From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Sumer Is Icumen In" is a traditional English round, and possibly the oldest such example of counterpoint in existence. The title might be translated as "Summer has come in" or "Summer has arrived", though in Middle English the word summer extends over a longer period than the modern term.[1]
The round is sometimes known as the Reading rota because the manuscript comes from Reading Abbey though it may not have been written there. It is the oldest piece of six-part polyphonic music (Albright, 1994). Its composer is anonymous, possibly W. de Wycombe, and it is estimated to date from around 1260. The manuscript is now at the British Library. The language is Middle English, more exactly Wessex dialect.
The original manuscript, written in the mid-13th century, is written in a precursor of modern musical notation:
To sing as a round, one singer would begin at the beginning, and a second would start at the beginning as the first got to the point marked with the red cross. The length between the start and the cross corresponds to the modern notion of a bar, and the main verse comprises six phrases spread over twelve such bars. In addition, there are two lines marked "Pes", two bars each, that are meant to be sung together repeatedly underneath the main verse. These instructions are included (in Latin) in the manuscript itself.
The music is somewhat more readable in modern notation:
The song in modern staff notation
[edit] English lyrics (secular)
The better-known lyrics for this piece are in Middle English, and comprise a song of spring (reverdie):
[edit] Middle English
- Svmer is icumen in,
- Lhude sing cuccu!
- Groweþ sed and bloweþ med
- And springþ þe wde nu,
- Sing cuccu!
- Awe bleteþ after lomb,
- Lhouþ after calue cu.
- Bulluc sterteþ, bucke uerteþ,
- Murie sing cuccu!
- Cuccu, cuccu, wel singes þu, cuccu;
- Ne swik þu nauer nu.
Pes:
- Sing cuccu nu. Sing cuccu.
- Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu nu!
|
[edit] Modern English translation
- Summer has come in,
- Loudly sing, Cuckoo!
- The seed grows and the meadow blooms
- And the wood springs anew,
- Sing, Cuckoo!
- The ewe bleats after the lamb,
- The cow lows after the calf.
- The bullock stirs, the buck-goat turns,
- Merrily sing, Cuckoo!
- Cuckoo, cuckoo, well you sing, cuckoo;
- Don't you ever stop now,
- Sing cuckoo now. Sing, Cuckoo.
- Sing Cuckoo. Sing cuckoo now!
|
[edit] Latin lyrics (sacred)
This work is also one of the earliest examples of music with both religious and secular lyrics, though the secular ones are perhaps better known. It is not clear which came first, but the religious lyrics, in Latin, are a reflection on the sacrifice of the Crucifixion.
- Perspice Christicola†
- que dignacio
- Celicus agricola
- pro uitis vicio
- Filio
- non parcens exposuit mortis exicio
- Qui captiuos semiuiuos a supplicio
- Vite donat et secum coronat
- in celi solio
†written "χρ̅icola" in the manuscript
|
[edit] English translation
- Observe, Christian, such honour!
- The heavenly farmer,
- due to a defect in the vine,
- not sparing the Son,
- exposed him to the destruction of death.
- To the captives half-dead from torment,
- He gives them life and crowns them with himself
- on the throne of heaven.
|
[edit] In parody
This piece was parodied in "Ancient Music" by American Poet, Ezra Pound (Lustra collection, 1913-1915):
- Winter is icumen in,
- Lhude sing Goddamm,
- Raineth drop and staineth slop,
- And how the wind doth ramm!
- Sing: Goddamm.
- Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
- An ague hath my ham.
- Freezeth river, turneth liver,
- Damm you; Sing: Goddamm.
- Goddamm, Goddamm, 'tis why I am, Goddamm,
- So 'gainst the winter's balm.
- Sing goddamm, damm, sing goddamm,
- Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.
The melody of Sumer Is Icumen In was sung, with new lyrics, by the mice in each episode of the television series Bagpuss.
The song is also parodied by P. D. Q. Bach as "Summer is a cumin seed" for the penultimate movement of his Grand Oratorio The Seasonings.
Mark Alburger's Mary Variations includes the movement Mary Is Icumen In, which maps Lowell Mason's Mary Had a Little Lamb over the medieval round.
[edit] In film
The song was used at the climax of the film The Wicker Man.
It was sung in the 1982 animated film The Flight of Dragons by the knight Sir Orin Neville-Smythe to drown out the sound of the sand merks.
The song was used in the 1993 film Shadowlands, the story of the romance between C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman. In that film, a choir of men and boys greets the sun at dawn on the summer solstice with the song. In the soundtrack recording released on Angel, the choir of Magdalen College, Oxford, was featured.
The song was also used in the 1991 television movie Sarah, Plain and Tall, based on the children's book of the same name by Patricia MacLachlan. Sarah, played by Glenn Close, sings the song.
The round sung by the mice in the 1974 British Children's TV Show Bagpuss, starting with the words "We will fix it...", is to the tune of "Sumer is icumin in".
[edit] Source
- Albright, Daniel (2004). Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-01267-0.
[edit] External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
|
|
