Auld Lang Syne

Postcard 1910

by Lauren Gilbert

          New Year’s Eve…  This is the day when most of us look back at the old year passing away, celebrating the good things that happened, mourning our losses, and generally taking stock.  We also look forward to the new year approaching, preparing to shake off the dust and move forward.  Parties and celebrations are the order of the day, a happy way to speed the old year out and the New Year in.  Many traditions are involved in the New Year’s celebration, and one of these is the singing of “Auld Lang Syne.” 



Robert Burns



          The lyrics of “Auld Lang Syne” are attributed to Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796).  However, this is a much older song than we really know.  Variations of “Auld Lang Syne” abound.  Over the years, as is the way with many traditional songs, the lyrics and melodies have varied to suit the time and those singing it.  Although not published, a written record of lyrics for this song (then a lament about a faithless lover) was found in the Commonplace Book of James Crichton, 2^nd Viscount Frendraught, for 1662.  James Watson included a version in his CHOICE COLLECTION OF COMIC AND SERIOUS SCOTS POEMS, published in 1711.  Allan Ramsay also included “Auld Lang Syne” in A COLLECTION OF SONGS published in 1724. 

          In September of 1793, Robert Burns wrote a letter to George Thomson, an editor working on an anthology of songs.  Burns commented on songs that Thompson had proposed for the anthology, and suggested that Thompson include one more, which was “Auld Lang Syne.”  Burns indicated that he wrote down the words while listening to an old man sing them.  Burns’ lyrics appeared in Volume 5 of James Johnson’s SCOTS MUSICAL MUSEUM, published in 1796, and are indicated as “old verses with corrections or additions.”  The music published with it then was different, and Burns apparently did not care for it.  When Thomson’s anthology SELECT COLLECTION OF ORIGINAL SCOTISH AIRS was published in 1799 (after Burns’ death), he changed the music to that which we know now.  The Morgan Library and Museum website has a wonderful online exhibition where you can look at and listen to a reading, and the musical variations of this song (http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/online/AuldLangSyne/default.asp ).

           “Auld Lang Syne” was associated with the Scottish celebration of Hogmanay (a traditional New Year’s event).  Whether it was because it was a traditional song, or because of its theme of remembrance, it gradually became associated with the New Year’s events in the United Kingdom, and it spread to the colonies.  However, it was not a “popular” song in the modern sense until 1929 when Guy Lombardo adopted “Auld Lang Syne” for his annual New Year’s Eve broadcasts on radio and then television.

          Depending on the version of choice, the number of verses varies, and the meaning of the song can be obscure because of the dialect.  Commonly, the first verse and refrain is what we sing as the ball drops at midnight.  I thought it would be nice to include the first verse and refrain with some clarification:

“Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And days of auld lang syne?”

Chorus:

“For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne.

We’ll tak a cup of kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.”

“Auld”-old.    “Auld lang syne”- literally old long since, by-gone days, old times.    “Tak”-take.

I wish you a very Happy New Year!

      

Sources:

AboutAberdeen.com  “Scottish Hogmanay Customs and Traditions at New Year.”    http://www.aboutaberdeen.com/hogmanaycustoms.php

Hogmanay.net  ” Frequently Asked Questions.”  http://www.hogmanay.net/history/faq 

Kirsten Koster blog.  “A Regency Primer on Christmastide & New Year’s.”  Posted 12/27/2011 by Kirsten Koster.  http://www.kristenkoster.com/2011/12/a-regency-primer-on-christmastide-new-years  

The Morgan Library & Museum Online Exhibitions.   “Auld Lang Syne-The Story of a Song.”  http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/online/AuldLangSyne/default.asp

Washington Post Style Section online.  “’Auld Lang Syne’: New Year’s song has a convoluted history” by Claire Prentice, published 12/30/2011.  http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2011-12-30/lifestyle/35287090_1_auld-lang-syne-auld-lang-syne-burns     

Yahoo! Voices.  “History Behind Auld Lang Syne: The New Year’s Eve Song.”  By Michael Barger, posted 12/8/2008.  http://voices.yahoo.com/history-behind-auld-lang-syne-years-eve-song-2278848.html 

Images from Wikimedia Commons:

Happy New Year http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/PostcardHappyNewYearOldManKidScytheHourglass1910.jpg/320px-PostcardHappyNewYearOldManKidScytheHourglass1910.jpg

Robert Burns portrait by Nasmyth, 1787 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/PG_1063Burns_Naysmith.jpg

By Lauren Gilbert, author of HEYERWOOD: A Novel

Website: http://www.heyerwood.com/

Blog: http://laurengilbertheyerwood.wordpress.com/

Folk Music - Something Scottish

Following on from MM Bennetts, post on Burn's Night about Robert Burns back in January, I thought I would post this month a folk song written by the man himself.

Hughie Graham (1792) by Robert Burns

Hughie Graham is a ballad and dark tale written by Robert Burns set in Stirling (Scotland).

It's about a man (Hughie) who steals the bishops horse and is hung for it (typical folk song with a bad ending!). But reading through the lyrics, you will see that this is not a simple case of theft, but a tangled web. Hughie stole the horse for a very good reason - his wife had been seduced by the bishop. The song takes us through Hughie being caught, then being paraded through the town as he is taken to the gallows. Some people try to buy Hughie's freedom from the bishop. But the bishop is having none of it and wants Hughie to hang for his own honour.

Hughie then betroths his swords to his brothers, and tells his family (his kith and kin) that he has not disgraced them. That his wife is the bishops whore, and to murder the bishop next time they see him (when next they meet the bishops cloak, leave it shorter by the hood).

Below is a musical version of the poem, sung by folk legend June Tabor and underneath that is the song read by Gary Lewis.

I first came across this song about ten years ago and had no idea it was written by Robert Burns, but it's become a firm favourite in my Folk Music collection. I hope you like it.

Hughie Graham

Our lords are to the mountains gane,

A hunting o' the fallow deer;

And they hae gripet Hughie Graham

For stealin o' the bishop's mare.

And they hae tied him hand and foot,

And led him up thro' Stirling town;

The lads and lasses met him there,

Cried, Hughie Graham thou art a loun.

O lowse my right hand free, he says,

And put my braid sword in the same;

He's no in Stirling town this day,

Daur tell the tale to Hughie Graham.

Up then bespake the brave Whitefoord,

As he sat by the bishop's knee;

Five hundred white stots I'll gie you,

If ye'll let Hughie Graham gae free.

O haud your tongue, the bishop says,

And wi' your pleading let me be;

For tho' ten Grahams were in his coat,

Hughie Graham this day shall die.

Up then bespake the fair Whitefoord,

As she sat by the bishop's knee;

Five hundred white pence I'll gie you,

If' ye'll gie Hughie Graham to me.

O haud your tongue now lady fair,

An wi' your pleading let me be;

Altho' ten Grahams were in his coat,

Its for my honor he maun die.

They've taen him to the gallows knowe,

He looked to the gallows tree,

Yet never color left his cheek,

Nor ever did he blin' his e'e.

At length he looked round about,

To see whatever he could spy;

And there he saw his auld father,

And he was weeping bitterly.

O haud your tongue, my father dear,

And wi' your weeping let it be;

Thy weeping's sairer on my heart,

Than a' that they can do to me.

And ye may gie my brother John

My sword that's bent in the middle clear,

And let him come at twelve o'clock

And see me pay the bishop's mare.

And ye may gie my brother James

My sword that's bent in the middle brown;

And bid him come at four o'clock,

And see his brother Hugh cut down.

Remember me to Maggy my wife,

The niest time ye gang o'er the moor;

Tell her, she staw the bishop's mare,

Tell here, she was the bishop's whore.

And ye may tell my kith and kin,

I never did disgrace their blood;

And when they meet the bishop's cloak,

To mak it shorter by the hood.

----

Jenna Dawlish is the author of two Victorian novels: Love Engineered and Sprig of Thyme

www.jennadawlish.com