A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Round

by William Barclay Squire

ROUND. I. 'A species of canon in the unison, so-called because the performers begin the melody at regular rhythmical periods, and return from its conclusion to its commencement, so that it continually passes round and round from one to another of ^[1]them.' Rounds and Catches, the most characteristic forms of English music, differ from canons in only being sung at the unison or octave, and also in being rhythmical in form. Originating at a period of which we have but few musical records, these compositions have been written and sung in England with unvarying popularity until the present day. The earliest extant example of a round is the well-known 'Sumer is i-cumen in,' as to the date of which there has been much discussion, although it is certainly not later than the middle of the 13th century. This ingenious and interesting composition (which is printed in facsimile in Chappell's 'Popular Music' and in score in Hawkins) is preserved in the Harleian MSS. (978) in the British Museum. It is (as the late Dr. Rimbault has pointed out) founded on the old ecclesiastical litany chant 'Pater de cœlis Deus,' and is written for six voices, four of which sing the round proper or 'rota' (as it is termed in the Latin directions for singing it), whilst the other two sing an accompanying ground or 'pes.' Amongst early writers on music, the terms 'round' and 'catch' were synonymous, but at the present day the latter is generally understood to be what Hawkins (vol. ii) defines as that species of round 'wherein, to humour some conceit in the words, the melody is broken, and the sense interrupted in one part, and caught again or supplied by another,' a form of humour which easily adapted itself to the coarse tastes of the Restoration, at which period rounds and catches reached their highest popularity. That catches were immensely popular with the lower classes is proved by the numerous allusions to 'alehouse catches' and the like in the dramas of the 16th and 17th centuries. According to Drayton ('Legend of Thomas Cromwell,' Stanza 29) they were introduced into Italy by the Earl of Essex in 1510.

The first printed collection of rounds was that edited by Thomas Ravenscroft, and published in 1609 under the title of 'Pammelia. Musicks Miscellanie: or Mixed Varietie of pleasant Round elayes and delightfull Catches, of 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Parts in one.' This interesting collection contains many English, French, and Latin rounds, etc., some of which are still popular. Amongst them there is also a curious 'Round of three Country Dances in one' for four voices, which is in reality a Quodlibet on the country-dance tunes 'Robin Hood,' 'Now foot it,' and 'The Crampe is in my purse.' 'Pammelia' was followed by two other collections brought out by Ravenscroft, 'Deuteromelia' in 1609, and 'Melismata' in 1611, and the numerous publications of the Playfords, the most celebrated of which is 'Catch that catch can, or the Musical Companion' (1667), which passed through many editions. The most complete collection of rounds and catches is that published by Warren in 32 monthly and yearly numbers, from 1763 to 1794, which contains over 800 compositions, including many admirable specimens by Purcell, Blow, and other masters of the English school. It is to be regretted that they are too often disfigured by an obscenity of so gross a nature as to make them now utterly unfit for performance. The Round has never been much cultivated by foreign composers. One or two examples are however well known, amongst them may be mentioned Cherubini's 'Perfida Clori.'

The quartet in Fidelio, 'Mir ist so wunderbar,' as well as Curschmann's trios, 'Ti prego' and 'L' Addio,' though having many of the characteristics of rounds, are not in true round form, inasmuch as they are not infinite, but end in codas. They are canons, not rounds. A good specimen of the round proper is Dr. William Hayes's 'Wind, gentle evergreen.'

II. Any dance in which the dancers stood in a circle was formerly called a round or roundel.^[2] The first edition of the 'Dancing Master' (1651) has thirteen rounds, for six, eight, or 'as many as will.' Subsequent editions of the same book have also a dance called 'Cheshire Rounds,' and Part II. of Walsh's 'Compleat Country Dancing Master' (1719) has Irish and Shropshire rounds. These latter dances are however not danced in a ring, but 'longways,' i.e. like 'Sir Roger de Coverley.' In Jeremiah Clarke's 'Choice Lessons for the Harpsichord or Spinett' (1711), and similar contemporary publications, the word rondo is curiously corrupted into 'Round O.'

[ W. B. S. ]

1. "The Rounds, Catches, and Canons of England; a Collection of Specimens of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries adapted to Modern Use. The Words revised, adapted, or re-written by the Rev. J. Powell Metcalfe. The Music selected and revised, and An Introductory Essay on the Rise and Progress of the Round Catch and Canon: also Biographical Notices of the Composers, written by Edward F. Rimbault, LL.D.,' from which work much of the information contained in the above article has been derived.

2. 'Come now a roundel and a fairy song.'
   Midsummer Night's Dream, act. ii. sc. 2.