"Sumer Is Icumen In" (also called the Summer Canon and
the Cuckoo Song) is a medieval English round or rota of
the mid-13th century.
The title translates approximately to "Summer Has Come
In" or "Summer Has Arrived". The song is composed in
the Wessex dialect of Middle English. Although the
composer's identity is unknown today, it may have been
W. de Wycombe. The manuscript in which it is preserved
was copied between 1261 and 1264.
This rota is the oldest known musical composit...(+)
"Sumer Is Icumen In" (also called the Summer Canon and
the Cuckoo Song) is a medieval English round or rota of
the mid-13th century.
The title translates approximately to "Summer Has Come
In" or "Summer Has Arrived". The song is composed in
the Wessex dialect of Middle English. Although the
composer's identity is unknown today, it may have been
W. de Wycombe. The manuscript in which it is preserved
was copied between 1261 and 1264.
This rota is the oldest known musical composition
featuring six-part polyphony and is sometimes called
the Reading Rota because the earliest known copy of the
composition, a manuscript written in mensural notation,
was found at Reading Abbey; it was probably not drafted
there, however. The British Library now retains this
manuscript.
A rota is a type of round, which in turn is a kind of
partsong. To perform the round, one singer begins the
song, and a second starts singing the beginning again
just as the first got to the point marked with the red
cross in the first figure below. 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:
"Hanc rota cantare possum quatuor socii. A paucio/ribus
autem quam a tribus uel saltem duobus non debet/ dici
preter eos qui dicunt pedem. Canitur autem sic.
Tacen/tibus ceteris unus inchoat cum hiis qui tenent
pedem. Et cum uenerit/ ad primam notam post crucem,
inchoat alius, et sic de ceteris./ Singuli de uero
repausent ad pausacionis scriptas et/non alibi, spacio
unius longe note."
(Four companions can sing this round. But it should not
be sung by fewer than three, or at the very least, two
in addition to those who sing the pes. This is how it
is sung. While all the others are silent, one person
begins at the same time as those who sing the ground.
And when he comes to the first note after the cross
[which marks the end of the first two bars], another
singer is to begin, and thus for the others. Each shall
observe the written rests for the space of one long
note [triplet], but not elsewhere.)
The celebration of summer in "Sumer Is Icumen In" is
similar to that of spring in the French poetic genre
known as the reverdie (lit. "re-greening"). However,
there are grounds for doubting such a straightforward
and naïve interpretation. The language used lacks all
of the conventional springtime-renewal words of a
reverdie (such as "green", "new", "begin", or "wax")
except for springþ, and elements of the text,
especially the cuckoo and the farmyard noises, are
susceptible of double meanings. "It is the wrong bird,
the wrong season, and the wrong language for a
reverdie, unless an ironic meaning is intended.
Although originally written for voices, I created this
arrangement for Pipe Organ.
SHEET MUSIC