View source for John Thomson (composer)

{{Short description|Scottish classical composer}}
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{{Use British English|date=February 2018}}
{{distinguish|John M Thomson}}
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'''John Thomson''' (28 October 1805 &ndash; 18 May 1841) was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] classical composer. He was born in [[Sprouston]], [[Roxburghshire]], the son of [[Andrew Mitchell Thomson]], the minister of Sprouston Church.<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=27315|title=Thomson, John|first=John|last=Purser}}</ref>
[[File:Resize Wizard-1.jpg|thumb|Portrait of John Thomson by William Smellie Watson]]

==Life and career==
Thomson studied in Germany with a letter of introduction to the Mendelssohn family, and his ''Drei Lieder'' were published in [[Leipzig]] in 1838. [[John Purser (musician)|John Purser]] contends that we have to look to [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]] to find anything comparable to these songs published two years before Schumann composed any songs in his mature style. The first song, ''Keiner von den Schönheit Töchtern'', is based on the poem ''There be none of beauty's daughters'' by [[George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron|Byron]], set in German by Thomson to match the other songs.

Thomson became the first [[Reid Professor of Music]] at the [[University of Edinburgh]] in 1838.  As a musicologist he edited the ''Vocal Melodies of Scotland'', and he was one of the first conductors to provide his audience with a programme of his concerts giving a critical analysis of the works to be performed. His other compositions included a fine bagatelle for solo piano, a six-part ''Glee With Whispering Winds'', three operas, a flute concerto and a flute quartet, and concert arias. However his career was cut short by his death in 1841.

Among Thompson's compositions admired by his younger contemporary [[Felix Mendelssohn]] when they met in [[Edinburgh]] in the summer of 1829 was a G minor piano trio of 1826, in which stormy and sometimes fierce passages are mixed with [[Franz Schubert|Schubertian]] warmth. Another favourite of Mendelssohn's was his lively rondo of 1828. They became friends and [[Fanny Mendelssohn]] is cited as saying that she liked Thomson "best of all the Britons I know". Thomson's C major trio is described as a fine work.

Subsequently, his work was little performed, but it was featured in John Purser's ''Scotland's Music'' series, and a group of people in [[Kelso, Scottish Borders|Kelso]] organised a bicentennial festival in 2005. Scores of some of John Thomson's compositions are available on the website of the [[International Music Score Library Project]].

==References==
{{reflist}}
*Article by [[John Purser (musician)|John Purser]] in [[Scotland on Sunday]], 3 May 1992

==External links==
* {{cite DNB|wstitle=Thomson, John (1805-1841)|volume=56}}
* {{IMSLP|id=Thomson, John|cname=John Thomson}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, John}}
[[Category:1805 births]]
[[Category:1841 deaths]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Scottish classical composers]]
[[Category:Scottish male classical composers]]
[[Category:Scottish opera composers]]
[[Category:Male opera composers]]
[[Category:19th-century British classical composers]]
[[Category:19th-century British composers]]
[[Category:19th-century British male musicians]]