Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/293

Rh song, I could hie me hame to my Cremona, and enjoy Haydn's admirable fancies:—

Although music was his recreation, not his profession, George Thomson could not long content himself with being merely a musical dilettante. Like Burns, he resolved to do something for "puir auld Scotland's sake," in the way that nature and training had best qualified him. Might he not make a national collection of our best melodies and songs, and obtain for them suitable accompaniments? With this patriotic ambition he was inspired by the arrival of that celebrated musico, Signor Tenducci, into Scotland the first man of his kind, be it observed, who had ever visited the country, and who brought to Scottish ears a style of singing of which they previously could have little or no conception. The enterprise which Mr. Thomson thus contemplated was one of the most daring and self-denying description. There was the toil of collecting, arranging, and improving to be undergone; there was the expense of publishing such a costly work to be encountered. If it succeeded, there was no hope of profit to be obtained from it, or, at least, of profit adequate to the toil ; and if it failed, he was certain to be buried in the ruin of the downfall, amidst the jeers of those who would wonder that a lawyer should have embarked in such an undertaking. But it was now the great business of his life, and he was ready to stake life itself upon the issue.

At the very commencement of his labour, he was confronted by difficulties under which most persons would have succumbed. "On examining with great attention," he says, "the various collections on which I could by any means lay my hands, I found them all more or less exceptionable; a sad mixture of good and evil, the pure and the impure. The melodies in general were without any symphonies to introduce and conclude them; and the accompaniments (for the piano only) meagre and common-place; while the verses united with the melodies were, in a great many instances, coarse and vulgar, the productions of a rude age, and such as could not be tolerated or sung in good society." He first obtained the melodies themselves, both in print and manuscript, and after comparing copies, and hearing them sung by his fair friends, he selected the copy which he found the most simple and beautiful. His next work was to obtain accompaniments to these airs, and symphonies to introduce and conclude them; and for this purpose he applied to Pleyel, at that time at the height of his musical popularity. As the collection grew upon his hands, Thomson found that more extensive aid than that of Pleyel was necessary; and accordingly, after dividing the numerous airs which he thought worthy of preservation into different portions, he transmitted them to Haydn, Beethoven, Weber, Hummel, and other musicians, at that time the most distinguished in Europe, to whom his commission was a welcome one for they at once appreciated the beauties of our national melodies, at that time little known beyond the boundary of the Tweed, and composed for them such rich original accompaniments, as have imparted to them all the superiority as well as permanence of an established classical music. It was, indeed, a glorious achievement that made such lilts as the "Broom of the Cowdenknowes," "O'er the muir amang the heather," or "Logan Water," become almost as much at home on the banks of the Seine, the Rhine, or the Dneiper, as they had hitherto been among their native