William Shield (1748-1829) composer and tune collector

England lays claim to 'Auld Lang Syne'

Headline from - The Independent 15th December 1998

The controversy over who wrote the tune to Auld Lang Syne has resurfaces again, it is of course William Shield (1748-1829) a Boat Builder and later, an Opera composer (for the Drury Lane theatre) from Swalwell-on-Tyne England. The tune, as written by Shield, is reproduced here, so you can see (and hear) yourself.

[ Play the Tune - William Shield, Overture for Rosina (final section) Slow Version ]
[ Play the tune - more upbeat with bass ] [ The Discusion ... ]

William Shield

William Shield (1748-1829) composer and tune collector

The tune comes from the last section of the overture of "Rosina", Shield's light Opera which was performed at Covent Garden London England on December 31st 1782. The midi above is played slowly, it should be played Allegro. The high part is marked "Oboe" and the low part (bass) is marked "Bafsoons &C to imitate the Bagpipe".

Comments from the time include,

" The music of Rosina, from the beauty of the melodies, and their elegant and effective accompaniments confirmed the favourable opinion the public had of his talents by his first production." W.T. Parke (friend)

" His music is not marked with force or energy; but it is perfectly suited to the subject of his pieces, which are sweet and simple pictures of rural life. His melodies in style, character and adaptation to the accents of our native speech are perfectly English " George Hogarth

William Shield, ended up being quite a success in London, ending up as Composer to the King and Master of His Majesty's Band of musicians. He Composed a number of songs, including "The Ploughboy" "Old Towler", Comin thro the Rye and "The Thorn" and also a number of pieces for small orchestral groups.

In 1790 he met Haydn (the German composer), of which it is said he learnt more in 4 days, than in the previous 4 years study.

In 1791 he returned to the Newcastle area to look after his mother, it was at this time he collected a number of songs and tunes from the area.

He was obviously a good musician, playing second fiddle to Giardini, the best solo fiddle player of the day, and later lead viola. He also jammed a lot with the prince of Wales. His works appear to have been very popular with the general public and Royalty alike, Rosina, especially, was a big hit. Some critics of the time said that he was second only to Purcell as the best English Composer (of songs).

The Original Auld Lang Syne Tune?

[ Play the Final part of the Overture to "Rosina" by William Shield ]
[ Play the Jig from Rosina ]

Go to Main Page

Thanks to Gateshead Library for the picture of William Shield.

Links

Scottish Music site - http://www3.islandnet.com/~btaylor/scotmidi.htm

Auld Lang Syne [ Lyrics ] The melody we're accustomed to.
Auld Lang Syne [ Lyrics ] The original melody... still preferred by many!

Wigton Collection http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/dcchtml/nrd/centlib/wighton/wighton.htm

Robert Burns (1756-1796)

Robert Burns Life Chronology - http://fox.nstn.ca/~jburness/burns.html#Chronology

Chronology - http://dept.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/Chron/1759.html

Chronology

"The Duke of Buccleugh's Tune" 1690

William Shield Born c1748

Caledonian Pocket Companion, By James Oswald c1743. (Tune?)

A Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances with a Bass ... c 1757-61
Robert Bremner (The Miller's Wedding Strathspey)

William Vicker's Collection of country Dance Music c1770 (The Miller's Daughter)

R. Bride's Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1770 in London (The Miller's Wedding)

A Collection of Strathspeys or Old Highland Reels. By Angus Cumming - (1780-1782) (The Miller's Daughter)

"Rosina" Plays at Covent Garden London in 1782 - after 10 years in London as musician, and 2 years as composer

Gow Publishes A Collection of Strathspey Reels - 1784 (Miller's Daughter, Old Set)

Burns first publication 1786.

Burns makes long tour round Scotland 1787.

Burns met Neil Gow in 1787, it would be suprising if Burns would not have remembered this in his letter of 1788. It is more likely that the Gow tunes are variations on Auld Lang Syne?.

"I Fee'd a Lad at Michaelmas" 1792

Thompson Tune 1799 (Mentioned as alternate tune the publishers used, most popular version)

The Competition

[ Play the Duke of Buccleugh's tune ]

Buccleugh/ Duke of Buccleugh and his Fencibles, The; JCR 55:
@JCR: 1778. Collection of Newest and Best Reels and Minuets, By Joshua Campbell. Glasgow, J. Aird. Contents from Glen, SDM, which is incomplete. Gore's source C13v2.
*JCR2: 1788. A Collection of New Reels & Highland Strathspeys &c. By Joshua Campbell. Glasgow, Printed for the Author. Gore's source C13v1.

Dutchess of Buccleugh, see Shoemaker's Daughter.
Dutchess of Buccleugh's Strathspey, The; GSR1 23:
GSR1: 1784. A Collection of Strathspey Reels. By Niel Gow at Dunkeld. Edinburgh Printed for the Author, and Sold by Corri and Sutherland. n.d. pp. 36. Gore's G10v1.
Kerr's 4th - 1879

Note: From the Williams Vicker's Manuscript c1770 North England (Borders).
[ Play the Miller's Daughter from Vicker's ]

[ Play the Miller's Wedding / Miller's Daughter ]

[ Play - I Fee'd a Lad at Michaelmas / O Can You Labour Lea ]

[ Play Auld Lang Syne from Allan's Tit Bits c1870 ]

[ Not a contender, and probably a variation on Comin thro the Rye, from Skye collection 1887 ]

The discusion

From: Nigel Gatherer
Date: 15/12/1998 22:30 GMT

It's long been known the Burns did not write _all_ the words to "Auld Lang Syne", and he was the first man to say so. The first three verses belong to a much older song, to which Burns added two more.

As for Shields "having wrote the tune..." Well, Shield certainly included a similar tune into the overture of his opera "Rosina" (1783) ( First performed at Covent Garden Dec1782 - TonyD), and a remarkably similar air was taken by George Thompson in preference to the original tune for "Auld Lang Syne" (which Burns thought "mediocre").

However, there are a few tunes of greater vintage which have such an uncanny resemblance to what Shield presented that whether he can be credited as "composer" is debatable. "The Duke of Buccleugh's Tune", first published in 1690 (almost a hundred years before "Rosina" was first performed) is very close, while "I Fee'd a Lass at Michaelmas" - published in 1771 (Note: 1792 TonyD) and generally held to be the air for "Auld Lang Syne" - is practically identical.

(Note: Not the same as The Duke of Buccleuch Kerr's Forth - TonyD)

From: Joe Kesselman, yclept Keshlam
Date: 16/12/1998 00:27 GMT

I presume you mean the tune which is common now... which I believe is _not_ the tune the words were originally written to fit. I'll have to dig out the "celtic christmas" aircheck and see if they provided more detail...
The relatively-unknown melody is a much more interesting one -- minors and unresolved last note -- and in my opinion is a better fit to the lyrics. Wistful, rather than cheery, nostalgia.

From: Joe Fineman
Date: 16/12/1998

Or see _Burns: Poems and Songs_ (James Kinsley, ed.), Oxford U.P., 1969, ISBN 0-19-281114-2, which has all the extant tunes for Burns's songs. It's a paperback, and it's still in print. You can _buy_ the damn thing. Amazing!

From: Jon-Jon
Date: 16/12/1998

My grandfather was from Scotland and I originally leaned the less commonly known tune for Auld Lang Syne.

From: TonyD
from - Scottish Tune Information Site

Auld Lang Syne (1) [SMM #25. Glen, ESM p. 25, notes untitled copy
  in Sinkler MS, 1710, and text printed in Watson's collection,
  1711. Motherwell printed a seventeenth century broadside text,
  "Auld Langsyne, To its own proper tune," in The Paisley
  Magazine, p. 377, 1828.]/ For old long Gine my Joe; OST 11:
  Auld lang syne; OC1 31: Auld lang Syne; SM 20-21: Auld lang
  Syne; MHF 26: Auld Lang Syne; OC2 I #31: Auld lang Syne; MG2
  17: Auld long syne; CPC3 21: Auld land syne; MGB1 14: Auld Lang
  Syne; NSS 22: 

Auld Lang Syne (2) [SMM #394, #417, and #418. Tune title here is
  from Burn's revision of old song. 
  [SRB: The Songs of Robert Burns, by James Dick, 1903]
  [DNRB: Notes on Scottish Song by Robert Burns,  1908]
  [ESM: Early Scottish Melodies. By John Glen. Edinburgh 1900]
  [RBR:  c 1757-61: A Collection of Scots Reels or Country Dances
     with a Bass for the Violoncello or Harpsichord. Edinburgh,
     Printed and Sold by Robt. Bremner. n.d. This was issued in
     twelve parts of 8 pages each covering pages 1-96, 1757-61. The
     Library of Congress copy has these bound together, with 171
     tunes and printed index. Part numbers are printed at the lower
     left of page 9 (2) and every eighth page thereafter. John Glen
     gives dates for tunes in this work and page numbers from which
     one may derive the following dates for the parts: Parts 1, 2 and
     3, 1757; Parts 4 and 5, 1758; Parts 6 and 7, 1759; Parts 8, 9 and
     10, 1760; Parts 11 and 12, 1761. Bremner's Reels, 2nd volume,
     1768, with new title, A Second Collection of Scots Reels or
     Country Dances. This is below at 1768, RBR2. Gore's source   B15v1.]
  [AMR:  c 1778, 1781: A Collection of Strathspey Reels With a Bass
     for the Violoncello or Harpsichord. By Alexander McGlashan.
     Edinburgh. Printed for A.McGlashan and Sold by Neil Stewart
     at his Music Shop Parliament Square. Contents list from two
     copies bound with other works in Library of Congress. Gore's
     source Mc9v1.]
  [ACR1  1780: A Collection of Strathspeys or Old Highland Reels.
     By Angus Cumming. Edinburgh, 1780. 1782: ACR2: A Collection
     of Strathspeys or old Highland Reels by Angus Cumming.
     Glasgow. Printed and Sold by Jas Aird. Incomplete contents from
     Glen's list, SDM. Probably both works folded together in
     Glen's list. Gore source C33 lists what is probably ACR2] 	   
  [GSR1: 1784. A Collection of Strathspey Reels. By Niel Gow at
     Dunkeld. Edinburgh Printed for the Author, and Sold by Corri
     and Sutherland. n.d. pp. 36. Gore's G10v1.]
  [ NSR 45: R. Bride's Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1770, p. 67. ]
  [ Hey How Johnie Lad [SMM #357. Glen, ESM p. 173, notes tune in
     Walsh's Country Dances Selected, part 2 (c 1760) as "The Lads
     of Saltcots," and in Stuart's Reels, 1762. The tune is earlier
     found is in D. Rutherford's Twenty Four Country Dances for the
     Year 1758, p. 10, with the "Saltcots" title. Dick, SRB p.439,
     makes this a variant of "Auld Lang Syne" (2)]/ The Lassies of
     the Ferry;
  [ NSR 33: 1761-3: A Collection of the Newest and Best Reels or
     Country Dances. Edinburgh, Neil Stewart. Not seen. Contents,
     incomplete, from Glen's list, SDM, supplemented by some tunes
     noted by Dick, SRB, and Gore's listing. 9 numbers of 8 pages.
     Parts 1 and 2, 1761; Parts 3-6, 1762; 7-9, ? Gore's source   S12v1.]
      
  Set to tune by Thompson 1799.
  See Dick, SRB and, DNRB: p. 438. 
  
  Glen, ESM  p. 189, prints Cumming's/ McGlashan's, Shield's, Gow's and Thompson's tunes. 
  Others, given by Dick are; 
  Overture to Rossina, by Shields: 
  Sir Alex. Don's Strathspey; Gow.]
  The Miller's Wedding_Strathspey;  RBR 41: 
  The Miller's Daughter;            AMR 5: 
  Miller's Wedding, The  
  [According to Dick, SRB p. 439.]; ACR1 17: 
  Sir Alexr. Don's Strathspey;      GSR1 12: 
  Miller's Daughter Old Set, The;   GSR1 22:
  "The Miller's Daughter" in;       NSR 45

[ Neil Gow - information page ]

Author: Bob Cameron
Date: 1998/11/25

rec.music.makers.bagpipe

I have read that the disparity between the two verions of "Auld Lang Syne", is that Burns' publisher used a different (Though similar) tune than the one Burns intended.

From: Phil Britton
Date: 16/12/1998 23:27:05 GMT

There was a report later in the day on radio Newcastle where the reporter, I think it was Colin Briggs, phoned up someone at the National Library of Scotland. She said that the tune was know as the Millers Reel and was used by Burns for Auld Lang Syne, in fact if you read through his collected works he gives the name of the tune for quite a few songs in it. She said that as Shield's opera was premiered in Edinburgh he more than likely followed the practice of including local tunes to win over the audience. It also states on the manuscript that the music to the opera was "written and selected" by William Shield. I've no doubt that William Shield was a talented composer and musician but I tend to believe the lady from the National Library of Scotland on this one.

From: TonyD

Comprehensive English Tune Listing - http://www.erols.com/olsonw/CNTYDAN1.HTM
Comprehensive English Tune Listing - http://www.erols.com/olsonw/CNTYDAN2.HTM
Irish Tune List - http://www.erols.com/olsonw/IRTTL.HTM
Scottish Song and Dance Tunes - http://www.erols.com/olsonw/SCOTTUNS.HTM
Mirror of the Ceolas TuneIndex Bibliography - TuneIndex Bibliography

From: Nigel Gatherer

Important: yesterday I said "I Fee'd a Lad at Michaelmas" was published in 1771. That's not the case. It was published in Vol.4 of The Scots Musical Museum, which came out in 1792, making it possible for that tune to have been taken directly from the opera. Sorry about that inaccuracy.

From: Nigel Gatherer

Date: 17/12/1998 10:25 GMT

I can't find any tune called "The Miller's Reel" (there's a "Miller's Rant", but it's in 6/8 time), but there's "The Miller's Daughter", also called "The Miller's Wedding" which is most likely the tune in question.

It was used as the basis of the Burns song "Comin' Thro' the Rye", and belongs to a number of Scottish tunes which bear a very strong family likeness.

In an earlier posting I said that "I Fee'd a Lad at Michaelmas" was published in 1771; I've since discovered that I was mistaken. The actual date of 1792 makes it perfectly possible for that tune to have been taken

directly from Shield's opera. However, the similarity to earlier tunes seems to lend credence to the theory that the air was selected and arranged by Shields rather than composed.

I apologise to everyone for the inaccuracy. I append three tunes for comparison.

abc format listing ABC home page.

Nigel Gatherer, Edinburgh

From: Jack Campin
Date: 17/12/1998

> The Miller's reel? anyone got a copy

You probably mean "The MIller's Wedding", which is "The Miller's Daughter" in its earliest occurrence in a collection of Bremner's; an insanely complicated arrangement. I think I've got a copy somewhere, I found it in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. It's closer to the tune for "Comin thro the Rye" than for "Auld Lang Syne". The words are a different story; there are many sets for this tune, none of which has any resemblance to either "Auld Lang Syne" or "Comin thro the Rye". I suspect "I Fee'd a Lad at Michaelmas" is the oldest (mainly because it's the filthiest). What makes it even more complicated is that there is a strange and chilling old sex-and-magic ballad called "The Miller's Daughter", which from its subject matter ought to be the oldest of all, and a pipe reel of the same name from the nineteenth century that sorta fits it, but the Bremner tune *doesn't* fit, despite coming from nearer the time of the ballad.

>From: Phil BrittonDate: 16/12/1998 23:27:05 GMT

> She said that the tune was know as the Millers Reel and was used by Burns for Auld Lang Syne, in fact if you read through his collected works he gives the name of the tune for quite a few songs in it.

Burns never published a "collected works" - he was responsible for much of the Scots Musical Museum, but Auld Lang Syne wasn't in that, but in Thomson's later series. My copy of the OUP edition of Burns's poems mentions no "Millers Reel" and cites "The Miller's Wedding" only for "Comin thro the Rye" - eccentrically it prints "Auld Lang Syne" with the pre-Burns tune.

> She said that as Shield's opera was premiered in Edinburgh

I didn't realize that performance was the premiere. If so, it makes more sense of the idea that he was imitating Highland bagpipes (I'd assumed they were English) since the pipes were hot news in Edinburgh at the time, with a big high-profile competition in the following year; probably not many people in Edinburgh were familiar with the sound of English pipes.

> he more than likely followed the practice of including local tunes to
> win over the audience.

Was this a "practice"? When had a ballad opera ever been adapted for performance outside London before? The one before Shield's time that had used the most Scots tunes was Mitchell's "The Highland Fair" of 1733, which is the earliest source for a whole stack of now-familiar Scottish tunes. (Coming to my website after my next visit to Glasgow; I've got the tunes half transcribed). But it was never performed in Scotland; those tunes were in there to provide exotic local colour for a London audience. Shield did this too; his opera "Omai" even tried to fake Polynesian music (with total lack of success). History does not record an attempt to take it on the road to Tahiti and wow the cannibals.

It wasn't as if that would have been necessary: the theatre-going classes in Edinburgh had been listening to and playing English and Italian music for generations. Theatre bills, if anything, went to the other extreme: you find items listed as "as performed with great acclaim at Vauxhall".

> It also states on the manuscript that the music to the opera was "written
> and selected" by William Shield.

Shield knew his stuff - he spent years travelling round Europe collecting folk tunes. What seems to have happened with this one is that his version stuck: when you see the tune reproduced in print or manuscript in Scotland at any time in the next generation, it's nearly always called "Rosina" and not one of the Scottish names. This even after "Auld Lang Syne" had become a hit.

George Hawes wrote:

> Nigel Gatherer wrote:
>> Oh, come on Jack, put me right for heavens sake! I'm waiting for
>> the real gen - I know it's coming!
> Funnily enough (?) that was my feeling, too . .

Well, I probably do have enough bumf about this to sort the thing out once and for all, but as both of you are aware I have something else taking up most of my time at the moment.

Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760

From: Joe Kesselman, yclept Keshlam
Date: 18/12/1998 02:50 GMT

>Has anyone got The Miller's reel?

I don't know if it's the right tune, but here's my best-effort transcription of the one I'd heard. Suffix is a duration multiplier, where 1 means about 300msec. Uppercase means up one octave. (If you're using OS/2, I can supply a tiny REXX program that'll play this ad-hoc notation on the PC's beeper. That's my usual sanity-check when I don't want to fire up a more serious music program.)

c d e.3 f g.3 e d.2 e.2 c.3
c c.2 C.2 b.2 C.2 a.7
b C.3 b a.3 g a.3 g d.2
C b a.3 g e d e g a.3
------------------------------------------------------

Joe Kesselman, http://www.lovesong.com/people/keshlam/
Performing December 12th at Walkabout Clearwater: Bill Staines and
Nancy Tucker. http://www.lovesong.com/walkabout/coffeehouse.html

From: TonyD

[ Play Joe's version of The Miller's Reel ]

From: TonyD

[ Auld Lang Syne - The lyrics explained.... ]
[ Auld Lang Syne - Chord Sheet ]

[ Jeremy Boot's - Robert Burns, Poet A Celebration ]

From: Andy Williamson

I tend to think that getting publicity for Gateshead was the reason for this being plugged. The one fact about William Shield which tends to get noted in the reference books is that he's associated with the tune

to "Auld Lang Syne", so the quote in the newspapers of the Gateshead Director of School's Music writing it out and humming it, then realising that it was "Auld Lang Syne" seems pretty unlikely - either that or he'd never read anything about William Shield which also seems unlikely since he was planning on putting on his works.

Shield had quite a number of local links. He was born in Swallwell, apprenticed as a boat builder in North Shields, studied under the composer Avison in Newcastle and had his first work performed at St John's Church in Sunderland. After that though he went south. He was pretty well known for sticking arias from Italian operas and traditional Scottish songs into his operas - but he wasn't the only one doing this at the time. The comment on his opera Rosina from the New Grove Dictionary of Music: "Because the scene is laid in the north of England, Shield ended his overture with a tune he orchestrated to suggest bagpipes; no doubt he had heard it played by Northumbrian pipes. Rosina was so popular that the tune in Shield's version became well known all over Britain, and today we sing it to the words 'Auld lang syne'. It may well not be Scottish, and but for Shield it would not have become famous." In the end, no-one is going to be able to prove whether he wrote it, or stole it, and if he did whether the original tune was Scottish or from the North East. If it manages to wind a few Scotsmen up, I'll opt for the Northumbrian origin.

Andy Williamson, Music Librarian, Borough Of South Tyneside

________________________________________________________________________

From: Chris Rockcliffe

The original story - on the media - is the kind of thing on which the media thrive ie - how to wind up Scotsmen the world over!. However as a geordie, the association with William Shield as well as 'Coaly Tyne' is of much interest. I wish someone qualified and able would sort out the historical chronology of this tune/song - once and for all.

The song 'Auld Lang Syne' is so deeply associated with Burn's words and those few minutes following midnight, that whatever the arguments for the origin of the tune, it will be forever Scottish in my mind. Were it not for Burns and Scottish traditions would this tune have been well known today?
What other song is there which is sung so many times by so many hundreds of millions in every time zone round the world virtually simultaneously!? I think only the little ditty 'Happy birthday' comes anywhere close. Then again - outside of Scotland - how many people ever get beyond the first verse?.

In the north of England and in my native Tyneside we always celebrated New Year in a Scottish 'Hogmannay' style. In London they havn't got the same sense of occasion at all. Having been in London for 27 years, it is something I dearly miss. I've been lucky in recent years to spend the odd New Year in Scotland or on Tyneside - and thoroughly enjoyed the difference.
But there is another interesting aspect of this for Geordies and that is the song 'Coaly Tyne' which uses the most familiar 'Auld Lang Syne' tune with some subtle variations. I have always wondered about the history of this song and the 'borrowing' of the tune and I've always felt slightly uncomfortable singing this song because the tune is so strongly associated with New Year. I have heard very few North East artists sing it over the years - probably for the same reason.

One exception to this is the version by Ashington's Pauline Cato on Northumbrian pipes with partner Tom McConville on fiddle/vocals and featured on their recent album 'By Land and Sea'. In their excellent version, the tune takes on an entirely new dimension - for me anyway. There seem to be several variations on the lyrics to this song. The version I have had for years was printed in the High Level Bridge Centenary celebration booklet in 1949 and so differs from Tom's earlier lyrics.

In the sleeve notes to 'By Land and Sea' Tom and Pauline say - and I quote - "Coaly Tyne (trad.) The words of Coaly Tyne were taken from Marshall's Collection of 1827 and were written to fit the tune 'Auld Lang Syne'. The song was written during the trial of Queen Caroline in 1820, however the author is unknown".

If true, this would appear to put the writing of these lyrics some 9 years before William Shield's death in 1829. Is it possible that he had a hand in its writing or commissioned the words to fit the tune which we all know?.

Is it possible that he heard the tune played on pipes - either Northumbrian or Scottish - and which provided the inspiration for its inclusion in 'Rosina'? And coming, as he did, from the banks of the river (Swallwell-on-Tyne) where very many of the river's thousands of keelmen lived, it would not surprise me if he'd also been involved in the 'Coaly Tyne' song.

Gan canny, Chris Rockcliffe

From: TonyD

Info on William Shield from the Northumbrian Times

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Shores/2422/thelibrary/sheild.htm

Where to get hold of a copy!!

Musica Britannica - http://www.stainer.co.uk/musica.html

Volume 72 Rosina, A Comic Opera, William SHIELD
Edited by John Drummond MB72 - £65.00

A retelling of the biblical story of Ruth in a rural north-of-England setting, Rosina was Shield's fourth opera, and was a considerable success at its premiere on the last day of December, 1782. Rosina's importance lies in its musical charm, its content (which includes borrowed and original vocal numbers), and in its status as the only English opera of the period for which orchestral parts survive. Performing material will be available for rental.

First published in 1998.

Last Updated 3rd January 1999 - Editor Tony Doyle. The Wrapper Band.

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