Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

007. The tune of "Auld Lang Syne"

In Burns's day it was not unusual to pair verses with whatever popular tune provided a good metrical fit. Listen to a bit of this song, for example, and you will recognize a familiar melody. With roots in an old Scottish dance tune, this air was finally paired with the words of "Auld Lang Syne" in 1799. But the tune continued to have a life of its own. In the United States, it served as a popular accompaniment to antislavery poems such as William Lloyd Garrison's "I am an abolitionist! I glory in the name." Katharine Lee Bates's poem "America the Beautiful" was often sung to this tune (and many others) before becoming inextricably linked with a composition by Samuel Ward.

"O Can Ye Labor Lea, Young Man", The Scots Musical Museum, vol. 4, Edinburgh: Printed & sold by Johnson & Co., 1792