Harley MS 978, ff 2r-15r

1. Musical miscellany. Written in square notation on a five-line red stave; the notation sometimes denoting rhythm and at times corrected by a later hand. The text includes:

• Four monophonic Latin songs (ff. 2r-8v): ‘Samson dux fortissime’ (ff. 2r-4v); ‘Regina clemencie Maria vocata’ (ff. 4v-6r); ‘Dum Maria credidit’ (ff. 6r-7r); ‘Ave gloriosa virginum regina’ (ff. 7r-8v).
• Three untexted estampies in two parts labelled cantus superior and cantus inferior (ff. 8v-9r).
• Three-part polyphonic conductus, ‘Ave gloriosa mater salvatoris’, with an alternative text in French, ‘Duce creature, virgine Marie’ (ff. 9v-10r). The neum from which the tenor is arranged is repeated at the end. See Dean and Boulton 1999, no. 810.
• Monophonic song, ‘Felix sanctorum chorus eximius apostolorum’, with another verse on the apostles, ‘Petrus romanis reseravit dona salutis’ (ff. 10v-11r). The text was added later, without music.
• Four-part rota canon with Middle English words, ‘Sumer is icumen in, Lhude sing cuccu’, on a two-part pes sung to the words ‘Sing cuccu’, with an alternative Latin text, ‘Perspice christicola’ and a detailed explanation of the method of singing the piece (f. 11v). See M. F. Bukofzer: ‘"Sumer is icumen in": a Revision’, University of California Publications in Music (1944) II, pp. 79-113; B. Schofield, ‘The Provenance and Date of "Sumer is icumen in"’, Music Review, 9 (1948), 81-6; N. Pirrotta, ‘On the Problem of "Sumer is icumen in"’, Musica Disciplina, 2 (1948), 205-16; J. Handschin, ‘The Summer Canon and its Background’, Musica Disciplina, 3 (1949), 55-94 and 5 (1951), 65-113; W. Obst: ‘"Summer is icumen in": a Contrafactum?’, Music and Letters, 64 (1983), 151-61; and R. Duffin: ‘The Summer Canon: a New Revision’, Speculum, 63 (1988), 1-22.
• Three monophonic sequences: ‘Eterni numinis’ (see, Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, ed. by C. Blume and G.M. Dreves 55 vols (Leipzig 1886-1922; repr. Frankfurt am Main 1961; indices 1978), vol. 37, no. 72); ‘[A]nte thronum regentis omnia’ (for St Thomas of Canterbury); ‘[G]aude salutata virgo fecundata’ (Analecta hymnica, vol. 40, no. 83) (ff. 12r-13v).
• Solmisation table explaining the Gamut, with an untexted melisma demonstrating the extent of the Gamut (f. 14r).
• Solfeggio exercise setting the words ‘Est tonus sic: ut re ut ...’ (ff. 14v-15r). Cf. Landsdowne MS 763, ff. 54r-55r. Followed by an explanation of the intervals, incipit: ‘Tonus dicitur a tonando quia prima vox est qui naturaliter tonat ...’.