Should Old Acquaintance be forgot,
and never thought upon;
The flames of Love extinguished,
and fully past and gone:
Is thy sweet Heart now grown so cold,
that loving Breast of thine;
That thou canst never once reflect
On old long syne.
You would be forgiven to think that was Aud Lang Syne by Robert Burns. James Watson wrote the above, printed in 1711, whereas Burns’ lyrics came in 1788. Both are derived from an old scottish song that was passed down through aural tradition until the 18th century. This call to remember old friendships and cherish fond memories seems especially fitting to end a year like this one.
The melody that Burns wrote down uses the pentatonic scale, one of the oldest scales in existence. It was developed independently by various ancient civilizations and is still one of the most common scales in music. Another familiar song that uses the same 5 note scale is Amazing Grace. Not to go too far down a music theory rabbit-hole, but a primary reason why it was developed so early was due to it being closely related to the harmonic series. I only bring that up because you can hear some of the harmonic overtones that make up the harmonic series starting right at the one minute mark of the recording embedded at the bottom. End of the music theory rabbit-hole!
The tune has been taken and arranged by so many great composers. Beethoven included a very cheerful arrangement in his 12 Scottish Folksongs. Geroge Cohan uses it as a tag in You’re a Grand Old Flag, John Phillip Sousa in the middle section of Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. Ernest Tomlinson perhaps took the sentimental reminiscing evoked by the song the most literally, weaving 152 quotations from popular and classical composers into in his 20 minute Fantasia on Auld Lang Syne, for orchestra. I would challenge you to find as many as you can in a single listen, I found 89 (hint-sometimes he has 3, 4, or even more, going at the same time!).
All of those renditions are very joyful sounding to me. When I listen to Aud Lang Syne, I generally think of a very different feeling. The sentiment reminds me of the lyrics in a musical I music directed a couple years back, The Addams Family. There’s a song in it titled Happy/Sad, sung by a father happy his daughter is growing up and getting married, but sad at the same time that she is leaving him. Aud Lang Syne is a similar song of nostalgia for me, the happy and sad feeling of another year becoming a memory. I hope these handful of moments you’ve spent reading these has been enjoyable. I wish each of you a very happy new year!
-John
