Presented at the The Second Known World Bardic Congress & Cooks' Collegium by Lady Katherine Rowberd.

What is a round? What is a catch?

A round is a song with a single melody, which when sung at offset intervals by more than one person, provides its own harmony. Modern examples include "Row, row, row your boat" and "Three blind mice" (although Three Blind Mice actually dates back to the 17th century!)

A catch is a round in which the juxtaposition of words from different parts of the song provides a bawdy or humorous subtext. This term is from post-SCA-period (17th century).

Rounds in period

Rounds apparently date back to about the 11th century. A hymn called "Nuc Sancte nobis spiritus", from 1065, was in the form of a "rondellus", i.e. a form of round. There are reports of the English and Welsh singing rounds in the 12th century.

The earliest round that has survived to be sung in the present day is "Sumer is icumen in", from the 13th century (or thereabouts -- there is some argument over this). It is a song in Middle English celebrating the arrival of summer.

The 14th and 15th centuries give us only a few reports of English rounds, and no definite words or music that I have found.

The court music of Henry VIII included a number of rounds. 20 rounds and canons were identified in this set of music.

In terms of accessible, widely-known and easily-singable rounds, we need to skip ahead to about 1600, plus or minus a few years. Around 1610, Thomas Ravenscroft published three books (containing a variety of songs, many of them rounds.

These can be found online in facsimile at http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/ravenscroft/. A printed facsimile edition, printed and bound in period style, is available from the Practical Goose sutlery (email leigh@dandy.net).

Many of these rounds had previously been gathered together in manuscript form by Thomas Lant, circa 1580. This manuscript is not available in facsimile form, but some of the contents can be found in the following journal article:

Vlasto, Jill. "An Elizabethan Anthology of Rounds", Musical Quarterly XL (1954) 222-234.

Not all the Lant rounds are in the Ravenscroft collections, and vice versa, but there is enough similarity to know that the Ravenscroft rounds are very similar to those sung pre-1600.

Although Ravenscroft's rounds are mostly about the pleasures of the flesh, there are several examples of period rounds for religious purposes. Perhaps the best known is "Dona Nobis Pacem", attributed to Palestrina (16th century composer).

During the 17th century, rounds continued to be extremely popular, and many can be found in the music books of the time. "Catch as catch can", for example, was a mid-17th century book of rounds and catches published by John Playford, of "English Dancing Master" fame. A number of rounds from the late 17th century are attributed to Henry Purcell, the famous composer.

Rounds in the SCA

In some areas within the SCA (such as Lochac, where I first started playing), rounds are widely known and enjoyed. Many of them are easy to learn and sing around a campfire or in other informal circumstances. The fact that so many are to do with sex and booze gives them added appeal. Many of them also lend themselves to "filking", by changing the words slightly to apply to people or circumstances familiar to the singers.

Ravenscroft's rounds, Dona Nobis Pacem, and Sumer is Icumen In are by far the most widely known rounds in the SCA. These are the rounds that this class will cover.

Rounds to sing

Bibliography

All content on this website copyright 1997-2007 Kirrily Robert (SCA: Lady Katherine Rowberd) except where otherwise specified.
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URL: http://katrowberd.elizabethangeek.com/articles/rounds.mhtml