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".

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.

Music
The original manuscript, written in the mid-13th century, is written in mensural notation, a precursor to modern musical notation: [[Image:SumerIsIcumenIn-line.png|none|First line of the manuscript]

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 þu singes 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 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 "" in the manuscript

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 and Vernon Duke gently parodied and paid homage to the round with their 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 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.