Westron Wynde is an early 16th century song whose tune was used as the basis (cantus firmus

Cantus firmus

In music, a cantus firmus is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.The plural of this Latin term is , though the corrupt form canti firmi is also attested...

) of Masses by English composers John Taverner

John Taverner

John Taverner was an English composer and organist, regarded as the most important English composer of his era.- Career :...

, Christopher Tye

Christopher Tye

Christopher Tye was an English composer and organist, who studied at Cambridge University and in 1545 became a Doctor of Music both there and at Oxford.He was choirmaster of Ely Cathedral from about 1543 and also organist there from 1559...

 and John Sheppard. The tune first appears with words in a partbook of around 1530, which contains mainly keyboard music. Historians believe that the lyrics are a few hundred years older ('Middle English') and the words are a fragment of medieval poetry.

The words of the original were decidedly secular:

'Westron wynde, when wilt thou blow,

The small raine down can raine.

Cryst, if my love were in my armes

And I in my bedde again!'

Recovering the original tune of Westron Wynde that was used in these Masses is not entirely straightforward. There is a version that uses the secular words, but with rather different notes:

The version used by the three Mass composers can only be inferred by what they put into their Masses. In program notes (see below), Peter Phillips offers the following reconstruction:

But this is not always exactly what appears in the Masses; thus the New Grove quotes the following sequence from Taverner's Mass:

For the words being sung here, see Mass (music)

Mass (music)

The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...

.

Westron Wynde was put to music by Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....

 as a movement (Westron Wind) of his Cantata

Cantata (Stravinsky)

The Cantata by Igor Stravinsky is a work for soprano, tenor, female choir, and instrumental ensemble , and was composed from April 1951 to August 1952. The premiere performance on 11 November 1952 was by the Los Angeles Symphony Society , conducted by Stravinsky himself...

 (1952).

The British guitarist John Renbourn

John Renbourn

John Renbourn is an English guitarist and songwriter. He is possibly best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo career before, during and after that band's existence .While most commonly labelled a...

 recorded his own arrangement of the tune for two guitars on his 1970 album The Lady and the Unicorn. The song has been recorded by Maddy Prior

Maddy Prior

Maddy Prior is an English folk singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span.-Early life:...

 and Tim Hart

Tim Hart

Tim Hart was an English folk singer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as a founding member of electric folk band, Steeleye Span.-Early years:...

 on the album Summer Solstice and by Barbara Dickson

Barbara Dickson

Barbara Ruth Dickson, OBE is a Scottish singer whose hits include "I Know Him So Well" and "January February"...

 on Full Circle.

The British band Saint Etienne

Saint Etienne (band)

Saint Etienne are an English Pop group comprising Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs. They are named after the French football team AS Saint-Étienne.-History:Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs were childhood friends and former music journalists...

 produced a version of Westron Wynde on their album Tiger Bay which is similar to the first arrangement above, but with a separate instrumental sequence added between verses.

Popular culture

In the 2011 BBC television miniseries South Riding

South Riding (2011 miniseries)

South Riding is a BBC serial in three parts from 2011, based on the 1936 novel South Riding by Winifred Holtby. It is directed by Diarmuid Lawrence and written by Andrew Davies...

, schoolmistress Sarah Burton (played by Anna Maxwell Martin

Anna Maxwell Martin

Anna Maxwell Martin , sometimes credited as Anna Maxwell-Martin, is a two-time BAFTA award-winning English actress who has won acclaim for her performances as Lyra in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre, as Esther Summerson in the BBC's 2005 adaptation of Bleak House, and as N in...

) quotes Westron Wynde, telling her favorite student that, though it was written 400 years ago, it still sounds modern.

The poem is quoted in Madeleine L'Engle's

Madeleine L'Engle

Madeleine L'Engle was an American writer best known for her young-adult fiction, particularly the Newbery Medal-winning A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time...

 book The Small Rain

The Small Rain

The Small Rain is a semi-autobiographical novel by Madeleine L'Engle, about the many difficulties in the life of talented pianist Katherine Forrester between the ages of 10 and 19. Published in 1945 by the Vanguard Press, it was the first of L'Engle's long list of books, and was reprinted in 1984...

(1945).

Sources

• Peter Phillips's reconstruction is taken from his program notes for his recording Western Wind Masses: Taverner, Tye Sheppard, released 1993 on compact disc by Gimell Records, 454 927-2.
• The remaining musical examples above are adapted from versions given in the online version (2004) of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.