‘AULD LANG SYNE'

Evening Star, Issue 21992, 30 March 1935, Page 19

‘AULD LANG SYNE '

HISTORY OF THE SOHG [W. J. Fitzpatiuck, in the ‘ Weekly Scotsman.’] Quite a literature of its own has accumulated within the past half-century as to the origin of the song and tune of ‘ Auld Lang Syne,’ and we are at length' in a position to give a summary of all that is really known ocncerning this most popular of Scotch ballads. It may truly be said that of all social songs in the English language, ‘ Auld Lang Syne ’ is the most widely known, and its popularity is not confined to Great Britain, but is equally great in the Far West, in Australia, beneath the Southern' Cross, in Africa, and, in fact, among all English-speaking people. Robert Burns, with his own hand, wrote four complete copies of ‘ Auld Lang Syne ’ between the years 1783 and 1793. In sending the first version to Mrs Dunlop, on December 17, 1788, he writes: “ There is an old song and tune which has often thrilled through my soul. . . . Light lie the turf on the breast of the heaven-inspired poet who composed this glorious fragment. There is more of the fire of native genius in it than in half a dozen of modern English Bacchanalians.” A second version was sent to Johnson’s ‘ Museum,’ but ■whereas the Dunlop manuscript is preserved in Albany, New York, this second transcript cannot be traced. Strange to say, Johnson had previously printed a version of the song, written by Allan Ramsay, but to the same tune which Burns forwarded. Hero is the first verse of Ramsay’s, as printed in the ‘Tea Table Miscellany,’ m 1724: Should auld acquaintance be forgot, Tho’ they return with scars, These are the noble hero’s lot Obtained in glorious wars; Welcome my Vara to my breast, Thy arms about me twine, And make me once again as blest As I was lang syne.

Burns, in September, 1793, wrote out a third copy of the song, and forwarded it to his publisher, George Thomson, accompanying it with a note as follows: “One song more, and I have done, *Auld Lang Syne.’ The air is but mediocre, but the song—the old song of the olden times; and which has never been in print, nor oven in manuscript, until I took it down from an old man’s singing—is enough to recommend any air.” A FOURTH VERSION. Somewhat later ho transcribed a revised or fourth version of the song: which will be found in his ‘ Interleaved Museum,’ and which was discovered forty years ago by Mr J. C. Dick, of Newcastle-on-Tyne. An added interest is imparted to the ‘ Interleaved Museum ’ copy, as it definitely decides the long-contested war of words as to the meaning of a “ gude willy waught,” in favour of “ a deep drink of good fellowship”—“gude-willy” being Old English for. “ good willing,” or God be with you, to be found in John Lydgate’s ‘ Complaint of the Black Knight,’ 1415. Thus, the present version of the song ■of ‘ Auld Lang Syne ’ dates from 1794, and is an old folk ballad, recast and polished by Burns. The antiquity of the phrase which gave its name to the song may be guessed from the fact that it is to be found in an Old English poem by Robert de Brunne, about the year 1395, but the germ of the song is to be sought in an anonymous ballad of eight verses rn the Bannatyno MS., 1568, named ‘ Auld Kyndes Foryett,’ Lord Rosebery has in his possession a folk song dating from about the year 1690, the chorus of which runs:— On ould long syne, my jo,' On old long syne; That thou canst never once reflect On old long syne. THE ORIGINAL BALLAD. What may be regarded as the undoubtful. original ballad as heard by Burns was printed in Watson’s ‘ Scots Poems ’ in 1711, almost 200 years ago. The first verse begins thus: Should old acquaintance be forgot, And never thought upon, The flames of love extinguished, ' And freely past and gone? Is thy kind heart now T grown so cold In that loving breast of thine, That thou canst never once reflect On old long syne? However, all will agree that to the genius of Burns must be traced the “ revised version,” and in a sense may to him be ascribed the authorship, though he wilfully pretended, in 1788, that it was an “ old song ” of incomparable beauty, insinuating, of course, that another bard bad penned it. As previously stated, Burns’s “ final revise ” is in his ‘ Interleaved Museum,’ but it does not materially vary from that found in the printed copy of 1794. The tune which Burns adapted to his song is different from that to which it is now sung, but it was the air to which the four or five old ballads of the name had been associated for over a century, and which was first printed by Playford in 1700, being subsequently reprinted in the ‘Orpheus Caledonius ’ in 1725; by Ramsav in 1726; and by Watts in 1730. In 1796 this air was superseded by the-present melody, and was printed with Burns’s words in Johnson’s ‘ Museum ’ the year that the poet died. THE FAMILIAR TUNE.

That Burns was familiar _ with the tune as now, sung at most social gatherings is evident from a letter of his to Thomson, dated November, 1794, in which ho enclosed the two tunes for comparison. One was the old tune of 1700, touched up by Stephen Clarke, the musical editor of the ‘ Scots Musical Museum,’ and the other was the present melody, which Burns designates “ A common Scots country dance,” and which he had previously used for “ I fee’d a man at Martinmas,’ printed m 1792. But here I must take notice of the claim that has been set up for an Englishman. William Shield, as composer of the tune as now sung for the past 140 years. Mr Adair Fitzgerald, in his ‘ Stories of Famous Songs.’ says that “ the melody was beyond dispute composed hv William Shield,” and that it was introduced by him into the ballad opera of ‘ Bosnia,’ produced on Decernber 01, 1782, and published in 1783. A sufficient reply to this is that Shield introduced numerous airs into his ballad operas, many of which were unquestionably composed before he was born, e.g., ‘ The Arethusa,’ by O’Carolan. But recent research has proved to demonstration that the tune was actually printed by Bremmer, in 1759, when Shield was hut ten years old; whilst going further back the germ of the melody appears in 1 Apollo’s Banquest ’ in' 1690. Even assuming that Shield was the first to introduce the melody into a ballad opera, ‘ Rosina ’ (1783) contains airs that are beyond doubt English, French, and Scotch, which Shield _ merely arranged for orchestra. It is absolutely certain that over two years before the production of •* Rosina, 1 the tune of ‘ Auid

Lang Syne,’ then known as ‘ Can You Labor Lea,’ was printed by Cummings in his ‘ Strathspeys,’ and is none other than the “ common dance tune ” with! which Burns was familiar. Thus Shield’* claim falls to the ground, and Scotland can rightfully point with pardonable pride to the song and tune as genuine products of “ Auld Reekie.”