Overture: Tam O’Shanter
Robert Burns’s poem 'Tam O’Shanter' was written in 1790, and swiftly established itself as a classic not only of Scottish literature but folk culture too. It tells the tale of a hard-drinking farmer who is warned by his infuriated wife that if he continues in his misspent ways he will be “catch’d wi’ warlocks”. One evening, having spent his day getting stewed in the pub while his wife stews at home waiting for him, Tam rides home on his horse, Meg. A storm is brewing, and as Tam passes a haunted church, he sees it lit, filled with witches and warlocks dancing to a tune played by the devil on the bagpipe. Drunk as he is, Tam stays to watch the gathering, and becomes more and more entranced. One particularly lascivious witch, dressed in a scanty nightshirt (a “cutty-sark... In longitude tho' sorely scanty”) catches his eye, and pleases him so much that he forgets himself and shouts out, “Weel done, cutty-sark!'” The music stops, the lights go out, and the witches give chase. Tam rides furiously, closely pursued, until he crosses the River Doon. The witches may not cross running water and Tam is saved - although the unfortunate Meg loses her tail, grabbed and pulled off by the witches as she reaches the bridge.
Burns’ tale has entrenched itself in Scottish culture to a remarkable degree. Tam lends his name to the traditional men’s bonnet, while the phrase “Well done, cutty sark!” crossed the border and entered popular parlance in England as an equivalent of “Bravo!” The famous tea-clipper now residing in Greenwich also takes its name and its figurehead from the witch.
Malcolm Arnold was a great admirer of Burns, and the tale of Tam proved to be an ideal match with his style. The overture he wrote in response to the poem was composed in 1955, dedicated to his then publisher Michael Diack, and received its first performance at that year’s Proms season. It follows Burns’s narrative closely, opening in distinctly woozy fashion as Tam staggers out of the pub before mounting his mare and beginning the ride home at a furious gallop. He pauses to watch the devilish dancing, and his appreciative cry to the witch with dress “in longitude tho’ sorely scanty” is clearly heard in a trombone solo that precedes the chase. A short, sardonic coda reflects the moral of the tale:
Now wha this tale o’truth shall read,
Ilk man and mother’s son tak heed
Whene’er to drink you are inclin’d,
Or cutty-sarks run in your mind,
Think ye may buy the joys o’er dear,Remember Tam O’ Shanter’s mare.
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