It exhibits, apart from the skill that characterised ancient ecclesiastical music, from which it indubitably sprang, a rare genius in interpreting the spirit and feeling of the words. In this respect it may be said to have anticipated centuries to come. With every appreciation, sincere and even reverend, of the ancient music of the Church, it must be acknowledged that in spirit it was rigid, severe and formal. In other words, it appealed to the religious and intellectual sense rather than that of beauty. "Sumer is icumen in," on the contrary, seems to be the work of one who is able to leap over the centuries and speak in the tones of ages unborn, to be, in fact, a forerunner, a teacher of the ages then in the womb of Time.
It has, in perfection, three great qualities of the highest art—perfect skill in execution, commanding appeal to the purest emotions, and the power to leave the mind in a state of ecstatic rest or emotional contentment that makes one oblivious of the world while listening or watching. It was the outcome of an age of great religious enthusiasm. The monks had great dreams, and with them came the energy that inspired their brains to the utmost fulfilment.
The dream that led to the Crusades is the one that has most appealed to the imagination of the world; but it was only one of many.
"Sumer is icumen in" was written in a form that seems to have especially appealed to those
early composers, for the canon[13] was a constant medium of musical expression in mediæval times.
That the reader may the more readily understand, I quote here a specimen that is at once beautiful and familiar to all, and is known as the "Morning Hymn." Its simplicity will make it intelligible to the least technically instructed of musical readers:—
It will be observed that the last four notes in the treble clef indicate the repetition of the melody, which can continue indefinitely as here represented.
When we come to the consideration of instrumental music of olden times, we have little to guide us in the formation of any dear conception of its value or importance.