51 by Malcolm Arnold is a piece of programme music based on the famous poem by Robert Burns.
The overture was first performed at the BBC Proms on 17 August 1955, with the composer conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Two months later he supervised the first recording of the work by the Philharmonia Orchestra under his assistant conductor, John Hollingsworth.
Despite his many accomplishments in the musical realm, Malcolm Arnold was known for being a drunkard and rather promiscuous, which perhaps was the greatest inspiration for the Tam O’Shanter Overture.
The piece is based on an epic poem by Robert Burns which tells of a farmer and drunkard by the name of Tam O’Shanter, a Scotsman, who gets intoxicated with friends in a local tavern while his angry wife waits for him at home.