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The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

Posted: 28 Dec 2011 03:20 PM PST

Origin of that famous song sung all over the world by revellers ushering in the New Year.

AT the stroke of midnight on Dec 31, millions of people around the globe will hold hands and belt out the famous song Auld Lang Syne. But how many will have a clue what it means?

The Scottish poem and heartstring-tugging tune are reckoned to vie for the title of most widely recognised song on the planet after Happy Birthday.

From the drunken masses in London's Trafalgar Square to small towns in New Zealand, Auld Lang Syne is a staple of New Year's, while the tune, set to different words, appears in places as diverse as Mexico and China.

Yet with lines like "We twa hae run about the braes/And pu't the gowans fine," it isn't only midnight tipplers who might have difficulty knowing what they are singing.

And an exhibition in New York reveals the strange-sounding words are only the tip of a murky and romantic iceberg.

"This is a song we all sort of know," says Christine Nelson, curator of the exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan. But "we don't know what it means, or where it comes from."

The common assumption is that Scottish poet Robert Burns composed the ballad. The truth seems less straightforward.

The first recorded reference comes from Burns, who in 1788 wrote to a female friend about her recent reunion with a long-lost acquaintance.

Commenting on the theme of old friendship, Burns mentions in his letter "the Scots phrase, 'Auld lang syne'," which translates as "old time's sake". Then he tells his friend: "There is an old song & tune which has often thrilled thro' my soul."

Right there, the seeds of the world's favourite nostalgic song appear to have been planted. However, another half decade passed before Burns set the words on paper and sent them to a publisher – and even then, it seems, almost as an afterthought.

A celebrated poet, Burns was dedicating what would be his last decade, before dying at 37, to the collection of traditional Scottish folk songs.

Dozens of songs were discussed in a long 1793 letter to the publisher George Thomson. Then Burns mentions: "One song more & I have done – auld lang syne."

Claiming he "took it down from an old man's singing," Burns says the song has "never been in print, nor even in manuscript."

He then presents the whole thing, starting with the famous lines, "Should auld acquaintance be forgot/And never brought to mind?" and continuing for a total of six verses, most of which tend to be left out by modern revellers.

Whether Burns did just copy the mysterious old man's song or whether he is in fact the secret author, is a hot subject for the poet's fans.

"My sense is that he rewrote most of it, because it really does have that ring of Burns' poetry," says curator Nelson.

Thomson himself thought there was "evidence of our Bard himself being the author."

The tune took its own tortuous path. The words were first set to entirely different music, while the tune known today as Auld Lang Syne was originally matched to other lyrics, such as the uncatchy sounding ditty O Can Ye Labor Lea, Young Man.

In 1799, when Burns was already dead, words and music were combined in their final form.

But it would be another two centuries before that potent mix of nostalgia and opportunity for a loud sing-along blew up into a global phenomenon. The song was popularised in the 1920s and 30s by American big band leader Guy Lombardo, then again in a string of Hollywood movies – notably for a crucial scene in the 1946 film It's A Wonderful Life – and never looked back.

How an obscure Scottish ballad with hard-to-pronounce words made that leap confounds even experts like Nelson.

"I don't know the answer to that," she says.

What she's sure of though is that the song, which never mentions New Year's but calls for drinking to long friendship, perfectly suits the occasion.

"It's a part of almost everyone's life in the English-speaking world," she says. "That association of valuing old friends. ... We understand that's what the song is about." – AFP

THE full original text of Auld Lang Syne by Scottish poet Robert Burns, followed by the modern English translation as given by New York's Morgan Library & Museum, a major centre for Burns scholars.

The Morgan decided to leave some of the more easily understood Scots words for effect, including "auld lang syne", which simply means "old time's sake".

*What it means

Original version

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And days o' lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my Dear,

For auld lang syne,

We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

We twa hae run about the braes,

And pu't the gowans fine;

But we've wander'd mony a weary foot,

Sin auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidlet i' the burn,

Frae mornin' sun till dine:

But seas between us braid hae roar'd,

Sin auld lang syne.

And there's a hand, my trusty feire,

And gie's a hand o' thine;

And we'll tak a right gude-willie waught,

For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp,

And surely I'll be mine;

And we'll tak a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

Modern translation

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And days o' lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my Dear,

For auld lang syne,

We'll take a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

We two have run about the hills,

And pulled the daisies fine;

But we've wander'd many a weary foot,

Since auld lang syne.

We two have paddled in the brook,

From mornin' sun till dinnertime:

But seas between us broad have roar'd,

Since auld lang syne.

And there's a hand, my trusty friend,

And give us a hand o' thine;

And we'll take a right goodwill draft,

For auld lang syne.

And surely ye'll buy your pint-cup,

And surely I'll buy mine;

And we'll take a cup o' kindness yet,

For auld lang syne.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Khamis, 29 Disember 2011

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

The Star Online: Entertainment: Music

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