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Hazel
Song History
Auld Lang Syne
A simple brief
thought on Scottish
Independance.

Were the outdated
union not of some very
high value to England and
the English, why would
they fight so to try to
keep it?

There are only so many
slices to a pie, for one to
have more, another must
have less.

Lastly - to those Scottish
"Loyalists" - to whom are
you loyal?
Scots royalty died in the
1700's so it can be no
Scots crown - And
certainly not it appears to
those who came before,
that bled for Scotland
and her freedom !  
In the words
of Burns, as he
wrote from the heart.

Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victorie.

Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour;
See approach proud Edward's power,
Chains and slaverie.

Wha would be a traitor-knave?
Wha can fill a coward's grave?
Wha sae base as be a Slave?
Let him turn and flie:

Wha for Scotland's king and law,
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,
Free-man stand, or free-man fa',
Let him follow me.

By Oppression's woes and pains!
By your Sons in servile chains!
We will drain our dearest veins,
But they shall be free!

Lay the proud Usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow!
Let us Do - or Die!!!

Choose your destiny.
THE EARLY POEMS.


Perhaps it is not too much to say that "Auld Lang
Syne" is the best known and most widely diffused
song in the civilised world. The use of the sacred
song "Old Hundred" is limited by differences of sect,
and that of the National Anthem "God save the
Queen" is confined to subjects of the British Empire.
But sectarianism and nationality are parochial in
comparison to the wide domain of humanity
embraced by "Auld Lang Syne." Our brethren in every
quarter of the earth know it better than we do
ourselves; and I have heard a mixed company of
Scots, English, Germans, Italians, and French Swiss
sing the chorus in an upland hotel in Switzerland. The
poetry and the music of the song as now known, have
been developed from poetry and music which existed
previously. In both its parts, it is an example of the
evolution of art. If it should be thought that this view
deprives Robert Burns of the merit of originality, then
so far as Shakspeare has plagiarised "Romeo and
Juliet" from an old Italian tale, and Handel has cribbed
the "Hailstone" chorus from Carissimi’s "Jonah,"
Burns is in the same list. But pedantry of this sort may
be brushed aside. What all the three named artists
touched they embellished,—they found dry bones and
breathed into them life. It is the purpose of this paper
to trace the development of the poetry and music of a
world-wide song, the representative of a form of
literature which has always existed, and which has
stirred human emotion in every age, in spite of
contempt continually poured on it.

The earliest germ of the song "Auld Lang Syne" is
found in an anonymous poem of the 15th century,
which George Bannatyne inserted in 1568 into his well-
known manuscript of Scottish poetry, now in the
Advocates’ Library. The title of the poem "Auld
kindnes Foryett," is in modern Scottish "[Should] auld
acquaintance [be] forgot,"—the first line of all the
subsequent poems on the subject. This old poem,
beginning "This warld is all bot fenyeit fair" in eight
stanzas of eight lines, is catalogued on page 59 of
"Memorials of George Bannatyne. Edinburgh, 1829,"
and is written on folio 80b of the manuscript. It is the
soliloquy of one in straitened circumstances, whose
condition is much aggravated by reflections on the
ingratitude of those who professed themselves
friends in his former prosperous days. The verses of
this unknown writer have considerable merit, and
Lord Hailes inserted them in "Ancient Scottish Poems.
Edinburgh, 1770." The fifth stanza may be quoted as a
specimen of the poetry of the latter part of the 15th
century or the beginning of the 16th, and as an
example of the masculine strength of the old Scots
language:-


"They wad me hals with hude and hutt,
Quhyle I wes riche and had anewch,
About me friendis anew I gatt,
Rycht blythlie on me thay lewch:
Bot now they mak it wondir tewch,
And lattis me stand befoir the yett:
Thairfoir this warld is very frewch,
And auld kyndnes is quyt foryett."

The second song on the subject known to exist, is
printed in Watson’s collection of Scottish poems
published in 1711, entitled "Old Longsyne." It consists
of twelve stanzas of eight lines, and is written
throughout in English, with the exception of the term
"Syne" which occurs in every stanza. The author is
not known, but the poem has been ascribed to Sir
Robert Aytoun, a courtier and well-known poet, who
followed James the Sixth to England, and who
subsequently became private secretary to the Queen.
Internal evidence, however, is against him as the
author, for he did not live in rebellious times, as
referred to in one of the verses. It is more generally
believed to be the work of Francis Sempill of Beltrees,
who lived in the middle of the seventeenth century,
one of a family which produced poets for four
successive generations. The earliest account of this
distinguished family is of "Johne the Danser," whom
Knox describes with his wife "Mary Levingston
surnamit the Lusty," who danced to so much purpose
that Queen Mary bestowed lands on him. The Regent
Morton subsequently attempted to dispossess him, on
the ground that Crown lands could not be alienated,
but was unsuccessful. Francis Sempill was the most
interesting of his tribe, and he has had assigned to
him the authorship of three of our best humorous
songs, "Fy let us a’ to the bridal," "She rose and lat
me in," and "Maggy Lauder," all of which were turned
into Anglo-Scottish by the Durfey school of rhymers
with most indifferent success.

The poem "Old Longsyne" is not at all in the style of
Francis Sempill, but it is in a manuscript book
containing his poems it is said, and he has the best
claim to be considered the author. It is inserted in all
professedly good collections of Scottish songs, and
begins—

"Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never thought upon?"

For an account of the rival claimants Aytoun and
Sempill, see respectively "The Poems of Sir Robert
Aytoun, by Charles Rogers. London, privately printed,
1871," and "The Poems of the Sempills of Beltrees, by
James Paterson. Edinburgh, 1849."

The third song is that of Allan Ramsay, entitled "Auld
Lang Syne," beginning—

"Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Tho’ they return with scars?"

—which he printed in the first volume of his "Tea
Table Miscellany," published in 1724. It is in five
stanzas of eight lines, of the same measure as the
previous song, and is written in English, with the
exception of one or two words. It is so well known and
has been so often printed, that there is no need here
to refer to it at length.

THE MODERN SONG


The first record of the present well-known song is in
Robert Burns’ letter to his friend Mrs Dunlop, dated
December 17, 1788, wherein he enclosed her a copy
of the verse; saying, "There is an old song and tune
which has often thrilled through my soul," and he
apostrophised it in these words, "Light lie the turf on
the breast of the heaven-inspired poet who composed
this glorious fragment!" Five years afterwards—letter,
September, 1793—he sent a copy of the song to
George Thomson, who then was projecting the issue
of a collection of Scottish songs, with music, with a
note that the air was mediocre, but that the song he
sent was a song of the olden time, which never was in
print, nor even in manuscript, until he took it down
from an old man singing,—adding that the poetry was
enough to recommend any air. About the same time
he sent another copy to James Johnson for the now
celebrated Standard Collection of Scottish Songs, the
"Scots Musical Museum;" and it was printed and
published for the first time in December 1796, in the
fifth volume of that work, about five months after
Burns died. A verbatim copy of the verses will be
given at the close of this paper. Burns became first
acquainted with Johnson in Edinburgh at one of the
meetings of the Crochallan Fencibles’ Club in 1788. A
very large number of Burns’ songs were first printed
in Johnson’s Collection, many of which were inserted
anonymously by the directions of Burns himself.
Subsequently he informed Johnson that the songs so
marked he had given to the world as old verses, but
that in fact little more than the chorus of them was
ancient, though there was no reason to tell everybody
this piece of intelligence. It is now known for certain
that he was the author of "Up in the morning early;" "I’
m ower young to marry yet," "Strathallan’s lament,"
"The lovely lass of Inverness," "My heart’s in the
highlands," "M’Pherson’s farewell," "My bonie Mary,"
and a number of others, although all these were
published anonymously in the Museum. "Auld
Langsyne" is in the same category. Burns practised
innocent deception for various reasons. In the case of
"Auld Langsyne" he had praised the writer of the
verses in such high terms, and cornpromised himself
so much, that he was practically barred from
subsequently claiming it as his own composition,
even if he had thought of doing so. That there was an
old rustic song of some sort, with a chorus of the
same class as Burns’ song, is suspected, but nobody
is known to have heard of it, and all attempts to
discover the smallest trace of it have been fruitless,
and Burns it is believed owed nothing to the old song
except the chorus or a fragment of the chorus. The
specimens of "Auld Langsyne" here referred to were
too dull and heavy as patterns for the bright, merry
verses of Burns.

In July 1799, or more than two years after Burns’
verses were first published in the "Scots Musical
Museum," they were printed in the second half
volume of Thomson’s Select "Songs of Scotland," to
the sweet and simple melody to be presently noticed.
But the original order of the stanzas was not adhered
to, and for some reason or another the second stanza
in the Museum became the last in Thomson’s
collection. No explanation of this displacement has
ever been made, and it so happens that nearly all the
modern reprints of the song follow Thomson’s
arrangement of the stanzas. This is unfortunate,
because it spoils the natural sequence and regular
continuity of the song. The original begins by
assuming that the friends have met for social
enjoyment, and immediately the cup of kindness is
passed round to fire enthusiasm. Remembrance of
the happy days of childhood and youth are indulged
in, and then sombre reflections on the parting from
the native land at manhood. Lastly the friends shake
hands with the parting-cup. But according to Thomson’
s version, the companions meet, begin the feast, and
then join hands, after which they return to their cups
and discuss more pint-stoups. This surely is a
corruption of the original. The meeting and parting of
friends is the time for salutation or embrace, not the
middle of the function. Friends at a feast do not get up
in the middle of it, shake hands, and begin again. As
Mr Scott Douglas remarked on the subject, after the
hand-shaking verse the play is over, and the curtain
should fall.


THE MUSIC


A song is not a complete lyric without a melody.
Although this is a self-evident definition, it is
remarkable how few modern poets have taken any
pains to get their verses set to appropriate melodies.
The great writers, with the exception of one here and
there, have thrown their songs to the world unclothed,
to find musical garments as best they could. They
seemed to consider that the choice of a melody for
their verses was beneath notice, and that such care
was only fit for the popular writer of street ballads.
Since the age of Queen Elizabeth, poets have
neglected this important part of a song; Robert Burns
is perhaps the most conspicuous example of a great
song-writer who followed a different course. It is very
remarkable how little attention his biographers have
given to this rare characteristic of Burns. The
predominant idea in his mind, when writing a song,
was the choice of a melody; and there was a nervous
care bestowed over the adoption of a suitable air
always present with him. When he got a subject to
write upon, or when he wished to rewrite some old
unpresentable song, he often postponed the
composition until he was familiar with the air it should
be sung to. In his letters he again and again reverts to
the subject, and it would be easy to give numerous
quotations in support of his attention to the choice of
melodies. How much merit in these matchless lyrics
is due to the singing quality of them, the smoothness
and limpidity of the verses, it is impossible to say; but
it cannot, I think, be doubted that they were improved
in the process. Burns wrote the poetry and chose
almost all the melodies for the 250 songs he sent to
Thomson and Johnson.


THE OLD MELODY


In taking a short survey of the melody of the popular
social song of Scotland, it should be clearly noted that
there are two tunes bearing the name "Auld Lang
Syne." There is the old one which Burns was familiar
with, and which he designated to Thomson as
"mediocre," and the later air which, although in
existence before his time, and used for the dance and
for old songs of his district, he did not know in
connection with "Auld Lang Sync," as it was not
printed with the words of his song until the year 1799,
when he had been dead three years. The old melody
had done service for all the "Langsyne" songs prior to
the year named; and it went out of use as the older
songs disappeared.

Up to the year 1700 there is not in any written record
of music the trace of an air entitled "Auld Lang Syne;"
and prior to about the year 1670, no air can be
recognised as resembling either of the two melodies
which in succession have done service to the song.
The first publication where the music of the old tune
appears is a small book, printed in London in the year
1700. Only one copy is believed to be in existence; [It
is at present in the possession of Mr Alex. W. Inglis, a
Fellow of the Society.] and until it was discovered, its
existence was unsuspected. The full title of this work
is "A Collection of Original Scotch-Tunes (full of the
highland Humours) for the Violin: being the first of this
kind yet Printed, most of them being in the compass
of the Flute. London: Printed by William Pearson, in
Red Cross Alley in Jewin-Street, for Henry Playford, at
his shop in the Temple-Change, Fleet-Street, 1700." It
contains thirty-nine airs, among which are
"Killycrankie," "The Collier’s Lass," "Jingling
Geordie," "The Birks of Abergeldie," "Allan Water,"
and "Deil Stick the Minister." The publisher Henry
Playford was the son of John Playford, a celebrated
music publisher and seller, of the seventeenth
century, who issued a large number of music-books in
England, and to whom the country is indebted for the
preservation of numerous specimens of fine English
popular music, and also for many Scottish airs. This
rare little volume of "Scotch tunes" is a small oblong
quarto of sixteen pages; and one of the thirty-nine airs
which it contains is designated in Cockney Scotch,
"For Old Long Gine my Jo." The tunes have no words,
being a collection for the violin. See Appendix I., No. 1.

This and the other music in Playford’s collection is
evidence that the tunes were in existence previously,
and were known in the seventeenth century. As
bearing on Bums’ "song of the olden time," it is a
curious fact, that although the tune fits the song of
"Old Long Syne" by Francis Sempill of Beltrees, yet
there would appear to have been some old popular
song current at the same time, for the title of the song
in Playford’s book, and that of the chorus which Burns
sent to Johnson "For Auld Lang Syne my Jo," are
precisely alike. There is no reason why Sempill’s
song should not have been sung in England, for the
English liked that sort of dreary verse in their ballads;
but it is scarcely conceivable that such a song could
be popular in Scotland. Therefore I think, with others,
that there was all old rustic song, current in Scotland,
now entirely lost, the chorus of which was heard by
Burns.

The earliest publication of the old melody, with verse,
is in the first printed Scottish song-book with music,
called the Orpheus Caledonius, a collection of fifty
songs, in a folio volume, printed and issued in 1725 in
London, by William Thomson, a Scotsman resident
there. As a boy he took part in the orchestra for the
concert at St Cecilia’s Feast in Edinburgh, 22nd
November 1695, and is there styled Dan. Thompson’s
boy. Dan was one of the King’s trumpeters. William
Thomson gained a good deal of fame as a boy singer
about the end of the seventeenth century, which
procured for him the patronage of royalty and some
members of the aristocracy. His first and second
volumes of the second edition of the Orpheus
Caledonius [The second edition of the Orpheus
Caledonius was published in 1733 in two volumes
octavo. The first volume was a reproduction of the
fifty songs in the first edition of 1725, the second
volume contained fifty additional songs—words and
music.] were dedicated respectively to Queen
Caroline and the Duchess of Hamilton. The old tune
"Auid Lang Syne" occurs as the 31st song in the
volume of 1725. Perhaps it was taken from Playford’s
little book; but, there are some variations from the
original copy, and they are so striking that it is
doubtful whether it was obtained from Playford at all.
Very likely the air was sung to Allan Ramsay’s words
before 1725, and the copy in the Orpheus Caledonius
represents the air as performed in the beginning of
the eighteenth century. It is in the same key as
Playford’s. The words attached to the song are those
verses ascribed to Allan Ramsay, beginning "Should
auld acquaintance be forgot, though they return with
scars?" which first appeared in the Tea-Table
Miscellany, two years prior to the first issue of the
Orpheus Caledonius. It was one of the songs pirated
by Thomson, to which Ramsay directed attention in
the second edition of his Miscellany. See Appendix I.,
No. 2.

Allan Ramsay was very much annoyed with Thomson
for appropriating his verses in a wholesale way, and
to meet him on his own ground he printed a book in
1726 entitled Musick for Allan Ramsay’s Collection of
Scots Songs, which contains the music of 71 songs
from the Tea Table Miscellany of 1724. The intention
was to publish further volumes, hut the above was all
that appeared. The tune of "Auld Langsyne" with
Ramsay’s verses is in this collection, and the music
will be found copied as No. 3 of Appendix I.

The next appearance of the old melody was in the
third volume of the Caledonian Pocket Companion,
published in London by James Oswald, a violin-player
and a music publisher, about the middle of last
century. This work was for instruments,—without
words to the music,— and the old melody differs from
the other two. The second strain particularly, is not at
all like either of the two previous copies, or any other
subsequent transcriptions of it. It resembles the
second movement of an old tune to which I will
afterwards refer, entitled "The Duke of Buccleuch
tune," belonging to the seventeenth century. In
explanation of all the musical flourishes in this set, it
must be remembered that it was written for the violin,
and not for the voice. See Appendix I., No. 4.

The fourth appearance of the melody, in an important
music-book, was in the year 1787, in the first volume
of the Scots Musical Museum, again with Allan
Ramsay’s words. The musical editor introduced new
variations into the air, which here differs from all the
copies previously known. See Appendix I., No. 5.

The precise date when Burns sent his song to
Johnson for the Scots Musical Museum has not been
ascertained, but it probably was in the year 1795.
Burns did not make the acquaintance of Johnson until
after 1787, when the first volume of that Collection
had just been published; but from that year, until he
died, the poet was in constant correspondence with
him. The fifth volume of the Museum, containing the
original impression of his song, was published at the
end of 1796, a few months after the poet’s death.
[Burns must have seen the proof of Johnson’s fifth
volume, for there are two notes in his handwriting in
the Glenriddel MS. distinctly referring to its contents.]
The tune is the old melody, with further variations. It
is written in the key of D, a minor third lower than that
to Ramsay’s words in the first volume of the same
work. A considerable alteration had now been made
from the original music of 1700. The air has been
much simplified, and very much improved. It is well
within the compass of the human voice, and Burns
would not have so relentlessly condemned it as
mediocre if he had seen and heard it in the present
form. To show at a glance the different transcriptions
of the old melody as it appeared in the various
publications, I have made a copy of the whole number
in parallel lines, transposed all into one key—the key
of D,—so that the variations can be seen by any tyro
in music. See Appendix I., No. 6.

THE MODERN MELODY


The first time the song of Burns was printed, with the
melody now so well known, and to which it is
universally sung, was in the second volume of
Thomson’s Select Songs of Scotland, published in
1799. The editor rejected the old time-worn tune, and
replaced it with a variation of another popular melody,
which for many years had done service in a variety of
forms for the dance and song of Scotland. I will take
these in the order of time they appeared in print, and
show the development into the modern melody. The
germ is in a melody entitled "The Duke of Buccleugh’
s tune," printed in a collection called Apollo’s
Banquet, issued after the middle of the seventeenth
century. The title is, "Apollo’s Banquet, or the Violin
Book, containing New Ayres, Theatre Tunes, Horn
Pipes, Jiggs, and Scotch Tunes. London: John
Playford." David Laing, in the Appendix to the
Introduction to the Illustrations by Stenhouse to the
Scots Musical Museum, states that this volume, Apollo’
s Banquet, was advertised in another publication of
1685; but there was an earlier edition than this, for it
was advertised in the fourth edition of the Dancing
Master issued in 1670. The music here given was
copied from the sixth edition of 1690, the earliest copy
in the British Museum. The first movement of the tune
has a resemblance to "Auld Lang Syne," and, so far as
I know, is the earliest specimen of music on which the
melody is based. The melody having a Scottish title,
may be assumed to be one of the "Scotch tunes" in
the collection. This is confirmed by the striking
resemblance of the second movement to the popular
melody of Burns’ song "There was a lad was born in
Kyle." By a transposition into the next key of D, this
second movement will be recognised at once as the
music of Burns’ celebrated natal song. This is the tune
"0 ‘gin ye were deid, guidman," as old as the
Reformation, for it forms one of the spiritual parodies
of the "Gude and Godlie Ballads." It proves the
nationality of the composite melody of "The Duke of
Buccleugh’s tune." See Appendix II., No. 1.

After a lapse of more than seventy years, the modern
melody turns up in a more substantive form. About
1757, Robert Bremner a voluminous publisher of
Scottish song and dance music, issued A Collection of
Scots Reels or Country Dances in Edinburgh. A
strathspey called "The Miller’s Wedding" appears
there, and the third and fourth movements are
substantially the same tune as "Auld Lang Syne." See
Appendix II., No. 2.

In 1780, Alexander M’Glashan, a leader of dance
orchestras in Edinburgh, and a person of magnificent
appearance and showy dress, known by the nick-
name of "King M’Glashan," published A Collection of
Strathspey Reels; and there, under the title of "The
Miller’s Daughter," is printed, note for note, the third
and fourth movements of "The Miller’s Wedding,"
from Bremner’s Collection of Scotch Reels, 1757. See
Appendix II., No. 4.

On comparing this strathspey with the modern tune of
"Auld Lang Syne," one is struck by the notes which
make up the distinctive character of the melody; and,
further on, I will refer to this strathspey again. Of the
same family complexion is a dance tune called "The
lasses of the ferry," which Neil Stewart printed in his
collection Newest and Best Reels or Country Dances,
published in Edinburgh 1761. See Appendix II., No. 3.

In the year 1780, Angus Cumming published A
Collection of Strathspeys or old Highland Reels (dated
Edinburgh, 1780). With one or two unimportant
variations, probably due to misprints, "The Miller’s
Daughter" in this collection is identical with the tunes
in Bremner’s and M’Glashan’s collections. See
Appendix II., No. 5.

In the year 1784, Neil Gow of Dunkeld, the celebrated
fiddler, published A Collection of Strathspey Reels,
which was sold by Neil Stewart previously referred to.
The third and fourth movements of "The Miller’s
Daughter" in this collection are substantially copied
from the earlier publications, but there are some
variations which bring it closer to the modern tune of
"Auld Lang Syne."

Between 1782 and 1788, James Aird issued A
Collection of Sots Airs, in three volumes. The
publisher hailed from Glasgow, where he carried on
an extensive business as a music-seller. Here the
specimen of the tune "Auld Lang Syne" bearing the
name of "Roger’s Farewell" is to be found in the third
volume. The similarity will be easily recognised. See
Appendix II., No. 6.

The locale of the tune is now transferred to England,
and its appearance in a work by an English musician
has given rise to some controversy as to its origin.
The music of the overture to the opera of Rosina,
composed in 1783 by William Shield, a native of
Durham county, was founded on popular or well-
known strains, and the last movement of it is the
strathspey "The Miller’s Wedding," served up with the
true Scots snap. It is directed to be performed
"allegro," by oboes for the melody, and by bassoons,
to imitate the bagpipes, for the lower parts of the
harmony, which consists of one note—the lower C—
held out for the whole sixteen bars of melody, and
seven bars of the chorus repeated. See Appendix III,
No. 11.

All the specimens of the modern melody of "Auld
Lang Syne" above named are for instruments, to be
played as a dance tune, and have been selected from
the most important collections which appeared in the
last century. In no case are they accompanied by
verses. The song and the dance, however, are so
intimately connected that, on a close search among
the folk music of all nations, we should probably find
that most dance tunes at some time or other had
poetry set to them. In the case of Scotland, it is quite
clear that such was the practice; and a very great
proportion of the melodies of songs has been
obtained purely from dance tunes, adapted to suit the
varying rhythm of verses. The early musical
manuscripts of Scotland are all dance music; not that
this proves that all the tunes were originally
composed for the dance, for we know of the existence
of songs earlier than the date of the manuscripts. The
tune now under consideration was then originally a
dance tune so far as we know, although it is probable
it was sung to verses before the date of its earliest
appearance in any dance collection. The first of the
series in print set to poetry is the old rustic song, "I’ve
been courtin’ at a lass," being the complaint of a lover
that as his sweetheart had "sic a gleib o’ gear," he had
small prospect of gaining her parents’ favour. These
verses were first printed in Herd’s collection of 1776,
and the music, with the words from Herd, is in the
fourth volume of Johnson’s Museum of 1792, No. 306.
The melody will be immediately recognised as an
adaptation of the dance, "The Miller’s Daughter." See
Appendix II., No. 7.

In the same volume of Herd, the song "Hey, how,
Johnnie lad" is also printed with music for the first
time. This is evidently an older song than the previous
one. The words are more archaic, and the verse
hobbles a little. It is one of the class of high-kilted
ditties not exactly fit for presentation in this age.
Robert Jamieson, the editor of Popular Ballads and
Songs, 1806, says that this was a popular air in his
youth, which he often had heard sung in the north of
Scotland; and he printed a stanza which he
remembered and a version of his own to be sung to
the old popular air he knew. The air was also printed
in the Museum 1792, with the words from Herd, and it
is "The Lasses of the Ferry" tune from Stewart’s
Reels, of 1761. See Appendix II., No. 8.

Another of the same cycle of melodies is "O can ye
labour lea, young man?" in the same volume of the
Museum as the two others. In Cromeck’s Select
Scottish Songs there is a note by Burns on this song,
to the following effect:—"That it has long been known
as a favourite among the inhabitants of Galloway and
Nithsdale, and that the first verse should be restored
to its original state:


"I fee’d a lad at Roodmass,
Wi’ siller pennies three;
When he cam’ hame at Martinmas
He couldna’ labour lea."

Stenhouse said that he always heard "Michaelmas" as
the term of the first line, and this agrees with the
measure of the melody. Buns did not restore the
words, but he wrote some very pretty verses, of three
stanzas, beginning as Stenhouse knew them, "I fee’d
a man at Michaelmas"—the original manuscript of
which is now in the British Museum in his own
handwriting, as sent to his friend Johnson for
insertion in the Scots Musical Museum, where they
were first printed to the tune as No. 394 of the fifth
volume, published in 1792. Bearing in mind that this
was an old song which Burns for obvious reasons
rewrote, sung to the melody in the Museum, the tune
will be recognised almost note for note as that now
known as "Auld Lang Syne," set to the verses of
Burns. See Appendix II., No. 12.

The tune "Comin' through the rye" is one of the same
family, and the Scottish tune—of which the English
tune of that name is an imitation—is a variation of
"The Miller’s Daughter." The London tune saw the
light of day first, and because that happened the song
has been claimed as English. John Watlen was a
music-seller in Edinburgh, who emigrated to London.
There, in the middle of 1796, he issued in sheet form
the English version of "Comin’ through the rye," with
a tune framed on the old melody, but with some
variations. See Appendix II., No. 9.

While this song was being prepared in London, James
Johnson had set up the old tune, known over all the
south of Scotland, and engraved it as number 418 of
the Museum, in the fifth volume, published December
1796. See Appendix II., No. 10. The London song had
acquired so much popularity during its short run, that
Johnson inserted Watlen’s version in the same
volume of the Museum alongside of the old version.
To the general public, Burns is not known as having
had anything to do with the old song "Comin’ through
the rye;" but those who search in the byways of the
poet’s work will find that several years before 1796 a
very queer version of the song was found in a very
queer volume written by the poet, which fortunately
has disappeared, it is hoped permanently. Burns
refers to this volume in a letter to one of his intimate
friends, Robert Cleghorn, dated December 1793, or
three years before the English song was printed. In
the Museum No. 418 Johnson printed the old Scotch
verse to its own proper melody—one of the sets of
the "Auld Lang Syne" tune immediately after the
London song.

I now come to the time when the famous song was
first printed to the music with which it is now always
associated. The correspondence between the poet
and George Thomson was continuous from
September 1792, and in the following year a copy of
the verses of "Auld Lang Syne" was sent to this
publisher. During the lifetime of the poet, Thomson
had only printed five of his songs, and censorious
critics say that after the poet’s death, he hurried
forward the remaining portion of his first volume,
containing a number of Burns’ songs, in order that he
might anticipate Currie’s Life, which was in the press.
Be that as it may, "Auld Lang Syne" was not
published by Thomson until 1799 (more than two
years after Johnson had published it), and then it
appeared for the first time, associated with the
melody to which it has ever since been sung.

William Stenhouse, in his illustrations of the Museum,
states that Thomson had the words arranged to the air
introduced by Shield in his overture to the opera of
Rosina, written by Mr Brookes, and acted in Covent
Garden in 1783, and that Shield borrowed the air,
almost note for note, from the third and fourth strains
of the Scottish strathspey in Cumming’s collection,
under the title of "The Miller’s Wedding." The
controversy which arose some years ago as to the
origin of the air, took its rise from this note of
Stenhouse; and William Chappell, the author of
Popular Music of the Olden Time, who took part in the
discussion, adopted only that portion of the note
referring to Shield. He carefully ignored the old
popular tune which Stenhouse named, and which, as
has been shown, had been used in so many different
ways during the 18th century. The dance tune, printed
in at least two important collections prior to the
composition of Rosina—viz., Bremner’s in 1757, and
Cumming’s in 1780—was entirely set aside; not to
mention the traditional airs of "O can ye labour lea"
and "I’ve been courtin’ at a Lass," which floated over
the south of Scotland for many years previously. It is
not known where Stenhouse got the information for
his statement; but if he got it from Thomson, then
there is a mystery which required to be cleared up.
Why should there be any mystery? It has been
assumed that both these airs are alike. But that is not
so. There are several important differences. If
Thomson’s set was taken from Shield, then it is a
variation of the Rosina melody, just as this latter is a
variation of "The Miller’s Wedding" from Brernner’s
and Cumming’s collections. The mystery is that
Thomson, if Stenhouse is correct, should have gone
to an English opera for the source of the air, when
there was under his eyes the tune published six or
seven years before,—almost exactly the one he
printed, note for note. Anyone, even unacquainted
with musical notation, by referring to the Appendix II.,
No. 13, will be able to observe the variations which
exist between Thomson’s set, as the tune of "Auld
Lang Syne," and all the others which preceded it in
point of time of publication. It would be wearisome to
go through the whole; and therefore, I will only direct
attention to the air in the overture of Shield’s Rosina
and the tune "O can ye labour lea" as printed in the
Museum 1792. The melody of "Auld Lang Syne"
consists of sixteen bars of music, which absorb the
whole eight lines of the stanza—verse and chorus.
Comparing the Rosina music with the tune "Auld Lang
Syne" as originally printed by Thomson it will be seen
that in each of seven bars, or one-half of the whole,
there are one or more notes which differ. That is to
say, in nearly every second bar, on the average, there
are notes which differ from the "Auld Lang Syne"
tune; and there is alteration in the rhythm or character
of the music, owing to the absence of dotted notes in
the Rosina music. The variations in the tune extend
over the whole of the double stanza, and the actual
number of notes differing is thirteen.

Analyzing, in the same way, the old song, "I fee’d a
man at Michaelmas," or "O can ye labour lea," I find
there are altogether only two bars in which there are
variations in the notes from "Auld Lang Syne;" and
the whole number of different notes in the two verses
is six, which all occur in bars three and five of the first
four lines. The music of the second four lines or the
chorus of "Auld Lang Syne," and that of the
corresponding verse in "O can ye labour lea," is
identical. Stenhouse ought to have known this. He
was familiar with the Museum, and wrote a
commentary on every song in it, including "O can ye
labour lea." He need not have gone beyond the
collection to find Thomson’s tune, for it had been
conveyed bodily into Thomson’s collection, with just
such trifling alterations as a new editor might make on
revising the copy.

Now, this latter song was printed in the fourth volume
of the Museum in 1792. Thomson had no need to go to
England for his copy of "Auld Lang Syne." The music,
and he knew it, was in the volume of a rival
publisher—the tune of a well-known old Nithsdale
song, with new words by the poet Burns. Then, if he
borrowed the tune from Shield, how does it come to
pass that he did not copy Shield, but appeared to get
an almost exact copy of the tune of "O can ye labour
lea"? I think it is quite clear that Thomson copied his
tune from this song, but no doubt he did not wish to
be considered under obligation to a contemporary
rival. The intimate relation between Burns and
Johnson could not be exactly in accordance with
Thomson’s desires. While he was gathering and
selecting in his leisurely fashion, and showing no
signs of any public result, Johnson, with the active
assistance of Burns, was sending out volume after
volume of songs, and forestalling him. Let it be
assumed that Thomson made alterations in the Shield
set—say, in the chorus of the tune—then it is the
greatest case of perfectly unconscious imitation in
music that I know of. The far more simple theory is
that he found the tune of the 394th song of the
Museum to suit exactly the words of "Auld Lang
Syne," and he appropriated it.

The reader should examine the last three lines of
music in Appendix II., where I have marked with an
asterisk all the notes in the "Rosina" tune and those of
"O can ye labour lea" which differ from the melody
"Auld Long Sync" the last line of music in the
Appendix.

It may not be unnecessary to state that "Rosina," like
all English operas of the eighteenth century, was a
musical medley. The music is partly original and
partly borrowed. In the body of the work there are
several Scottish airs, and the overture contains old
musical themes and tunes worked up for orchestral
performance. There is no need for any detailed
analysis of the overture: it may be sufficient to say
that several old English dance tunes are used, as for
example "Singleton’s Slip," which will be found as No.
144 of the fourth edition of the Dancing Master, 1670. It
is no discredit to Shield that he borrowed old
melodies, for all his contemporaries did the same. He
took as the final strain for the overture an old familiar
melody—that of the one we are discussing, and made
it do service as the closing subject.

I have not made any particular search, but I am not
aware that Burns’ song of "Auld Lang Syne," with its
modern tune, jumped into immediate popularity. The
original folio edition of Thomson’s Collection, with the
original setting of the air, was too expensive for a
large circulation, and the smaller octavo edition was
not issued until 1822. The tune is in the second
volume of R. A. Smith’s Scottish Minstrel, which was
completed and issued in six volumes by 1824. It is set
to three stanzas of Burns’ song with three others, not
above mediocrity, by an unknown hand, who was
evidently a temperance reformer, as the drinking-
verses have been suppressed. The editor has had the
audacity to announce Burns as the author without any
note pointing out that new stanzas are an
excrescence. I have not noticed "Auld Lang Syne" in
any other music-book early in the century, and it
would be interesting to know whether it appeared
elsewhere than in Thomson’s book between the years
1799 and 1822. But in the last fifty years this happy
effusion of our national poet has progressed in favour
at an increasing rate: it now girdles the habitable
earth, and beyond all question it is the widest-spread
social song in the Anglo-Saxon language. He is a wise
man who recognises song as a powerful lever for
raising emotion; and Browning was correct when he
said that music has exercised an influence over
human action, more than all the other arts combined.

A simple love song for the one that is missed.
The meaning of the title is old Scots for
"Unable to sleep"