Opera Scotland

Allan Ramsay Suggest updates

Born Leadhills, Lanarkshire, 15 October 1686.

Died Edinburgh, 7 January 1758.

Scottish poet, playwright, publisher, librarian and theatre manager.

Allan Ramsay played an important role in the development of musical taste and performance in Scotland. In 1723 he published a Tea-table Miscellany. This was a collection of lyrics set to existing popular folk melodies. The success of the work profited from the custom of ladies in Edinburgh society to make music in domestic situations.

Ramsay worked successfully in theatrical management, promoting performances in the Taylor's Hall, Edinburgh. He also operated as a publisher and librarian.

His ballad opera The Gentle Shepherd, with a Scots text and popular folk melodies, was performed in 1729, and quckly gained in popularity. It reached London, in an anglicized version as Patie and Peggie, within a few months.

Ramsay's son, also Allan Ramsay (born Edinburgh 13 October 1713; died Dover 10 August 1784), was the extremely successful portrait painter, who from 1740 worked largely in London.