From November 2018: There’s a memorial cross in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Church Clare, Whickham, in memory of the composer William Shield, one of Gateshead’s most illustrious sons.
Shield was born in the village of Swalwell on 5 March 1748 and baptized in this church. The house in which he was born, opposite the Three Tuns pub (now in Low Fell), was demolished in 1936. Apprenticed to a boat builder, Shield studied music with Newcastle-born composer and church organist, Charles Avison (1709-1770), was heard playing violin by Italian composer and violinist Felice Giardini (1716-1796) and encouraged to take up music professionally.
On Giardini’s invitation, he became a member of the Italian Opera (aka The Haymarket Opera House / His Majesty’s Theatre) in London and one of London’s leading viola players. He was also a friend of Haydn. He wrote many successful pieces and songs, and in 1817 was appointed Master of the King’s Musick.
Shield’s main claim to fame, however, is that it has now been proven he wrote the tune of “Auld Lang Syne”. It was supposed that Robert Burns, who wrote the words, had also written the music, basing it on a folk song. Indeed, Burns claimed to have written it in 1788, inspired by a man singing in a pub. Recent research shows, however, that the tune comes from the Overture to Rosina, a music drama written by Shield five years earlier.
The original score for Rosina is in Gateshead Central Public Library. He also provided the music for another Burns song: “Comin’ Thro the Rye”. Shield died at his home in Berners Street on 25 January 1829 and is buried in Westminster Abbey.
~ from The Classical Map of Musical Britain by Richard Fawkes
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