, holds the independent Papal State within Urceopolis. As such, the Pope serves as a key unofficial adviser to the Apostolic King of Urcea due to the close proximity of St. Peter's Basilica to the Julian Palace. Several Popes have come from the ranks of the Urcean Bishops over the ages, particularly considering the roots of the Papacy in Great Levantia and Urceopolis, though prelates from many other places in Levantia have sat in the Chair of St. Peter as well.

==Arts and Literature==

Urcea has a very broad and diverse architectural style, most of which cannot be simply classified by period. A major reason for this is the stark regional differences that occur depending upon where one studies, due to the consolidation of various polities into Urcea since its formation. This has created a highly diverse and eclectic range in architectural designs. Though not as widely spread, there is a strong association with the Urcean identity and the Rococo style of architecture due to the opulence of Urcea during the late 17th century and early 18th century, best expressed perahaps in both Electorsbourg and The Hermitage. The most popular and commonly used kind of architecture, due to rapid growth during the early industrial revolution in the mid-18th century, is the so-called Caroline architecture and associated pseudo-Caroline and neo-Caroline designs. An offshoot of Neoclassical architecture, Caroline architecture typically uses plain surfaces with attenuated detail, usually isolated in panels, tablets, and friezes. It also had a flatter, smoother façade and rarely used pilasters. It was most influenced by the interpretation of the ancient architecture of Great Levantia, which was growing in popularity in the mid-18th century due to increasing interest in archaeology.

Despite its relative diversity, Urcea is known for its considerable architectural achievements, such as the construction of arches, domes and similar structures during ancient Great Levantia, achievements in the Renaissance architectural movement in the late-14th to 16th centuries, and being the homeland of Palladianism, a style of construction which inspired movements such as that of Neoclassical architecture, and influenced the designs which noblemen built their country houses all over the world. Electorsbourg near Cana and The Praetorium in Urceopolis is among one of the better known buildings in this style. Urcean architecture has also widely influenced the architecture of the world. Additionally, the supposed "Urceanate architecture", popular abroad since the 19th century and the cultural dominance of Urcea during the Aedanicad, was used to describe foreign architecture which was built in a Urcean style, especially modeled on Gothic architecture. Perhaps the most prominent building of the so-called Urceanate style is the Julian Palace, which inspired many other public buildings around the world.

Theater in Urcea is based in the Occidental tradition and did not take on a unique dramatic identity until the 17th century, coinciding with the rise of Urcean theater music. Its history prior to the 17th century is somewhat obscured in the historical record, though most histories have included theater as a "minor" form of entertainment. Pre-17th century Urcean theater is typically presented as having represented many of the classics of antiquity, though considerable scholarly evidence in the 2020s suggested that the classic theatrical presentations of Great Levantia survived in greatly modified and adapted forms. Consequently, many early Urcean theatrical productions depicting events of the Great Interregnum and other events are now considered to be ahistorical, adapting earlier stories by placing them within the context of later historical events.

The history of Urcean visual art is part of Levantine painting history. Levantine art was influenced by earlier Latinic civilization and can in part be taken as a descendant thereof. However, Levantine painting does have important unique characteristics. Such painting can be grouped into 4 main "styles" or periods, and may contain the first examples of trompe-l'œil, pseudo-perspective, and pure landscape.

   

Panel painting became more common during the Levanesque period, under the heavy influence of Istroyan icons. Towards the middle of the 13th century, Medieval art and Gothic painting became more realistic, with the beginnings of interest in the depiction of volume and perspective in Urcea. From then on, the treatment of composition by the best painters also became much more free and innovative.

==Media==

Mass production and distribution of the Selectro 1000PC in 1972 brought about the advent of the home computer era, and with it, video games became a new form of entertainment. These early video games were often crude given the technological level of mid 1970s computing, but by 1980 a degree of sophistication saw the rise of early role playing games in addition to space-themed top down games. Unlike many other countries, Urcea did not experience an arcade craze, as the availability of home computers by 1977 for most families made the arcade model a non-starter in Urcea. However, the early 1980s also saw the first widely-manufactured video game consoles. Consoles rapidly gained market share as the technical sophistication of games outpaced the average family's ability to upgrade their computers, such that by 1987, 16-bit consoles assumed the dominant public image of video games. Consoles remained the primary developer of video games until the late 2000s, from which time PC-based gaming has held the majority of the market share in Urcea.

==Sports==

Baseball has been regarded as the Urcean national sport since the late 19th century, and is by several measures the most popular spectator sport. Many scholars have contested that the game started in Urcea, becoming widely attended during the Aedanicad, though the historical consensus now suggests that the game organically developed all across the southern Holy Levantine Empire. Urcea is a member of every major Levantine baseball association, and the major league Continental Baseball Conference (CBC) has one of the highest average attendances of any sports league in the world. Out of the 32 teams in the Continental Baseball Conference, 10 are in Urcea proper or its two states, Ænglasmarch and Gassavelia; consequently, there are 100 official affiliate minor league teams in Urcea spread throughout ten leagues. The Crown Series, the CBC's championship series, is watched by millions globally and is the most watched event in Urcea each year.

The third most popular sport in Urcea is gridiron football, which became popular following the end of the Great War. Typically considered Urcea's "second sport" (though racing draws relatively more views in its shorter season), football is typically played in the Continental Baseball Conference's off-season with its first games being played in October and its season ending in mid March. Though football began play in Urcea during the 1900s, the rise in the sport's popularity is traditionally attributed to the return of soldiers of the Royal and Imperial Army, who had grown accustomed to games "faster" than baseball from Sarpedon, such as rugby. Veterans and veteran families began flocking to the sport when baseball season ended; the admiration of veterans among Urcean society led to an interest in seeing the returning soldiers play, giving a massive boost to the sport's popularity. The major football league in Urcea is the Royal Association of Football Clubs (RAFC). Unlike baseball's Continental Baseball Conference, the RAFC is exclusive to Urcea and fields 28 teams divided into two leagues of two divisions each.

Collegiate-level football and basketball attract large audiences. Collegiate level sports are governed by the Royal Varsity Athletic Association (RVAA), which set the rules and standards by which college athletics can be played. Collegiate athletes are allowed to be financially compensated by boosters and universities within a regionally adjusted salary cap in order to ensure competitiveness between small and large universities. College football's season runs from September to January, with an eight-team college football playoff played during February. College basketball's season runs from mid-September to mid-March, after which a playoff with 128 teams is conducted.

==Music==

"Traditional music", called "river music" in other countries, is a genre of folk music that developed in Urcea. As opposed to other forms of Urcean music, it is thought that traditional music descends from Urcea's Gaelic roots as opposed to other, supposedly Latinic forms of music. Within earlier kinds of traditional music there were at least ten instruments in general use. These were a small and a large harp, the timpan (a small string instrument played with a bow or plectrum), the fife, the flute, a bassoon-type horn, hornpipes, bagpipes, a kind of trumpet, and bones. Modern traditional bands often employ accordions, fiddles, acoustic guitars, electric bass guitars, and other instruments, though modern traditional music is differentiated from many other forms of Urcean popular music by its lack of a full drum kit. Traditional music often employs more overtly nationalist or patriotic lyrics than other genres. Though its songs are widely known as classics it does not have a strong contemporary media presence.

Country music is a genre of music in Urcea that is thought to have developed from traditional music and developed primarily in rural communities and features lyrics focused on a sense of place or development of a story. In 2019, it was the most listened to genre of music on the radio.

Rock music is a genre which many music historians view as a development of country music based on imported musical traditions from Sarpedon during the Great War. It is distinguished from country and folk traditions by a lack of fiddle and focus on guitars and a heavy driving percussive beat.

Throughout its history, Urceans have been an extremely musical society, embracing not only the Ecclesiastical tradition of polyphonic chant but also folk songs and storytelling. Urcean traditional music was the organic development of these trends, creating a genre and style based on the use of fiddles, harps, accordions, and, later, guitars and snare drums. Urcean traditional music has remained vibrant and retains many of its cornerstone aspects, such as instrument choice and semi-nationalistic themes in its storytelling. It has heavily influenced various modern music genres, such as country and roots music. It has occasionally been blended with styles such as rock and roll and punk rock. Urcea has also produced many internationally known artists in other genres, such as rock, pop, jazz, and blues. The rhythmic and lyrical styles of traditional music have deeply influenced Urcean music at large, distinguishing it from Sarpedonian Latinic traditions.

The earliest record of music in Urcea comes from Gregorian chant and various other religious arrangements suitable for mass. Rising from the 9th century, polyphonic Church music was the primary and most regular way that the early Urcean people experienced music. Consequently, many people in the Medieval period received their musical training - however basic - to serve in scholas for mass. In most communities, the rural parish was the gateway to the experience of the divine and the experience of music, and many peasants had the opportunity to learn to sing, to carry a tune, and for the lucky few, the ability to learn how to read the earliest forms of musical notation. From the legions of rural peasant scholas came the very first minstrels, or musical entertainers. Minstrels typically traveled around the nearest county, providing entertainment in taverns and, more rarely, at court. These minstrels played instruments like the lyra, wooden flutes, and various other chordophones. Their songs were typically story-based, recounting real world events, such as military campaigns and the lives of various sovereigns, through the medium of musical entertainment. While secular music was typically looked down upon by civilized society, minstrels were tolerated so long as they didn't stray into salacious topics for their music, beginning a long history of "best practices" guidelines for Urcean cultural productions. Many of the songs played and invented by minstrels would become repeated and, in many cases, distorted, by groups of workers singing during the manual labor required of nearly every task in the Medieval period. It reduced the boredom of repetitive tasks, it kept the rhythm during synchronized pushes and pulls, and it set the pace of many activities such as planting, weeding, reaping, threshing, weaving, and milling. Working people and peasants also recounted minstrel songs or original songs at family gatherings and Christian feast days as a way to entertain guests. The songs invented by minstrels were also passed along by oral tradition in this period, retaining some cultural memory of historical events and passing along cultural memory and legends. These early folk songs were rarely recorded in notation, as the need to transcribe and copy songs by hand precluded their preservation; only liturgical and ecclesiastical songs survived in the written medium, given the lengthy time and effort that only monks could provide. Those early songs that did survive were typically transcribed due to the song being widespread, memorable, and about a momentous historical event, such as the Tale of Father Lucás at the Glen, a song about the victory of King Lucás II at the Battle of Glens Falls in 1401.

The 18th century saw the emergence of a fused theatrical-court style, emphasizing the high technical excellence and virtuosity of the composer with some room for improvisation within the piece. The Court-Theater Style is widely considered to be the birthplace of the modern solo. Unlike the 17th century's court music, however, this new "higher-end" form of music was available for limited public consumption. Due to the saturation of musicians in and around Urceopolis, it no longer became possible to survive on patronage, and many newly organized groups of musicians began to play for the price of admission to relatively small concert grounds. The commercial success of such endeavors lead to a significant boom period in the 1700s-1730s of public musical expression for profit. The audience were typically urban privilegiata and the concerts were often priced in such a way that they were unaffordable for the nascent working class and peasants, but through this point in Urcean history it was the most democratized music had ever been. A considerable deal of public theater and open space construction occurred in the first three decades of the 18th century, making so-called "audience music" even more viable, and the trend spread throughout other cities in Urcea. Having a much larger audience than courtiers, and having music for ears outside of the top refined optimates made an immediate impact on the kind of music being played, as Court-Theater music changed rapidly in the first half of the 18th century in order to appeal to the wider audiences. While the virtuosity and apprentice-master relationship of court music was retained, these first popular audiences much preferred more solos during pieces, leading to a kind of resurgence of the previous century's theater music. The "audience boom" came to an end with the beginning of the War of the Caroline Succession, however, as the time for audience music was replaced with church attendance duty for novenas for the benefit of the cause of Urcea and the Apostolic King. During the war, proto-folk songs sung by soldiers in camp took on new forms, incorporating the regional diversity of Urcean soldiers called to service of the King. These proto-folk songs, in turn, began to inform the traditional music style played outside of the battlefield by the army fife-and-drum core, as the two "original" Urcean musical genres continued to influence each other despite the historiographical divergence imposed on them during the 1600s.

Beginning in the late 1900s and 1910s, there began a renewed interest in what became known as "old-time" music, which could best be described as a mix of popular songs from the mid-to-late 19th century as well as obscure folk songs from rural parts of the country, but not truly "traditional music", which remained a separate genre. Historians and scholars have theorized the rise of interest in this music came as a consequence of the restoration of King Patrick III and the memory of the bloodshed of the Red Interregnum. According to these historians, Urceans - especially middle-aged ones - pined for the nostalgic idyll of simpler times during the Aedanicad. The invention of the phonograph and rise of the Urcean recording industry made these songs viable, and in the 1910s the phenomenon of "songhunters" - individuals who would go to the rural parts of Urcea to discover old folk songs in order to obtain the rights to the music - sprang up. Old-time music became enormously popular and commercially viable. The advent of radio lead to further widespread popularity of the genre in the 1920s through mid 1930s. Sometimes called "country music", emerged as a dominant cultural and commercial form of music during the early radio era, though during the same time traditional pop styles imported from the rest of Levantia became popular.

Rhythm and blues music developed from foreign blues music in the mid 1930s and early 1940s and the influence of Sarpedonian and Audonian music, which soldiers of the Royal and Imperial Army became exposed to during the Great War. The short period of time in which rhythm and blues was popular lead to a decline and sharp regionalization of "old-time" or country music, which became primarily associated with rural regions of Urcea, especially those areas associated with frontier Ómestaderoi culture. Traditional pop went into severe decline in the 1940s as the ongoing Great War lead to renewed interest in traditionally Urcean styles of music that accompanied a new wave of nationalism.

The influence of country and traditional music blended with rhythm and blues to develop an entirely new form of music in the 1950s which some historians have referred to as Rockabilly or "the King's Rock" since it was a uniquely Urcean sound distinguishable from other countries. The new rock styles quickly supplanted what remained of traditional pop, and beginning in the 1960s "new pop" took its place, heavily influenced by the backbeat driven "King's Rock" sound. Since that point, a mix of rock and mainstream pop exists alongside country music as the most popular genres in the country, though some have noted rock music to be in decline since the end of the 20th century, particularly going in a more indie direction as country music has displaced it in many parts of society.

The popularity of country has also inspired an indie movement in that genre as well, and "insurgent country", a style similar to bluegrass, has become popular since the mid-2020s. Insurgent country seeks to reclaim the sound and heritage of Urcean traditional music and the initial "old-time" music genre in an effort to undo the dominance of what is perceived to be the "corporate sound", which incorporates electronic and pop elements.

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