Sumer Icumeth in Later

Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing Cuccu; Groweth sed and bloweth med, and springth the wude nu, Sing Cuccu. . . .

Up to last week Sumer is icumen in had been regarded by music historians as both the oldest six-part song and the oldest canon* in existence. But its date, set by 19th-Century historians as around 1240, had always made it something of a historical curiosity, since no music even remotely resembling it appeared anywhere else until about a century later.

Poring over the original manuscript in the British Museum, Musicologist Manfred F. Bukofzer of the University of California discovered that the 19th-Century historians were guilty of some careless scholarship. They had accepted 1240 because it was the date of another section of the manuscript that included Sumer is icumen in. Bukofzer pointed out that the section dated 1240 was not in the same handwriting, and hence might not have been written at the same time. He also noted that the type of musical notation in which Sumer is icumen in was written was not in use in England until nearly a century later. Upshot: Sumer is icumen in dates from about 1310, is still the oldest six-part song, but not the oldest canon. It is still the oldest popular song.

*A canon, or "round," is a composition in which different voices sing the same tune starting at different times, e.g., Three Blind Mice.

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