George Alexander Lee (1802 – 8 October 1851) was an English composer.

Life

Lee was born in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, the son of Henry Lee, a

pugilist Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

and innkeeper. He became "tiger" to Lord Barrymore, and his singing led to his being educated for the musical profession. After appearing as a

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

at theatres in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

(1825) and London, he joined in producing opera at the Tottenham Street theatre in 1829, and afterwards was connected with musical productions at

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster. Notable landmarks ...

(1830, 1831) and

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

(1831). He became conductor of the

Royal Strand Theatre The Royal Strand Theatre was located in the Strand in the City of Westminster. The theatre was built on the site of a panorama in 1832, and in 1882 was rebuilt by the prolific theatre architect Charles J. Phipps. It was demolished in 1905 to ma ...

in 1832 and of the

Olympic Theatre The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout m ...

in 1845. He married Harriet Waylett, a popular singer, on 23 October 1845 at St Martin-in-the Fields. She had been unwell but seemed to be making a recovery as a press report of July 1848 was optimistic of her making a return to the stage. Her death, on 26 April 1851, caused Lee a shock from which he never recovered. He died at his lodgings in Newton Terrace,

Kennington Kennington is a district in south London, England. It is mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth, running along the boundary with the London Borough of Southwark, a boundary which can be discerned from the early medieval period between the ...

and was buried at

West Norwood Cemetery West Norwood Cemetery is a rural cemetery in West Norwood in London, England. It was also known as the South Metropolitan Cemetery. One of the first private landscaped cemeteries in London, it is one of the " Magnificent Seven" cemeteries of L ...

Works

Lee composed music for a number of plays and also many songs, including the popular "Come where the Aspens quiver", and for a short time had a music-selling business in the Quadrant. Many of his songs have Irish subject matter such as "Kate Kearney", "Maid of Kildare", "Old Irish Gentleman", and "Rose of Killarney", linking back to his time in Dublin the late 1820s. But he clearly had higher ambitions as his operatic works testify. In 1886, J. D. Brown wrote of his songs: "Lee was great in his day as a ballad writer, and a few of his more popular works have survived. Among these "Macgregor's gathering" is by far the best known. Much of Lee's music was written to the verses of Haynes Bayly, and suffer accordingly; for the good sense of the public never fails to rise superior to all such lackadaisical twaddle."J. D. Brown: ''Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'' (Paisley & London: Alexander Gardner, 1886), p. 381.

Selected compositions

Stage works: Operas, operettas, musical plays

* ''Malvina'' (1826) * ''The Invincibles'' (1828) * ''The Sublime and Beautiful'' (1829) * ''The Nymph of the Grotto'' (1829) * ''The Witness'' (1829) * ''The Legion of Honour'' (1831) * ''Love in a Cottage'' * ''Auld Robin Gray'' * ''The Fairy Lake''

References

;Attribution * *

External links

* Sheet music fo
"The Soldier's Tear"
London: W. Paxton, from th
Alabama Sheet Music Collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, George Alexander 1802 births 1851 deaths 19th-century British composers 19th-century classical composers 19th-century British male opera singers Burials at West Norwood Cemetery English musical theatre composers English opera composers English tenors