Transcripts

[BAGPIPE MUSIC PLAYING] EUAN KERR: Ross Sutter and Mark Stillman are two Twin Cities musicians preparing for an event unlike almost any other, the Burns supper. It is a celebration of a great poet through song and dance and also a food made of what many people would say is questionable material. But more of that later.

Burns Night is the 24th of January, is known as a celebration of the birth of Robert Burns, the man who gave us "For Auld Lang Syne", "Flow Gently Sweet Afton", and "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon", as well as hundreds of other poems and songs that are often quoted without knowledge of their author.

Burns was a farmer who lived in Scotland some 200 years ago, who wrote about all that he saw around him. He wrote about life, and love, and death, as well as many topics which we would now consider contemporary issues, such as militarism and environmental problems. Robin Sinclair is one of the organizers of the Twin Cities Scottish Society's Burns supper, which will be attended by 200 people this year.

ROBIN SINCLAIR: You get the situation where you have people in communist countries like China and Russia that follow this work and people in right-wing countries that also follow Burns' work. And presumably, they're quite selective as to what it is that they're admiring in his work.

EUAN KERR: Burns was a master of the beautiful love song, but he was also a wicked satirist with an eye for the absurd. And it can be argued that some of this extends into the Burns supper. Although all thoughts are of course centered on the talents of the bard, the place of honor goes to a pudding, called a haggis. Essentially, it is a type of Scottish mutton sausage. Although an English friend of Robin Sinclair once described it as made of things that are ignored by every other nation, bar the vultures.

The haggis is traditionally paraded through the banquet hall behind a piper, and then is praised in burns famous poem, "The Address to the Haggis", as the chieftain of the pudding race, before it is cut open to reveal what Burns described as the gushing entrails. Robin Sinclair says that the ceremony reveals an aspect of Burns' playfulness.

ROBIN SINCLAIR: He realizes that Scots are always boasting about Scottish achievements. And if he'd chosen something like scotch salmon or Scottish beef or something, there would be no holding us back when it came to talking about the subject. And he may have thought that if you take something as lowly as a haggis, it was just no way that the Scots would be able to elevate that to any position of importance. He was quite wrong, of course.

EUAN KERR: Following food, there come the toasts. First, Burns himself is remembered and praised. And then there is a toast to the lassies. Quite rightly, there's a rite of reply. And the toast to the lads can go a number of ways. The toast are followed by music and dancing, the singing of Burns' songs and recitation of his poetry. Ross Sutter, who has performed for a number of years at this Scottish society's Burns supper, says that the atmosphere during the evening is very special.

ROSS SUTTER: Members of the club make the night. There are some hired musicians. But a lot of the evening is made by the people in the club. They get up, and they give the toast to the lads and the toast to the lassies. And there are a couple of people that get up and do their party piece. "Star O' Robbie Burns" is sung by one of the members. And there's a lot of participation.

EUAN KERR: Sutter, who although Swedish by descent, has been studying Scottish music for some years. He says he plays Burns' songs because he likes them, not necessarily because they are Burns'.

[ROBERT BURNS,"AY WAUKIN O"]

(SINGING) Ay waukin, oh, waukin still and weary. Sleep, I can get nane, for thinking on my dearie. Simmer's a pleasant time, flowers of every color. The water.

Sutter will be appearing with Scottish singer Jean Redpath when she next performs in the Twin Cities on February 1. It was Redpath who introduced him to many of Burns' songs.

ROSS SUTTER: She is actually involved in a project now to record all of Burns' songs, arranged by a fellow out east, by the name of Serge Hovey. And that's his life's ambition is to arrange all these. And I don't know if she's done five or six albums already, and I'm not sure. I think there's 20 or so in the whole project, so she has a ways to go.

EUAN KERR: Sutter has been encouraged by the Twin Cities Scottish Society to learn new Burns songs for the Burns Night celebration, which has become the high point of their annual calendar. 50 people had to be turned away one year. And revelries often take more than six hours to complete. Robin Sinclair admits that many expatriate Scots become more interested in the Burns Night celebration when they are here than when they were in their homelands.

ROBIN SINCLAIR: You also find yourself in the position of having to explain these things too, as I am doing right now, in ways that I would never have had to do back in Scotland. So a lot of Scots come over here and find themselves having to explain these, the mystique of some of these Scottish amusements that are foisted upon the American public. So you get more and more involved.

EUAN KERR: Robin Sinclair, one of the organizers of the Twin Cities Scottish Society's Burns supper. Similar events are being held in Rochester, in Minneapolis later this week. I'm Euan Kerr.

[BAGPIPE MUSIC PLAYING]