Sumer is icumen in

Sumer is icumen in ( Summer has come ) is the better-known Middle English title of a canon that is widely recognized by scholars as the oldest example of this polyphonic compositional technique that has come down to us in European music history . The piece, created around the middle of the 13th century, was first written down shortly before 1300; In this first manuscript, in addition to the secular, vernacular text, there is also a sacred text in Middle Latin , which begins with the words Perspice Christicola . As the oldest known six-part piece of music, as a document of the developing Middle English language in general and the emancipation of vernacular, secular song texts in addition to Latin composed with sacred themes and as an extraordinarily early example of harmonious music-making, the "summer canon" occupies a prominent position in music history.

Lore history

The "Reading Rota"

The canon appears for the first time in a late medieval manuscript, which is now kept in the British Library as MS Harley 978 . The codex originally comes from the library of Reading Abbey . However, since this monastery did not have its own scriptorium , the relatively nearby university city of Oxford is generally assumed to be the place of origin. A common alternative term in the summer canon, "Reading rota", also refers to the origin of the manuscript. The Latin word rota (= wheel) is used synonymously with the English round and denotes the shape of the ring canon.

MS Harley 978 f.11v represents the "summer canon" in an early form of mensural notation. The sound sample ^{? / i} is exposed in six parts.

The first owner and possibly also the commissioner of the copy is believed to be William von Winchester , one of the three monks of Reading Abbey mentioned by name in MS Harley 978, who was known as a music lover. The codex itself contains writings of various characters, but all of a religious nature. Sumer is icumen in is the only secular text it contains and, moreover, the only one in English, while the rest of the material (including other pieces of music) is written in French and Latin.

Dating

Reading Abbey ruins , view from the dormitory of the chapter house

The production of the actual manuscript is now dated to the last years of the 13th century; Until the first third of the 20th century, the summer canon itself was assumed to have originated around 1230. This dating was more or less supported by the first systematic studies of the piece, which go back to the German musicologist Manfred Bukofzer, who later emigrated to the USA . Bukofzer himself, however, revoked his earlier assessments in an essay from 1944 and set the time of the canon much later. Nowadays, Bukofzer's late theses are largely disproved, and research dates the composition of Sumer is icumen in back to the mid-13th century.

In addition to knowledge and methods of library science, philological (for example, with regard to the development of Middle English) and of course musicological (for example, the mensural notation used in the manuscript ) considerations play a role in dating, which, however, have not yet produced any clear results.

Authorship

The attribution to W. de Wycombe , as it can occasionally be found in popular scientific literature, is due to the fact that Wycombe is one of the very few English composers of the era known by name. However, there are no generally recognized research results that suggest a closer relationship between the musician and the summer canon. Musicological studies speak without exception of an anonymous composition, and it remains unclear whether the music and the two texts were written by the same person.

Musical characteristics

Notation, meter and tonal structure

The musical text essentially corresponds to the conventions of the black or “Frankonian” mensural notation , which established itself in the music of Western Europe in the course of the 13th century as the standard for the writing of contemporary compositions. However - which is somewhat unusual - the staff lines are drawn in red, and the systems each consist of six, in line 6 even seven lines instead of the five that were already common at the time. Since hardly any comparable manuscripts from medieval England have survived, it is almost impossible to draw any further conclusions from these peculiarities.

An actual scale length , which would roughly equal the modern time signature , has not yet been mapped out, since the three-part meter was considered the normal case in the period in question . The symbol at the beginning of each system is a C clef , which roughly corresponds to today's tenor clef .

The “b” marked after the key is to be read as B molle , thus indicating the hexachordum molle as the tonal frame of reference of the canon. The F major, which is also mapped out today, is a much later development in music history, so that (in spite of the auditory impression of the modern ear) it would be an anachronism to describe the summer canon as “standing in F major”.

Typesetting technique

Only three voices are noted in MS Harley 978: the actual canon melody and two accompanying voices called pes (feet), which can be derived from one another by exchanging voices . In the musical text of the canon melody there is a cross highlighted in red above the word lhude , which serves as a signum congruentiae , i.e. H. a new voice begins with the canon when the previous one has reached this point. The "unanimous recording method archetypal for the history of the canon" is customary to this day and is documented for the first time in music history using the example of the summer canon.

Representation of the chord relationships that result from the harmony of the canon parts. ^{? / i}

The upper voices, which imitate each other according to the canon principle , are rich in the tonal intervals ( thirds and sixths ) that were "modern" at the time and in this way create (at least for today's ear, which is characterized by harmonics) the auditory impression of a composition in major , although this is musical The Middle Ages. In harmony with the two pedes , the chordal impression is reinforced , as the voices seem to oscillate incessantly between the triads of F major and G minor , which today's listener as a change between tonic and subdominant , one of the most fundamental in later music harmonious relationships. Although Sumer is icumen takes up the melodic and rhythmic flow of other compositions of the Ars antiqua (such as the Graduale Sederunt principes in the famous Organum scoring of Pérotins ), the full-voiced sound of the summer canon goes far beyond its well-known models.

Performance instructions

Canon melody and pedes in modern notation

The copyist of the manuscript enclosed the two texts and the music with quite detailed instructions explaining how the canon should be performed. From the sheer existence of this performance regulation, on the one hand, the existence of a composer - albeit no longer known by name - is inferred; on the other hand, the somewhat cumbersome formulation illustrates how little familiar contemporaries were with the compositional principle of a ring canon.

transcription

German translation

Hanc rotam cantare possunt quatuor socii. A paucioribus autem quam a tribus vel saltem duobus non debet dici, preter eos qui dicunt pedem. Canitur autem sic. Tacentibus ceteris, unus inchoat cum hiis qui tenent pedem. Et cum venerit ad primam notam post crucem, inchoat alius, et sic de ceteris. Singuli vero repausent ad pausaciones scriptas, et non alibi, spacio unius longe note. Pes 1: Hoc repetit unus quociens opus est, faciens pausacionem in fine. Pes 2: Hoc dicit alius, pausans in medio, et non in fine, sed immediate repetens principium.

Four companions can sing this canon. But it should not be performed by fewer than three, or at least two, alongside those who hold the pes . But it is sung like this: While the rest are silent, one begins with those who hold the pes . And when he has reached the first note after the cross, another begins, and so with the rest. Individuals, however, pause at the inscribed pause signs, and nowhere else, for the duration of a longa . Pes 1: Repeat this as often as necessary and pause at the end. Pes 2: The other sings this, pausing in the middle and not at the end, but then immediately repeating the beginning.

Mixing of medieval song forms

At least with regard to the musical form to which Sumer is icumen in belongs, there initially seem to be no assignment problems. The manuscript itself refers to hanc rotam ("this [ring] canon"). Nevertheless, the piece has features that are more characteristic of the type of rondellus (" round song "). To put it simply, the rondellus is characterized by the simultaneous use of the voices involved, which in the summer canon is given by the two pedes and the canon melody. However, through the successive use of the votes, the latter becomes the decisive criterion for the type rota . Cross-connections to other medieval song forms are also occasionally postulated for the summer canon, but this can hardly be conclusively decided on the basis of the very limited number of sources for 13th century England - which is mainly due to the destruction of the monastic manuscript holdings under Henry VIII .

text

The Reading manuscript offers two texts for the lecture of the summer canon. The practice of singing texts with very different content in different voices of a polyphonic piece of music - also in different languages ​​- spread in the motet of the late Middle Ages and especially in the Renaissance. For the “Reading rota”, however, this method of presentation is generally not yet accepted.

Middle English Sumer is icumen in

Transcription and translations

Middle English original	Modern English	German
Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu! Groweþ sed and bloweþ med And jumpþ þe will now, 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 more precisely nu. Pes 1: Sing cuccu nu. Sing cuccu. Pes 2: Sing cuccu. Sing cuccu nu.	Summer has come, Sing loudly, cuckoo! Seed grows and meadow blows And wood springs now, Sing, cuckoo! Ewe bleats after lamb, Cow lows after calf. Bullock stirs, buck farts, Merrily sing, cuckoo! Cuckoo, cuckoo, well you sing, cuckoo. Never stop now Pes 1: Sing cuckoo now. Sing, cuckoo. Pes 2: Sing cuckoo. Sing cuckoo now.	Summer has come Cuckoo, sing loud! The seeds grow, the meadow turns green And the wood comes out Sing, cuckoo! The meadow [the ewe] bleats at the lamb, The cow is mooing the calf. The ox moves, the buck farts Sing gladly, cuckoo! Cuckoo, cuckoo, how beautifully you sing, cuckoo. Now never be silent again. Pes 1: Now sing, cuckoo. Sing, cuckoo. Pes 2: Sing, cuckoo. Now sing, cuckoo.

Problems of interpretation

The Middle English text of the summer canon has been adapted over the centuries to reflect the change in language. Most modern arrangements have in common that they reproduce the first line of text with the slightly archaic, but nonetheless immediately understandable “Summer is a-coming in”. In this form, the canon is particularly well known among musical laypeople. The problem here is that the Middle English sumer would have to have undergone a considerable shift in meaning if the text - according to today's view - is understood as a "spring song". To invalidate this inconsistency, it is argued that in the Middle Ages May 1 was set as the day of the beginning of summer, a date which, according to current ideas, falls in the Central and Western European spring. Furthermore, “a-coming” as a progressive form falsifies the meaning of the Middle English participle icumen (“came”).

The interpretation of the sub-clause bucke uerteþ is particularly controversial to this day . It is not only unclear which animal bucke is talking about - in addition to the nearby billy goat , roebuck or deer are also suggested. The meaning of the verb uerteþ is discussed rather controversially , as the supposed idyllic portrayal of nature reviving in spring seems difficult to reconcile with the flatulence of a male cloven-hoofed animal in terms of both content and style . While some interpretations conclude that farteth had less coarse connotations in Middle English than modern English farts or the related German farts , others deny any connection with feortan, which is documented from Old English , and postulate a reinterpretation of the Latin verb vertere (in the sense of "to [restless] to and fro ”), so that the problematic word is ultimately only a synonym of the preceding sterteþ .

Literary genre

The traditional interpretation regards the English text as a representative of the literary genre of the reverdie . This is a type of poem that celebrates the resurgence of nature in spring. The reverdie originally came from France, but was also very popular in medieval England, as the well-known beginning of the General Prologue in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a late testimony to.

This reading focuses on the idyllic aspect and, thanks to its widespread use, has ensured that the summer canon has become "a symbol of cheerful old England" ( Merrie England ) . Such a straightforward interpretation also seems to be confirmed by music, because the type of pastoral , developed in the following centuries, works in terms of key and meter with design elements that can already be proven in Sumer is icumen .

In the recent past, numerous objections have been raised against this superficially obvious interpretation. GH Roscow goes so far as to ascribe a strongly ironic, possibly even cynical use of the known genre to the English text: “It is the wrong bird, the wrong season and the wrong language for a reverdie , unless an ironic statement is intended . "

Roscow bases his argument initially on the symbolism of the cuckoo , which - for which Chaucer again offers a reference in his Parliament of Fowls - had a negative connotation as a brood parasite; Likewise, the bird's song was by no means heard as happy (“merry”), but rather described as banal and unpleasant-sounding with its incessantly repeated two-tone motif. On this basis, Roscow develops his interpretation of the summer canon as a crude song of derision with strong sexual undertones. Among other things, he also refers to the " cacophony of bleating sheep, mooing cows and goats letting the wind go ... the cuckoo would indeed have to sing loudly to counteract it". Roscow can not only refer to the written text: In sounding music, the respective fragments of sentences that describe the various animal noises can be heard practically at the same time as soon as all six voices are singing in the canon, and the comical-satirical effect of this hearing impression is hardly of to show the hand.

The Latin Perspice christicola

Middle Latin original	German
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	Know, Christian man, what appreciation! The heavenly winemaker sets because of the fault of the vine his son ruthless of annihilation in death. The half-dead prisoner Gives life through execution and together with him crowned on the throne of heaven.

In the Latin text, the word christicola appears abbreviated in the form χρicola . The first two letters are the Greek Chi and Rho , from which the Christ monogram is traditionally composed.

In the further course of the text the text refers to the crucifixion of Jesus , and in this allusion to Easter some musicologists want to see a connection to the spring theme of the secular text. In addition, the two texts seem to be largely independent in terms of content and form. It is particularly noticeable that Perspice christicola often does not match the trochaic meter of Sumer is icumen in or the corresponding rhythmic model of the canon melody (long-short, longa-brevis ).

The person and intention of the author remain unclear, and Ernest Sanders, following earlier interpreters on this point, goes so far as to suspect an afterthought in Perspice Christicola , which only serves to religiously disguise the inclusion of the summer canon in the manuscript. In addition to questions about the poor linguistic and literary quality of the Latin text, Sanders argues in favor of his thesis that he does not offer independent words for the two pes melodies.

reception

Quote and parody

In its home country and a large part of the English-speaking world, the summer canon is considered a folk song despite its "educated", albeit anonymous, origins . It is also often taught in English or music lessons in other language countries and has meanwhile become the "symbol of Merrie England " described by Roscow worldwide. The steadily growing interest of performers and audiences in early music over the course of the 20th century, as well as the folk movement of the 1960s and 70s, contributed to this spread.

The usual traditional interpretation of the piece as a cheerful and carefree spring song is generally taken for granted, the philological and musicological considerations described above play almost no role in the perception of the broader audience. Even parodic arrangements, such as that in Ezra Pounds Ancient Music (1902), draw their sharpness from the contrast to the supposedly innocent naivety of the original text. Pounds text laments the rigors of the cold season:

Winter is icummen in, Lhude sing Goddamm. Raineth drop and staineth slop, And how the wind doth ramm! Sing: Goddamm.

Winter has come now, sing out loud "God damn it!" Raining drops, dirty mud, And how the wind blows damp! Sing: "Damn it!"

Benjamin Britten quotes the melody of the Reading rota - but without the canonical swap - for the passage of the highest metrical and instrumental complexity in the finale ("London, to thee I do present") of his Spring Symphony op. 44 (1949): "[.. .] kept in motion by a rousing waltz tune upon which is projected, in a climactic peroration, the famous Sumer is icumen in cast in duple time, presumably in response to the then recently published but mistaken arguments of a leading medievalist, Manfred Bukofzer, on the basis of his inaccurate re-dating of the Summer Canon. "

For the musical Jack in the country wrote Alec Wilder and Marshall Baner the song Summer is a-comin 'in which a recording Nat King Cole was known by the 1963rd Baner's text draws on the medieval verses - especially for the opening stanza - and then develops them further into an idyllic portrayal of early summer, which is more in keeping with the imagination of American listeners around the middle of the 20th century. On the other hand, the canon form finds no echo in Wilder's composition, which moves in the conventions of the songs preferred in Broadway theater and also reminiscent of the well-known template in its melody only very vaguely.

The German composer Carl Orff made an arrangement of the summer canon for boys' choir and instrumental ensemble under the title Rota in 1972 . The commissioned work was for the opening ceremony of the XX. Written for the Summer Olympics and premiered on August 26, 1972 with the participation of the Tölzer Boys Choir in the Munich Olympic Stadium .

As a forerunner of later musical developments

Due to the “capricious fortunes of tradition”, Sumer is icumen in seems like an isolated and singular special case in the music history of the late Middle Ages. It was not until well into the 14th century and later that there were compositions of secular music that were worked on a comparably complex level and, like the summer canon, must be called "tonal organisms, both in terms of sound and melody ...". Nevertheless, it is assumed that this impression is due to the extremely poor source situation and that the piece is rather a strong indication of a highly developed musical culture that already existed before its composition.

literature

• Peter Cahn:  Canon. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, subject part, volume 4 (Hanau - Carthusians). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1996, ISBN 3-7618-1105-5 , Sp. 1682–1683 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
• Rosemary Greentree: Anonymous's Cuckoo Song , in: The Explicator 61: 4, 2003. pp. 194 ff.
• Paul Hillier: The Hilliard Ensemble: Sumer is icumen in. Medieval English songs. (Liner Notes), Harmonia Mundi, HMA 195 1154, Arles 2002
• Jamieson Boyd Hurry: Sumer is icumen in , Novello & Co., London 1914 ( digitized online ).
• GH Roscow: "What is sumer is icumen in"? , in: The Review of English Studies 50: 198, 1999. pp. 188 ff.
• Ernest H. Sanders: Art. Sumer is icumen in . In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Vol. 24, Macmillan, London 2002, ISBN 0-333-60800-3 , pp. 707 f.

Web links

Commons : Sumer Is Icumen In  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Sheet music in the public domain of Sumer is icumen in in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)
• Sumer is icumen in : Sheet Music and Audio Files in the International Music Score Library Project
• Sumer is Icumen in (The Hilliard Ensemble) on YouTube
• For rehearsing the canon with several singers and for pronunciation of Middle English
• Practical instruction in the karaoke performance of the canon from the original manuscript
• Lisa Colton:  Sumer is icumen in. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Sanders, Grove p. 708.
2. ↑ Hurry, p. 25.
3. ↑ Hurry, p. 29.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Peter Cahn:  Canon. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, subject part, volume 4 (Hanau - Carthusians). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1996, ISBN 3-7618-1105-5 , Sp. 1682–1683 ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
5. ↑ G minor is the subdominant parallel in F major.
6. ↑ Hugh Baillie:  Heinrich VIII. In: Friedrich Blume (Ed.): The music in history and present (MGG). First edition, Volume 6 (Head - Jenny). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1957, DNB 550439609 , Sp. 70–73 (= Digital Library Volume 60, pp. 33194–33200)
7. ↑ However, the possibility of simultaneous presentation of both texts cannot be ruled out, s. Roscow, p. 194.
8. ↑ Roscow, S. 189th
9. ↑ Greentree provides a comprehensive account of the controversy in her essay.
10. ↑ Roscow, p. 193: " Sumer is icumen in [is] ... now an icon of 'Merrie England'".
11. ^ Even Ludwig van Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony is still in F major.
12. ^ "It is the wrong bird, the wrong season, and the wrong language for a reverdie, unless an ironic meaning is intended.", Roscow, p. 193.
13. ↑ “Amidst the cacophony of ewes bleating, cows lowing, and bucks breaking wind… the cuckoo would need to sing lhude indeed to be heard above the din.” Roscow, p. 195.
14. ^ ^{A b} Paul Hillier: The Hilliard Ensemble: Sumer is icumen in. Medieval English songs. (Liner Notes), Harmonia Mundi, HMA 195 1154, Arles 2002
15. ^ Francis Llewellyn Harrison in MMB, 1963, p. 98.
16. ↑ Hurry, p. 13
17. ↑ "It seems to have been an afterthought [...] added in order to make the composition fit for the inclusion in the manuscript." Sanders, Grove, p. 707.
18. ↑ In the (comparatively rare) performances of the canon with Latin text, the pes melody is usually performed with suitable words, in the case of the recording by the Hilliard Ensemble (see references) for example the sentence Resurrexit Dominus ("The Lord is resurrected" ).
19. ^ Brett, Spring Symphony , p. 10.

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on January 25, 2010 in this version .