Sumer Is Icumen In
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".
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
.
, 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:
):
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!
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!
Some translate "bucke uerteþ" 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.
.
†written "" in the manuscript (see Christogram
).
(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.
:
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".
'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.
Round (music)
A round is a musical composition in which two or more voices sing exactly the same melody , but with each voice beginning at different times so that different parts of the melody coincide in the different voices, but nevertheless fit harmoniously together...
, and possibly the oldest such example of counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
in existence. The title might be translated as "Summer has come in" or "Summer has arrived".
The round is sometimes known as the Reading rota because the manuscript comes from Reading Abbey
Reading Abbey
Reading Abbey is a large, ruined abbey in the centre of the town of Reading, in the English county of Berkshire. It was founded by Henry I in 1121 "for the salvation of my soul, and the souls of King William, my father, and of King William, my brother, and Queen Maud, my wife, and all my ancestors...
though it may not have been written there. It is the oldest piece of six-part polyphonic
Polyphony
In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
music (Albright, 1994). Its composer is anonymous, possibly W. de Wycombe
W. de Wycombe
W. de Wycombe was an English composer and copyist of the Medieval era. He was precentor of the priory of Leominster in Herefordshire...
, and it is estimated to date from around 1260. The manuscript is now at the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
.
The language is Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....
, more exactly Wessex dialect
West Country dialects
The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of South West England, the area popularly known as the West Country....
.
Music
The original manuscript, written in 1225 AD, is written in mensural notationMensural notation
Mensural notation is the musical notation system which was used in European music from the later part of the 13th century until about 1600."Mensural" refers to the ability of this system to notate complex rhythms with great exactness and flexibility...
, a precursor to modern musical notation
Musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...
:
Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
, 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 (reverdieReverdie
The reverdie is an old French poetic genre, which celebrates the arrival of spring. Literally, it means "re-greening". Often the poet will encounter Spring, symbolized by a beautiful woman....
):
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!
Some translate "bucke uerteþ" 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 CrucifixionCrucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
.
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 "" in the manuscript (see Christogram
Christogram
A Christogram is a monogram or combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name of Jesus Christ, traditionally used as a Christian symbol. Different types of Christograms are associated with the various traditions of Christianity, e.g...
).
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 PoundEzra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
(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
P. D. Q. Bach
P. D. Q. Bach is a fictitious composer invented by musical satirist "Professor" Peter Schickele. In a gag that Schickele has developed over a five-decade-long career, he performs "discovered" works of this forgotten member of the Bach family...
as "Summer is a cumin seed" for the penultimate movement of his Grand Oratorio The Seasonings.
Mark Alburger
Mark Alburger
Mark Alburger is a San Francisco Bay Area composer and conductor. He is the founder and music director of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, as well as the music director of the San Francisco Cabaret Opera...
's Mary Variations includes the movement Mary Is Icumen In, which maps Lowell Mason
Lowell Mason
Lowell Mason was a leading figure in American church music, the composer of over 1600 hymn tunes, many of which are often sung today. His most well-known tunes include Mary Had A Little Lamb and the arrangement of Joy to the World...
's Mary Had a Little Lamb over the medieval round.
Vernon Duke
Vernon Duke
Vernon Duke was a Russian-American composer/songwriter, who also wrote under his original name Vladimir Dukelsky. He is best known for "Taking a Chance on Love" with lyrics by Ted Fetter and John Latouche, "I Can't Get Started" with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, "April in Paris" with lyrics by E. Y...
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
Charlotte Rae
Charlotte Rae is a prolific American character actress of stage, comedienne, singer and dancer, who in her six decades of television is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Edna Garrett in the sitcoms Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life...
(twice) and Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
, among others.
The song is also referenced in "Carpe Diem," by The Fugs
The Fugs
The Fugs are a band formed in New York in late 1964 by poets Ed Sanders and Tuli Kupferberg, with Ken Weaver on drums. Soon afterward, they were joined by Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber of the Holy Modal Rounders...
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 ShafferPeter Shaffer
Sir Peter Levin Shaffer is an English dramatist and playwright, screenwriter and author of numerous award-winning plays, several of which have been filmed.-Early life:...
:
- 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
The Flight of Dragons
The Flight of Dragons is a 1982 animated movie produced by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin, Jr. and loosely combining the speculative natural history book of the same name by Peter Dickinson with the novel The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson. The film centres upon a quest undertaken to...
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
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy
A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy is a 1982 film written, directed by and starring Woody Allen.The plot is loosely based on Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night. This was the first of 13 movies that Allen would make starring Mia Farrow...
by the character Leopold.
The song was used in the 1993 film Shadowlands
Shadowlands (film)
Shadowlands is a 1993 British biographical film directed by Richard Attenborough. The screenplay by William Nicholson is based on his 1985 television production and 1989 stage adaptation of the same name. The original television film began life as a script entitled I Call it Joy written for Thames...
, 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
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, was featured.
The song was also used in the 1991 television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
Sarah, Plain and Tall
Sarah, Plain and Tall (film)
Sarah, Plain and Tall is a television film in the Hallmark Hall of Fame anthology series that was released in 1991. It is the first of three installments in the film adaptation of Patricia MacLachlan's novel of the same name.-Plot summary:...
, based on the children's book of the same name
Sarah, Plain and Tall
Sarah, Plain and Tall is a children's book written by Patricia MacLachlan, and the winner of the 1986 Newbery Medal and the 1986 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. It explores themes of loneliness, abandonment, and coping with change....
by Patricia MacLachlan
Patricia MacLachlan
Patricia MacLachlan is a bestselling U.S. children's author, best known for winning the 1986 Newbery Medal for her book Sarah, Plain and Tall. The book was later turned into a TV movie starring Glenn Close and Christopher Walken.MacLachlan was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming. She lived in Wyoming and...
. Sarah, played by Glenn Close
Glenn Close
Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...
, sings the song.
The round sung by the mice in the 1974 British Children's TV Show Bagpuss
Bagpuss
Bagpuss is a 1974 UK children's television series, made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate through their company Smallfilms. The title character is "an old, saggy cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams"...
, starting with the words "We will fix it...", is to the tune of "Sumer is icumin in".
In literature
In Michel FaberMichel Faber
Michel Faber is a Dutch-born writer of fiction. He writes in English.Faber was born in The Hague, Netherlands. He and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1967...
'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.
Source
- Albright, Daniel (2004). Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-01267-0.
External links
- Original Manuscript from the British Library in London, MS Harley 978, f. 11v - includes translation
- Original & Translation
- Music sheet
- Music, text, audio and translation
- Sumer Is Icumen In as interactive hypermedia at the BinAural Collaborative Hypertext (Shockwave Player required)
- Sumer Is Icumen In, performed live by "Madrigals, Etc"Madrigals EtcMadrigals Etc is a predominantly vocal music group based in Bangalore, India. Formed in 1999 by Neecia Majolly and George Kurian, the group has won the appreciation of audiences within and outside Bangalore...
in BangaloreBangaloreBengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
(Shockwave Player required)