The Enigma: A Solution

2021

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Section: The Art Composer's Songmentioning

confidence: 99%

Auld Lang Syne

2021

1. Elements of a Theory of Song

2021

Auld Lang Syne

Are songs, as one dictionary definition suggests, a “mere trifle”? Or do they, in fact, play a highly significant role in human society? This chapter discusses the social functions of songs and singing, drawing on research into the songs folk sing, and why. In particular, it builds on Ernst Klusen’s concept of “group song”, which indicates the special bonds that emerge between social groups and “their” songs. Through continued reuse, groups songs can become one of the ties that hold these groups together. The chapter also introduces the concepts of implied significance and inherited significance to explain how songs can become associated with certain groups, practices, or rituals, including where this is not immediately clear from the basic material of the songs (such as the words or the tune). The chapter closes with a consideration of the particular challenges faced when tracing the complex history of Auld Lang Syne, and introduces further terms and abbreviations used in the book.

2. Auld Lang Syne

2021

Auld Lang Syne

The song Auld Lang Syne as we know it today first appeared in print in the late eighteenth century. It is closely associated with poet and songwriter Robert Burns, whose life, work and legacy are briefly summarised here. This chapter, however, primarily traces the prehistory of the modern song, which has been traced back as far as the fifteenth century. The focus here is particularly on the period from the late seventeenth century, when various songs on the sentiments “Should auld acquaintaince be forgot” and “Auld lang syne” were in circulation. These songs were generally sung to a different tune than the most familiar tune of Auld Lang Syne: that older tune is, however, related to, but not identical with, the tune to which Burns’s version was originally set. The emergence and influence of collections of “national song” such as those in which Burns’s song first appeared are discussed alongside other aspects of the song culture of eighteenth-century Britain. The chapter situates all of these developments in the political, social and cultural context of Scotland and Britain in the eighteenth century—a time of immense change in all these areas—and concludes with a discussion of possible links between the eighteenth-century songs on “Auld lang syne” and the Jacobite movement.