Ae Fond Kiss by Robert Burns

Ae Fond Kiss by Robert Burns

Author: BBC Radio 4 April 12, 2025 Duration: 27:45

Robert Burns began a correspondence with Agnes McElhose, also known as Clarinda and Nancy, a married woman he was besotted with.

When she left Scotland to reunite with her husband he wrote Ae Fond Kiss as a heartfelt farewell.

It was later set to music and is one of his most famous 'songs' along with Auld Lang Syne and My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose.

Karen Matheson, the singer with Capercaillie, talks about its meaning to her and how performing it at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014 was a very special moment.

Joan Donaldson from Michigan grew up with Scottish music and has called her latest historical novel Ae Fond Kiss. She says she channelled her grief into the characters as a way of dealing with a devastating loss.

Sir Geoff Palmer discovered the song when he arrived in Edinburgh in the 1960s. He has traced Burns' and the song's connection to his home country of Jamaica and feels proud of the links he discovered.

For film maker Karen Guthrie from Ayrshire - Burns' birthplace - coping with and caring for her estranged parents meant long drives home through the countryside he inhabited. It was a journey of rediscovering Scotland's national poet and relating her family's story to Ae Fond Kiss.

Musician Seonaid Aitken plays both versions of the song on the violin and explains how the music conveys the feelings of longing after an unresolved love affair.

Producer: Maggie Ayre

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April 2025.


There’s a certain piece of music that, when you hear it, seems to stop time. It might be a melody from your childhood, a song that played at a pivotal moment, or a composition that simply reaches into your chest and grips your heart. Soul Music, from BBC Radio 4, is built around that very phenomenon. This isn’t a program about genres or charts; it’s an intimate exploration of why specific pieces of music carry such profound emotional weight. Each episode focuses on a single, iconic work-from classical adagios to folk ballads, from film scores to pop anthems. The podcast weaves together the voices of people whose lives have been indelibly marked by that music: listeners share personal, often moving stories of grief, joy, love, and remembrance, while composers and performers might shed light on the piece’s creation. You’ll hear the music itself, of course, but framed in a way that reveals its deeper resonance in human experience. It’s a quiet, thoughtful series that reminds us how soundtracks our inner lives. Tuning into this podcast feels like being part of a conversation about the invisible threads that connect us all through notes and rhythms, exploring how a sequence of sounds can become a vessel for collective memory and feeling.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Soul Music
Podcast Episodes
A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:54
In 1942, Benjamin Britten boarded the M.S. Axel Johnson, a Swedish cargo vessel, to make the journey home to England after three years in America. During the voyage, the ship stopped at Halifax, Nova Scotia, where Britte…
U2 - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:41
More gospel than rock, this 1987 hit has inspired great change in people's lives and created memories for music lovers across the world.Brendan McManus was a corporate high flyer with an inexplicable sense that his life…
Song To The Siren [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:26
"Long afloat in shipless oceans":So begins ‘Song To The Siren’ whose lyrics were inspired by Homer's Odyssey and the story of the Sirens who lured unwitting sailors to their deaths on the rocks.There is something so anci…
Unfinished Sympathy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:51
Personal stories inspired by Massive Attack's breakthrough single. Featuring the vocals of Shara Nelson, the track together with its iconic video would help catapult this band from Bristol onto the global stage. Stories…
Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:49
Ezio Pinza was the first person to sing Some Enchanted Evening when South Pacific opened on Broadway in 1949. His granddaughter, Sarah Goodyear, recounts his extraordinary life story: from international opera singer, to…
Ain't No Mountain High Enough [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:44
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell made Ain't No Mountain High Enough a hit for Motown in 1967. Diana Ross followed suit in 1970 as a solo artist with her version of the song. It has a place in people's hearts with its anthem…
Take Me Home, Country Roads [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 27:50
"Country roads, take me home To the place I belong"'Take Me Home, Country Roads' was written by Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert with and for their friend John Denver.The song went on to be covered by Ray Charles, Toots and…
The Parting Glass [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:40
"But since it falls unto my lot That I should rise And you should not I'll gently rise and softly call Goodnight and joy be to you all"The Parting Glass was written in Scotland and has criss-crossed the Irish Sea, becomi…
We've Only Just Begun [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 28:31
The Carpenters - brother and sister duo Richard and Karen - were one of the most popular groups of the 1970s. His outstanding compositions and her stunning vocals created several massive hits including We've Only Just Be…