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874 ceccxiii. — auld langsyne.
called " The Silver Tassie/' excepting the first four lines,
was his own.
In the Reliques, published by Cromek, Burns has the fol-
lowing remark : " Ramsay, as usual with him, has taken
the idea of Auld Langsyne from the old fragment, which may
be seen in the Museum, vol. v/' And, in a letter to Mr Thom-
son, dated September, 1793, he says, " One song more, and
I am done — Auld Langsyne. The air is but mediocre ; but
the following song, the old song of the olden times, and
which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript, until
I took it down from an old man's singing, is enough to re-
commend any air."
Mr Cromek justly observes, that Burns sometimes wrote
poems in the old ballad style, which, for reasons best known
to himself, he gave the public as songs of the olden time.
"Auld Langsyne — Go fetch tome aPint o' Wine — The lovely
Lass of Inverness" — are all proofs of this fact. He admitted
to Johnson, that thi'ee of the stanzas of Langsyne only were
old, the other two being written by himself. These three
stanzas relate to the cup, the pint stoup, and a gude willie-
waught. Those two introduced by Burns, have only rela-
tion to the innocent amusements of youth, contrasted with
the cares and troubles of maturer age. Burns brushed up
many of the old lyrics of Caledonia in a similar manner, and
several of them certainly required the pruning-hook to ren-
der them even tolerable to the present generation. Ramsay
did the same thing, and it was this that offended Ritson, the
antiquary. " Burns,'"" says he, '' as good a poet as Ramsay, is,
it must be regretted, an equally licentious and unfaithful
publisher of the performances of others. Many of the ori-
ginal, old, ancient, genuine songs, inserted in Johnson's Scots
Musical Museum, derive not a little of their merit from pass-
ing through the hand of this very ingenious critic." — Histori-
cal Essay on Scottish Song.
With regard to the tune to which the verses are adapted
in Johnson's Museum, it is the original air of " Auld Lang-
called " The Silver Tassie/' excepting the first four lines,
was his own.
In the Reliques, published by Cromek, Burns has the fol-
lowing remark : " Ramsay, as usual with him, has taken
the idea of Auld Langsyne from the old fragment, which may
be seen in the Museum, vol. v/' And, in a letter to Mr Thom-
son, dated September, 1793, he says, " One song more, and
I am done — Auld Langsyne. The air is but mediocre ; but
the following song, the old song of the olden times, and
which has never been in print, nor even in manuscript, until
I took it down from an old man's singing, is enough to re-
commend any air."
Mr Cromek justly observes, that Burns sometimes wrote
poems in the old ballad style, which, for reasons best known
to himself, he gave the public as songs of the olden time.
"Auld Langsyne — Go fetch tome aPint o' Wine — The lovely
Lass of Inverness" — are all proofs of this fact. He admitted
to Johnson, that thi'ee of the stanzas of Langsyne only were
old, the other two being written by himself. These three
stanzas relate to the cup, the pint stoup, and a gude willie-
waught. Those two introduced by Burns, have only rela-
tion to the innocent amusements of youth, contrasted with
the cares and troubles of maturer age. Burns brushed up
many of the old lyrics of Caledonia in a similar manner, and
several of them certainly required the pruning-hook to ren-
der them even tolerable to the present generation. Ramsay
did the same thing, and it was this that offended Ritson, the
antiquary. " Burns,'"" says he, '' as good a poet as Ramsay, is,
it must be regretted, an equally licentious and unfaithful
publisher of the performances of others. Many of the ori-
ginal, old, ancient, genuine songs, inserted in Johnson's Scots
Musical Museum, derive not a little of their merit from pass-
ing through the hand of this very ingenious critic." — Histori-
cal Essay on Scottish Song.
With regard to the tune to which the verses are adapted
in Johnson's Museum, it is the original air of " Auld Lang-
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| Special collections of printed music > Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Scots musical museum > Volume 5 > (134) Page 374 |
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| Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/87804218 |
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| Description | "Humbly dedicated to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland". |
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| Shelfmark | Glen.201d |
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| Attribution and copyright: |
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More information
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| Description | By James Johnson. 6 volumes. Edinburgh : Printed & sold by Johnson & Co., 1787-1803. Burns contributed largely to the work, and Stephen Clarke prepared the arrangements of most of the airs. ["The volumes of the Musical museum, as originally published, were 'Humbly dedicated to the Catch Club, instituted at Edinburgh June 1771.' On the completion of the sixth and last volume, in 1803, Johnson substituted a new set of title-pages, dedicating the work 'To the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.'"--Laing's pref., to 1839 ed., v. 1, p. ii, foot-note]. |
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| Shelfmark | Glen.201-201e |
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More information
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| Description | Scottish songs and music of the 18th and early 19th centuries, including music for the Highland bagpipe. These are selected items from the collection of John Glen (1833 to 1904). Also includes a few manuscripts, some treatises, and other books on the subject. |
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| Description | The Glen Collection and the Inglis Collection represent mainly 18th and 19th century Scottish music, including Scottish songs. The collections of Berlioz and Verdi collected by bibliographer Cecil Hopkinson contain contemporary and later editions of the works of the two composers Berlioz and Verdi. |
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