George Thomson (musician)

Thomson published folksong arrangements by Joseph Haydn,[3][4] Ludwig van Beethoven,[3][5] Ignaz Pleyel,[3] Leopold Kozeluch,[3] Johann Nepomuk Hummel,[6] Carl Maria von Weber,[2] Henry Rowley Bishop,[2] and Robert Archibald Smith.

In 1780, Thomson gained a clerical appointment with the Board of Manufactures on the recommendation of John Home, and spent the rest of his career with this body, eventually rising to the position of Chief Clerk.

To remove this reproach would be an easy task to the author of The Cotter's Saturday Night... We shall esteem your poetical assistance a particular favour, besides paying any reasonable price you shall please to demand for it".

Burns was already a contributor to James Johnson's The Scots Musical Museum and agreed to do the work, but indignantly added that "In the honest enthusiasm with which I embark in your undertaking, to talk of money, wages, fee, hire, etc.

However, to return it would savour of bombast affectation; But, as to any more traffic of that Dr and Cr kind, I swear, by that HONOUR which crowns the upright Statue of ROBt BURNS'S INTEGRITY!

Burns gave his congratulations on the elegant appearance of the book, and Thomson soon decided, with the aid of his willing collaborator, to include "every Scottish air and song worth singing".

A particular instance was Scots Wha Hae where Thomson insisted on an alternative to the familiar tune, and had Burns alter his stanzas to suit, but was later forced by public pressure to restore the original version.

Balladmaking is now as completely my hobbyhorse, as ever Fortifications was Uncle Toby's ; so I'll e'en canter it away till I come to the limit of my race (God grant that I may take the right side of the winning post!)