Thomson, GEORGE

Thomson, GEORGE, song-collector and friend of Burns, was born at Limekilns, Fife, about 1759, and educated at Banff, but at seventeen removed to Edinburgh, where he received a clerkship to the Board of Trustees. He rose to be principal clerk, a post which he held for sixty years. In 1792 he formed the idea of collecting every existing Scotch melody, and of giving to the world 'all the fine airs both of the plaintive and lively kind.' The result appeared in six volumes of Scotch songs, followed by two of Irish songs, and three of Welsh melodies. A large number of well-known authors were engaged to supply words to the melodies—among them Thomas Campbell, Professor Smyth, Sir Walter Scott, and Joanna Baillie—but the most prolific writer was the poet Burns, who contributed over 120 songs to the collection. Besides the pianoforte accompaniment, according to Thomson's arrangement, each song was to have a prelude and coda, with accompaniments for violin, flute, and violoncello. For this portion of the magnum opus Thomson secured the services of Pleyel, Kozeluch, Haydn, Beethoven (who received £550 for his share of the work), Mozart, Weber, Hummel, Hogarth, and Bishop. Their compositions were pronounced by the Edinburgh Review to be wholly unrivalled for originality and beauty. The first volume was published three years after the death of Burns. Thomson died at Leith in 1851, aged ninety-two. See the autobiographical sketch in The Land of Burns (1840).