James McPherson was a lauded and famous cattle rustler who was finally arrested and sentenced to be hanged in 1700. Between sentence and death he composed the original version of this song which he sang on his way to the gallows, accompanying himself on a fiddle which he broke across his knee and threw into the crowd. Burns tweaked the poem a little in 1788, and there are several tunes to which his words have been set.

This is a simple arrangement of one of them for 2-part choir. It could be for any two voices, really.

Here is a snippet of the first performance by the tenors and basses of The Bridge Singers.

There are lots more arrangements of Robert Burns’ songs here: Burns Arrangements

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