Songs & Compositions Codexery

Auld Lang Syne

A Scottish song of farewell and remembrance, sung worldwide at New Year and other occasions.

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Robert Burns wrote the Scots-language poem that forms the text of "Auld Lang Syne" in 1788, but it draws on an older folk song.[1][2] At midnight on Hogmanay (New Year's Eve), people in English-speaking countries traditionally sing it to say goodbye to the old year.[3] The song is also performed at funerals, graduations, and as a closing song at Scouting jamborees and other events.[3]

Quick Facts

Melody
Traditional tune (first printed 1799)

Facts from the source article.

Making and release

Burns sent a copy of the original song to the Scots Musical Museum in 1788, remarking that he had taken it down from an old man.[4] The ballad "Old Long Syne" printed in 1711 by James Watson shows considerable similarity to Burns's poem.[5] In 1792 Joseph Haydn arranged the song as one of over 400 Scottish folk song arrangements commissioned by George Thomson.[6] The first recording of the song was made on wax cylinder in 1898 by Charles Samuel Myers and Alfred Cort Hadden.[7]

Burns himself is reasonably believed to have written the remaining parts of the poem.[4] An earlier melody existed for the song, and Robert Burns described that tune as "mediocre".[8][9] Frank C. Stanley's 1910 recording is thought to be the first commercial one.[10]

What the cited sources add

The Electric Scotland history site states that the earliest germ of the song is found in an anonymous poem of the 15th century inserted by George Bannatyne in 1568.[9] That site also notes that Burns sent a copy of the song to George Thomson in 1793, saying the air was mediocre and the song was never in print until he took it down from an old man.[9] The same article states that some of the earliest reports of the song's use at parting come from American college graduations in the 1850s.[11] The reallifestories.org account notes that Cliff Richard's "The Millennium Prayer" set the Lord's Prayer to the melody of "Auld Lang Syne" and reached number one in the UK in 1999.[12]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Auld Lang Syne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Lang Syne", Dictionary of the Scots Language (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Auld Lang Syne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Robert Burns – Auld Lang Syne", BBC, 23 April 2009; "The History and Words of Auld Lang Syne", Scotland.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Auld Lang Syne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Honeck, "Our Frontier Is the World: The Boy Scouts in the Age of American Ascendancy", Cornell University Press, 2018, p. 103; "The End of The Jamboree", Manchester Guardian, 9 Aug 1920, p. 5 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Auld Lang Syne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lindsay, "The Burns Encyclopedia", Robert Hale Ltd., December 1996 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Auld Lang Syne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "nls.uk", nls.uk (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Auld Lang Syne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Folksong Arrangements by Haydn / Folksong Arrangements by Haydn and Beethoven / Programmes / Home – Trio van Beethoven", www.triovanbeethoven.at; "Auld Lang Syne packaged by Joseph Haydn", Interlude, 2015-12-29 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Auld Lang Syne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Miles, "Auld Lang Syne", Sounds – World and traditional music – Ethnographic wax cylinders, 15 February 2013 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Auld Lang Syne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Electric Scotland history site", ElectricScotland.com; "The History and Words of Auld Lang Syne", Scotland.org; Traditional, "Auld Lang Syne", Traditional Songs from Scotland, 2006 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. "Electric Scotland history site", ElectricScotland.com. facts only, no text reused. electricscotland.com
  10. Wikipedia, "Auld Lang Syne" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fred Bronson, "Kenny G hits with auldie but goodie", 8 January 2000, p. 118; Fred Bronson, "Kenny G hits with auldie but goodie", 8 January 2000, p. 118 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. "Why do people link hands to sing Auld Lang Syne?", BBC News, 31 December 2021. facts only, no text reused. bbc.co.uk
  12. Burden, "Cliff Richard – The Miracle of the Millennium Prayer", reallifestories.org. facts only, no text reused. reallifestories.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Auld Lang Syne (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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