21 December 2005

Sumer is icumen in

(Or, what links Bagpuss, an early English music manuscript, my Christmas celebrations and the allotment life?)

The house is filling up! My mum arrived on Monday, Dad yesterday. And yesterday evening Phil and Viv popped over from Nottingham so we could rehearse (you might remember me prattling on about this kind of thing before). They had planned to be civilised and return back home that night, but I’m afraid we plied them with wine and so they had to stay, didn’t they?

This meant that I got to open my Christmas present from them - yay! - which turned out to be a stuffed Willie mouse from Bagpuss that sings the fix it song when you press his tummy. Brilliant, for sheer nostalgia value alone.

But this present is even better than that as that particular tune has a special significance. The mice on the mouse organ (yes, that includes you, little Charlie mouse) sing to the tune of Sumer is Icumen In (though in a simple duple time rather than compound duple time, for those of you that are interested), which is a very important piece of music. The manuscript is the oldest surviving example of music that has both sacred and secular words written to it (though no-one really knows which came first…). You can hear the song performed by the Sherwood Consort here.

But it doesn’t stop there, no siree. Being vaguely musical types, we have been known to sing this tune together as a round, while washing up, while driving through the countryside, while supping wine, while doing pretty much anything. Very simple, lots of fun, but occasionally irritating for others.

And how does all of this relate to the allotment? Well, it’s a tenuous link, I’ll admit, but the words to Sumer is Icumen In are all about the arrival of spring, seeds growing, and the meadow blossoming - all of which I am eagerly awaiting. Now, if only someone could fix that!

Filed under: Mulch — Clare @ 10:38 am