George Thomson; The Friend of Burns His Life and Correspondence - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1898. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CORRESPONDENCE ABOUT THE SONGS SIR WALTER SCOTT "Song-wr1t1ng is not Walter Scott's forte; for once that he succeeds he far more frequently fails." Such was Thomson's declaration to one of his correspondents in 1814. Four years later he tells the same correspondent that Scott has "not a jot of the true relish and feeling for elegant music, nor Hogg, nor any other poet on this side of the Tweed." Of course without that relish Scott was deficient in a very necessary qualification as a writer for Thomson's collections! Unfortunately it took the editor some time to find this out, just as it took him some time to find out that Beethoven as a harmoniser of Scottish melodies was a failure. And yet, even as early as 1811, he had come to think it necessary to instruct Scott in the art of song-writing. "I need not observe to you," says he, "that each stanza of a national song should be constructed in the same form with the first stanza, and that there should not be the least deviation in regard to the measure or to the situation of the single or double rhymes." Some men would have felt mightily indignant at such attempts to teach 153 them their own trade; but Scott, with his wonted large-heartedness, and diffident, no doubt, in regard to points partly musical, accepted Thomson's instruction, and from beginning to end of the correspondence showed no signs of impatience. The earliest of the extant letters from Scott to Thomson is dated November 1805, but Thomson had been corresponding with him before this, and, of course, the two could see each other at any time, being both resident in Edinburgh. There is evidence that the idea of asking help from Scott came from Joanna Baillie. Writing to Thomson on February 18, 1805, she says: "I have been very much delighted lat...