The original home of the true madrigal is undoubtedly Flanders. It is mentioned here as early as the first part of the fifteenth century, when it was already a well established form of polyphonic writing popular with both Flemish and Netherland composers. It was regarded by them as second only in importance to the mass and motet. In a period when the musical leadership of Europe was located in the Low Countries, its cultivation by these learned masters insured its transmission to other countries and, more important still to the development of musical art, marked the first practical alliance of popular song and science. The offspring of this union was destined to achieve important results in the art-revolution of the seventeenth century. Any narrative of early secular music would be peculiarly incomplete without extended mention of the oldest example of secular polyphonic music known to exist, the famous English canon or round, ‘Sumer is icumen in,’ an ancient manuscript copy of which is among the richest treasures of the British Museum. The first mention of this celebrated piece, hidden away in the Harleian collection of manuscripts, was made in the first decade of the eighteenth century. Until the middle of the nineteenth century the date of the manuscript was assigned to the fifteenth century. But after most minute and laborious research, the English historian, William Chappell, discovered internal evidence (which succeeding investigators have accepted) to prove that this venerable manuscript was written between 1226 and 1240 at the abbey of Reading in Berkshire by a monk named John of Fornsete. The manuscript is, of course, the work of a copyist; no clew has been found to the composer’s name. The rustic character of the words would seem to ally it to the madrigal, but its musical form is that of the rota or round, very different from the free structure of the madrigal. In the manuscript are also Latin words addressed to the Virgin, indicating its occasional use for worship purposes. The old English words are as follows: ‘Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu; Groweth sed and bloweth med, And springth the wode nu; Awe bleteth after lomb, Lhouth after calve cu; Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth, Murie sing cuccu. Wel singes thu cuccu; Ne swik thu naver nu.’ The Latin directions on the manuscript for singing the round indicate that the theme is to be sung in exact imitation by four voices of equal compass which enter, each four measures after the preceding one. Accompanying this strict four-part canon throughout are two additional parts, called a ‘pes’ or ground-bass. This two-voiced burden consists of a four-measure group which monotonously repeats itself over and over again, the two parts exchanging places in regular alternation.