Sumer Is Icumen In

2018 | 4’

piano

Sumer Is Icumen In, or the Cuckoo Song, is a 13th Century English song, notable for being the earliest known example of six-part polyphony. It was likely written by W. de Wycombe.

In my take on this 800-year-old melody I aim to pull the notes apart and explore what hides in between. By removing the pitches from their original rhythmic properties I explore the relationships between them in sequence, generating via stream-of-consciousness a wholly new soundworld. I imagine it as putting the original under a microscope and observing how dust on top of the slide interacts spatially with the intended subject. the result is a macro-structure that contains within it a series of organically-evolving, sometimes wildly-contrasting episodes, music on a moment-by-moment basis that retains a definite, if occasionally obscured, progression.

Contact me for performance materials