''Westron Wynde'' is an early 16th-century

song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

whose tune was used as the basis (

cantus firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect trea ...

) of Masses by English composers John Taverner,

Christopher Tye Christopher Tye (before 1573) was an English Renaissance music, Renaissance composer and organist. Probably born in Cambridgeshire, he trained at the University of Cambridge and became the master of the choir at Ely Cathedral. He is noted as the ...

and John Sheppard. The tune first appears with words in a partbook of around 1530, catalogued by the British Library as Royal Appendix MS 58. Historians believe that the lyrics are a few hundred years older ('Middle English') and the words are a fragment of medieval poetry.

Lyrics

The lyrics of the original, as transcribed by Charles Frey: : Westron wynde when wyll thow blow : the smalle rayne downe can Rayne : Cryst yf my love were in my Armys : And I yn my bed Agayne.

Music

Recovering the original tune of ''Westron Wynde'' that was used in these Masses is not entirely straightforward. There is a version that uses the secular words, but with rather different notes: WesternWindOriginalSong

The version used by the three Mass composers can only be inferred by what they put into their Masses. In programme notes (see below), Peter Phillips offers the following reconstruction: WesternWindReconstructedVersion

But this is not always exactly what appears in the Masses; thus the New Grove quotes the following sequence from Taverner's Mass: WesternWindFromTavernerMass

For the words being sung here, see

Mass (music) The Mass () is a form of sacred musical composition that sets the invariable portions of the Christian Eucharistic liturgy (principally that of the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism), known as the Mass. Most Masses are ...

Reworkings and Recordings

''Westron Wynde'' was put to music by

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

as a movement (''Westron Wind'') of his

Cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...

(1952). The American folk group

The Limeliters The Limeliters are an American folk music group, formed in July 1959 by Lou Gottlieb (bass violin/bass), Alex Hassilev (banjo/baritone), and Glenn Yarbrough (guitar/tenor). The group was active from 1959 until 1965, and then after a hiatus ...

( Louis Gottlieb, Alex Hassilev, and Glenn Yarbrough) recorded a version using a variation of the first tune above, with modern English stanzas interpolated. Both the variation and the interpolated stanzas were most likely written by the Limeliters themselves, one of whom (Gottlieb) was a musicologist and would have been familiar with the original song. The British guitarist

John Renbourn John Renbourn (8 August 1944 – 26 March 2015) was an English guitarist and songwriter. He was best known for his collaboration with guitarist Bert Jansch as well as his work with the folk group Pentangle, although he maintained a solo care ...

recorded his own arrangement of the tune for two guitars on his 1970 album ''The Lady and the Unicorn''. The song has been recorded by

Maddy Prior Madeleine Edith Prior MBE (born 14 August 1947) is an English folk rock singer, best known as the lead vocalist of Steeleye Span. She was born in Blackpool and moved to St Albans in her teens. Her father, Allan Prior, was co-creator of the p ...

and Tim Hart on the album ''Summer Solstice'' and by

Barbara Dickson Barbara Ruth Dickson (born 27 September 1947) is a Scottish singer and actress whose hits include " I Know Him So Well" (a chart-topping duet with Elaine Paige), " Answer Me" and " January February". Dickson has placed fifteen albums on the UK ...

on ''Full Circle''. The British band

Current 93 Current 93 are an English experimental music group, founded in 1982 by David Tibet. Much of Current 93's early work was similar to late 1970s and early 1980s industrial music: abrasive tape loops, droning synthesizer noises and Tibet's distorte ...

recorded an extended and modified version of the song sometime between 1982 and 1995, adding various new lines. This version, however, was not released until 2010. Saint Etienne recorded a version as ''Western Wind'', as either side of the instrumental ''Tankerville'' on their 1994 album Tiger Bay with

Stephen Duffy Stephen Anthony James Duffy (born 30 May 1960 in Alum Rock, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England) is an English musician, singer and songwriter of Irish ancestry. He was a founding member, vocalist, bassist, and then drummer of Duran Duran. He we ...

duetting in the refrain. Susan McKeown and The Chanting House perform poet Robert Burns's version of the song entitled "Westlin Winds" on the 1995 album "Bones." British composer Roger Jackson used the text and added a new verse in an entirely new setting in 2014. :"Eye of Heaven, pray gently smile, :And though the cold wind blow, :Soft, may you warm and mind my love :That I do love her so" New Zealand composer

Douglas Lilburn Douglas Gordon Lilburn (2 November 19156 June 2001) was a New Zealand composer. Early life Lilburn was born in Whanganui and spent his early years on the family sheep farm in the upper Turakina River valley at Drysdale. He attended Waitaki ...

wrote a string quartet in 1939 entitled ''Phantasy'' based on a reworking of ''Westron Wynde''. He undoubtedly modelled the work on his teacher

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (Lilburn was studying with Vaughan Williams at the time).

Versions

Both simplified and distorted versions of this poem have been printed over the past many years. These include both tampered and accurately modernized versions. For example William Chappell inserted 'O' at the start of the poem and replaced the word 'Cryst' with 'Oh' in his 1859 version. The latter was probably done to make it a safe reading for women and children in the 19th century context. He also included 'doth' between 'down' and 'rayne' based on his probable interpretation that the wind did blow the rain away. Some modernization of spellings was done by other editors to make the poem accessible for modern reading.

In popular culture

The poem is used by: *

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway ( ; July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized fo ...

in his novel ''

A Farewell to Arms ''A Farewell to Arms'' is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant () in the a ...

'' (1929). *

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950) was an English novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic who wrote under the pen name of George Orwell. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to a ...

in ch. 21 of his novel ''

Burmese Days ''Burmese Days'' is the first novel and second book by English writer George Orwell, published in 1934. Set in British Burma during the waning days of empire, when Burma was ruled from Delhi as part of British India, the novel serves as "a po ...

'' (1934). *

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

in her novel '' The Waves'' (1931). * Wilbur Daniel Steele in his short story ''How Beautiful with Shoes''. *

Madeleine L'Engle Madeleine L'Engle (; November 29, 1918 – September 6, 2007) was an American writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and young adult fiction, including ''A Wrinkle in Time'' and its sequels: '' A Wind in the Door'', '' A Swiftly Tilting Planet'' ...

in her novel '' The Small Rain'' (1945). *

Louis Zukofsky Louis Zukofsky (January 23, 1904 – May 12, 1978) was an American poet. He was the primary instigator and theorist of the so-called "Objectivist" poets, a short lived collective of poets who after several decades of obscurity would reemerge a ...

includes the poem in ''A Test of Poetry'' (1948). *

Charles Olson Charles John Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modernist United States poetry, American poet who was a link between earlier Literary modernism, modernist figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams an ...

quotes the poem in "Projective Verse" (1950). *

Thomas Pynchon Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. ( , ; born May 8, 1937) is an American novelist noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, Literary genre, genres and Theme (narrative), th ...

for the title of his first published story, '' The Small Rain'' (1959). *

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

includes the poem in ''Confucius to Cummings,'' edited with Marcella Spann (1964). *

George Oppen George Oppen (April 24, 1908 – July 7, 1984) was an American poet, best known as one of the members of the Objectivist group of poets. He abandoned poetry in the 1930s for political activism and moved to Mexico in 1950 to avoid the attentions o ...

alludes to the poem in "O Western Wind" (1962),"The Little Pin: Fragment" (1975) and "Disasters" (1976). * Walter Tevis in his novel ''Mockingbird'' (1980). * Marta Randall in her book ''Dangerous Games'' (1980). *The character Thierry (

Judge Reinhold Edward Ernest "Judge" Reinhold Jr. (born May 21, 1957) is an American actor who is best known for his work in Hollywood films during the 1980s. He has starred in several popular films such as '' Stripes'' (1981), '' Fast Times at Ridgemont High' ...

) in the 1991 thriller '' Zandalee''. *

Robert Stone (novelist) Robert Anthony Stone (August 21, 1937 – January 10, 2015) was an American novelist, journalist, and college professor. He was five times a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, which he did receive in 1975 for his novel '' Do ...

in Outerbridge Reach (1992) *The character Mary Boleyn (

Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress and singer. The List of highest-paid film actors, world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has been featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100, ''F ...

) in the 2008 film '' The Other Boleyn Girl''. * Barbelle (Web Series) fictitious band from the web series of the same name in the song '' Clear Cut'' (2017). *

Clive James Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.Garth Greenwell in his novel '' Small Rain'' (2024).

References

Sources

*Peter Phillips's reconstruction is taken from his programme notes for his recording ''Western Wind Masses: Taverner, Tye Sheppard'', released 1993 on compact disc by Gimell Records, 454 927-2. *The remaining musical examples above are adapted from versions given in the online version (2004) of the ''

New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language ''Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart'', it is one of the largest reference works on the History of music, ...

''.