Music is central to a good Burns Supper. “You’ve got to have a good musician,” says Joe Campbell, Honorary President of the Robert Burns World Federation, interviewed in Rab Ha’s in Glasgow. “I think a fiddler is an extremely important element to the Burns Supper. You’ve got to have a piper, because the piper brings in the haggis.
“Auld Lang Syne is known throughout the world, in 58 different languages. It doesn’t matter where you are, that’s what finishes the end of an evening.”
”Burns wasn’t just a poet, he was a songsmith,” says historian David Ross. “I think it’s only right, if the guy is a musician, then why not have music in tribute? Plus it gets everybody going, so why not?”
”You’ve got to have singers,” says Campbell, “and you’ve got to have somebody reading poetry. Tam o’ Shanter is the great epic poem. It takes about 12 minutes – or 20 minutes in the hands of an incompetent – but the words are absolutely marvellous. It’s a rhythm poem, full of different rhythms and it tells a marvellous story.
”He’s a poet for today. He’s not a dead poet, he’s very much alive.”
BRILLIANT BURNS:
- Burns Supper: key elements part 1
- Burns Supper: key elements part 2
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For more information on Robert Burns visit www.rbwf.org.uk, www.santjordigolf.com/en/Burns-Club and
www.rabhas.com
