As any college English literature student with a 4.0 average knows,
"Sumer is icumen in" (Cuckoo Song) is a shining example of surviving
Middle English poetry.  This type of lyric poetry replaced the
fatalistic tone of Old English poetry with a brighter outlook on
life about the time of the Magna Charta.  I don't know if this was
recited to the accompaniment of a musical instrument.

Maybe you could say this was the start of harmonized music the way
an 1820 music box was the beginning of home entertainment centers.

Today being Mayday, I'll just recite the appropriate poetry for this
day, written before the Cuckoo Song and translated into English by
Edward Fitzgerald in the 19th century: "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam"
( -- "A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou ...", etc.).

Ed Kigler