Alex J Lawson

Senior Citizen

Location:	West Lothian
Composer/Lyricist:	Both
Genre:	Concert
Representation:	84 Muirfield Way Deans Livingston West Lothian 01506 410051

Biography

Alex J Lawson (Alexander Johnston Lawson) was born on 26 June 1929 at 4 Salmond Place, in the Edinburgh district of Canongate.

At the age of 10 he began violin lessons at Towerbank Primary School, Portobello (cost for group lesson of 30 students was 6 pence) before having private lessons from Colin McIntosh. He gave his first solo performance at the annual school concert after six months' tuition, playing Dvorak's Humoresque. After a year he began taking lessons from Peter Gallaher (retired theatre violinist) and in his thirties he was taught by virtuoso violinist and teacher Daphne Godson. 10 years earlier, after completing his national service in the Royal Artillery (1947-1949), he studied piano and harmony with Dr Matthew Shirlaw, musicologist and author of the Theory of Music.

During the late 1980s his daughter Yvonne gave him Alastair Hardie's "Caledonian Companion". This book, along with James Hunter's "The Fiddle Music of Scotland", inspired him to write Scottish music. To date, he has written and published fourteen collections of his Scottish and Irish melodies for violin, accordion and keyboard (with chord symbols). The tunes consist of marches, strathspeys, reels, jigs, laments, slow airs, song airs, polkas, waltzes, two-steps, hornpipes, Irish jigs, Irish hornpipes, Irish reels, pipe marches, and pastoral airs. The number of tunes written in the genre so far is 747. As well as writing for the violin, he published his "American Suite for Piano" in 1994, which includes "Lament for the Plains Indian", "Prairie Schooners", "Maggie's Rag", "Melancholy Blues", "Prairie Sunset" and "Thoughts of America". He also received a personal letter from President Clinton thanking him for sending him a copy of his Suite.

In 1995 he published and distributed his "World of Song" - a collection of 20 original songs (seasonal, Scottish, Irish, Christmas songs and lullabies).

In 1996 he published and distributed his "Romantic Strings for Violin and Piano, which includes "Gypsy Serenade", "Nocturne", "Hungarian Dance", "Yearning", "Eilean Donan Sunset", "Spanish Dance", "Memories of Sarajevo" (which was declared the winning entry of the Livingston Musical Society's first Open Competition for Composition) and "Cantilena".

In 2000, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, he composed his march "To The Few", which Peter Graham arranged so beautifully for the Black Dyke Brass Band, and which different bands are including in their repertoire. The composer also enjoys playing his fiddle with the Dunfermline Strathspey and Reel Society and was the leader of the Livingston Fiddlers until October 2004.

In June 2002 he published and distributed his "Pride of Edinburgh" - a collection of 41 original compositions for the Pipes - arranged for Pipe Score by John C Dow of Boghall and Bathgate Pipe Band.

In 2005 he published and distributed his Alex J Lawson's Waltzes including 36 of his most popular waltzes brought together in one volume,which were extracted from his previous collections of Scottish and Irish Melodies.

The overall total of the composer's output to date (Nov 2007) is 902.

Anyone interested in purchasing any of the above music can try retail stores or contact:

Alex J Lawson, 84 Muirfield Way, Deans, Livingston, Scotland EH54 8DL, Tel: 01506 410051

Important Works		Performances
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