In Robert Burns’ famous poem Tam O’Shanter, Tam arrives in Alloway Kirk to witness a wild scene of witches and warlocks dancing to music supplied by the devil himself. As the poet describes:
There sat auld Nick, in shape o’ beast
A touzie tyke, black, grim, and large!
To gie them music was his charge:
He screw’d the pipes and gart them skirl.
Till roof and rafters a’ did dirl.
This drunken orgy must have been quite a spectacle and this suite of 4 dances (Hornpipe. Jig, Strathspey and Reel) offers perhaps a brief insight into what was probably a memorable evening with ‘auld Nick’ in charge of the disco. The dances were written in 2023 for the Ayrshire Symphony Orchestra, some of whose players might have even experienced a wild evening or two in their younger days.
