A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Thomson, George
THOMSON, George, born at Limekilns, Edinburgh , Mar. 4, 1757 or 1759 [App. p.799 "for Edinburgh read Dunfermline, and omit the words or 1759"], died at Leith, Feb. 11, 1851, was for fifty years 'Secretary to the Board of Trustees for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures in Scotland.' His place in musical history is that of the most enthusiastic, persevering and successful collector of the melodies of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, a work begun in his youth and continued for forty years or more.
I. (1) Scotland. He proposed to rescue from oblivion, so far as it could possibly be accomplished, every existing Scotch melody, in all its forms and varieties. Being in correspondence with and knowing personally gentlemen in every part of Scotland, no man had greater facilities for the work. He proposed, further, to publish 'all the fine airs both of the plaintive and lively kind, unmixed with trifling and inferior ones.' The precise date at which he began the publication in 'sets' does not appear; but the preface to the second edition of the first volume— containing 25 songs—is dated Edinburgh, Jan. 1, 1794.
(2) Ireland. At first he included 20 favourite Irish airs in his 'sets,' denoting them in the index by an asterisk. Burns persuaded him to undertake a separate publication of Irish melodies, and offered to write the new texts. This was the origin of the two volumes under that title, for the collection of which Thomson was indebted especially to Dr. J. Latham of Cork, and other friends in various parts of Ireland, who are responsible for whatever faults of omission and commission they exhibit. [See Irish Music, vol. ii. p. 22.]
(3) Wales. Meantime he undertook to collect the melodies played by Welsh harpers and adapt them to the voice. The project found favour in Wales, and friends in all parts of it sent them to him as played by the harpers; 'but the anxiety he felt to have a complete and authentic collection induced him to traverse Wales himself, in order to hear the airs played by the best harpers, to collate and correct the manuscripts he had received, and to glean such airs as his correspondents had omitted to gather.' There was of course no deciding as to the original form of an air on which no two harpers agreed, and Thomson could only adopt that which seemed to him the most simple and perfect. Very few if any had Welsh texts, or were at all vocable. To make them so, he in some cases omitted monotonous repetitions; in some repeated a strain; in most discarded the ornaments and divisions of the harpers; but no changes were made in the tunes except such as were absolutely necessary to 'make songs of them.'[1]
II. In regard to their texts, these three collections of melodies consisted of four classes: (1) without words; (2) with none in English; (3) with English texts, silly, vapid, or indecent, not to say obscene; (4) a few with unimpeachable words, even in which cases he mostly thought it well to add a new song.[2] In fact, in the first 24 Scotch airs, 16 have 2 songs each, most if not all written expressly for the work. A large number of eminent authors were employed by Thomson for this purpose.
When the melody was known to the poet, there was no difficulty in writing an appropriate song; when not, Thomson sent a copy of it with its character indicated by the common Italian terms, Allegro, etc., which were a sufficient guide. Burns was the principal writer. Allan Cunningham, in his 'Life and Works' of the poet, leaves the impression that Thomson was niggardly and parsimonious towards him. Thomson disdained to take any public notice of Cunningham's charges; but in a copy of the work in possession of his son-in-law, George Hogarth (1860), there are a few autograph notes to the point. Thus in July 1793, Burns writes:
'I assure you, my dear sir, that you truly hurt me with your pecuniary parcel. It degrades me in my own eyes. However, to return it would savour of affectation; but as to any more traffic of this debtor and creditor kind, I swear by that Honour which crowns the upright statue of Robert Burns's Integrity—on the least motion of it I will indignantly spurn the by-past transaction, and from that moment commence entire stranger to you!'[3]
Thomson writes, Sept. 1, to Burns:—
'While the muse seems so propitious, I think it right to inclose a list of all the favours I have to ask of her no fewer than twenty and three! … most of the remaining airs … are of that peculiar measure and rhythm that they must be familiar to him who writes for them.'
A comparison of dates removes the doubt in relation to Moore, raised in the article on Irish Music. True, the completed volumes of Thomson's 'Irish Melodies' are dated 1814; but they were completed long before, except as to the instrumental accompaniments. Messrs. Power engaged Moore to write songs for their rival publication in 1806, at which time the poet was only known in Edinburgh as a young writer of indecent and satiric effusions. (See 'Edinburgh Review' of July 1806.)
III. As to the instrumental accompaniments, Thomson's plan was as new and original as it was bold. Besides the pianoforte accompaniment each song was to have a prelude and coda, and parts ad libitum throughout for violin, or flute, and violoncello, the composition to be entrusted to none but the first composers.
In the years 1791–3, Pleyel stood next to Haydn and Mozart; they in Vienna, he at that time much in London. Thomson engaged Pleyel for the work, but he soon ceased to write, and Thomson was compelled to seek another composer. Mozart was dead; Haydn seemed to occupy too lofty a position; and Kozeluch of Vienna was engaged. But the appearance of Napier's Collection of Scotch Songs with pianoforte accompaniments, written by Haydn during his first visit to London, showed Thomson that the greatest living composer did not disdain this kind of work. Thomson applied to him; and Haydn worked for him until about 1806. The star of Beethoven had now risen, and he did not disdain to continue the work. But he, too, died before Thomson's work was completed, and Bishop and George Hogarth made up the sixth volume of Scotch songs (1841).
The following list exhibits each composer's share in the work:—
| Scotch Songs. | |||
| Vol. I. originally all by Pleyel. | |||
| Vol. II. Kozeluch (?). In the second edition of these (1803) Thomson substituted arrangements by Haydn for several which were 'less happily executed than the rest.' | |||
| Vols. III., IV. all by Haydn. | |||
| Vol. V. (Pref. dated June 1, 1818) | Haydn | 4 | |
| Beethoven | 26 | ||
| 30 | |||
| Vol. VI. (dated Sept. 1841) | Haydn | 12 | |
| Beethoven | 13 | ||
| Kozeluch | 1 | ||
| Hogarth | 21 | ||
| Bishop | 5 | ||
| 52 | |||
| Welsh Melodies. The Preface is dated May, 1809. | |||
| Vol. I. | Kozeluch | 10 | |
| Haydn | 20 | ||
| 30 | |||
| Vol. II. | Kozeluch | 15 | |
| Haydn | 17 | ||
| Kozeluch and Haydn | 1 | ||
| 33 | |||
| Vol. III. | Haydn | 4 | |
| Beethoven | 26 | ||
| 30 | |||
As a means of extending the knowledge of the Scotch melodies, Thomson, at the beginning of his intercourse with Pleyel and Kozeluch, ordered sonatas based upon such airs. Both composed works of this kind; but how many does not appear. It is evident from a letter of Beethoven to Thomson (Nov. 1, 1806) that besides arrangements of melodies, the latter had requested trios, quintets, and sonatas on Scotch themes from him also. Beethoven's price for compositions, which could only sell in Great Britain and Ireland, was such as could not be acceded to, and none were written. About 1818–20 he wrote variations on a dozen Scotch melodies, which Thomson published, but which never paid the cost of printing either in Great Britain or Germany. At the lowest estimate Beethoven received for his share in Thomson's publications not less than £550. George Hogarth, who married Thomson's daughter, told the writer that the Scotch songs only paid their cost.