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FAMOUS SONGS
'Rosina' is an oblong folio, published in 1783 ; the tune I take to be the original of' Auld Lang Syne' is given to the oboe, the bassoons playing a pedal bass with the words, inserted by the composer to ' imitate the bag-pipes.' " " Auld Lang Syne," continues Mr. Cummings, " was published with two airs, one in 1740, the other in 1793, and it was not till twenty years after the production of' Rosina' that it appeared with the tune now always associated with the words, the earlier tunes having been abandoned." I would like to point to a suspicious similarity between portions of the melody of " The Thorn" by Shield, and " Auld Lang Syne" which has not been referred to by any other writer as being strong proof of the two being composed by the same man. At the same time I think it only fair to say that Mr. Alfred Moffat (the editor of" The Minstrelsy of Scotland") disputes Shield's claims, and some of the above state-ments, which, however, I see no sufficient rea-son to abate or alter. George Thomson has a note to " Auld Lang Syne" in his " Collection of original Scottish Airs" (1799) to this effect: " From an old MS. in the Editor's possession" —but Thomson was too many days after the fair. The melody was already a favourite owing to the circumstances of its birth in 1783,
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