Sumer Is Icumen In

"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".[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.

Contents

Music

The original manuscript, written in 1225 AD, is written in mensural notation, a precursor to 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:

English lyrics (secular)

The better-known lyrics for this piece are in Middle English, and comprise a song of spring (reverdie):

Middle English

Sumer 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!

Modern English

Summer has arrived,
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 stag farts,
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!

The translation of "bucke uerteþ" is uncertain[2]. Some translate as "the buck-goat turns", but the current critical consensus is that the line is "the stag farts", a gesture of virility indicating the stag's potential for creating new life, echoing the rebirth of Nature from the barren period of winter.

Latin lyrics (Religious)

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.

Latin

Perspice Christicola†
que dignacio
Celicus agricola
pro vitis vicio
Filio non parcens
exposuit mortis exicio
Qui captivos semiuiuos a supplicio
Vite donat et secum coronat
in celi solio

†written "χρ̅icola" in the manuscript (see Christogram).

English translation

Observe, Christian,
such honour!
The heavenly farmer,
owing 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.

At the Olympic Games

This traditional English round was used during the opening ceremony in Munich 1972. Children danced to the music around the track of the stadium.

In parody

This piece was parodied as "Ancient Music" by the American poet Ezra Pound (Lustra, 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 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.

Vernon Duke gently parodied and paid homage to the round with his song "Summer is A-Comin' In," with the verse making reference to "a troubadour / Way back in 1226." Each refrain of the song begins with the phrase "Summer is icumen in / Lhude sing cucu." The song has been recorded by Charlotte Rae (twice) and Nat King Cole, among others.

The song is also referenced in "Carpe Diem," by The Fugs on their 1965 debut album, The Fugs First Album.

Carpe diem,
Sing, cuckoo sing,
Death is a-comin in,
Sing, cuckoo sing.
death is a-comin in.

In film

The song was used to great and memorable effect at the climax of the 1973 film The Wicker Man in a mixed translation by Peter Shaffer:

Sumer is Icumen in,
Loudly sing, cuckoo!
Grows the seed and blows the mead,
And springs the wood anew;
Sing, cuckoo!
Ewe bleats harshly after lamb,
Cows after calves make moo;
Bullock stamps and deer champs,
Now shrilly sing, cuckoo!
Cuckoo, cuckoo
Wild bird are you;
Be never still, cuckoo!

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. It was also recited in Woody Allen's 1982 film A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy by the character Leopold.

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 May Day 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".

In literature

In Michel Faber's novella The Courage Consort, a vocal group spontaneously bursts into the song while returning from a tense sojourn in the Belgian countryside during which one of their members has died.

The song also featured in several episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood, the 1950s television series starring Richard Greene.

Notes

  1. ^ Roscow, G. H. (1999). "What is "Sumer is icumen in"?". Review of English Studies (Oxford University Press) 50 (198): 188–95. JSTOR 518895. 
  2. ^ "Sumer is icumen in: Notes". Wessex Parallel WebTexts. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~wpwt/harl978/sumernn.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-18. 

Source

  • Albright, Daniel (2004). Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-01267-0.

External links