Lee, George Alexander

1802-1851

Musical composer; born in London. He was greatly inclined to music as a boy, and was given some instruction. In 1822 he was engaged as tenor at the Dublin Theatre, where he remained for a year. In 1826 he appeared at the Haymarket Theatre, London, the next year becoming its conductor. About this time he started a music shop in the Quadrant, Regent Street. With Melrose, the tenor, and John Kemble Chapman, he took the Tottenham Street Theatre to produce English opera, but this arrangement only held for a year. In 1830 he leased, with Captain Polhill, Drury Lane Theatre, but withdrew at the end of the season. The next year he directed the Lenten Oratorios at Drury Lane and Covent Garden; in 1832 was appointed composer and musical director to the Strand Theatre, and 1845 obtained a like position at the Olympic. His compositions were mostly for dramas: The Sublime and the Beautiful; The Nymph of the Grotto; The Legion of Honour; Love in a Cottage; Auld Robin Gray; and others. Among his songs are Away, away to the mountain's brow; Come where the aspens quiver; and The Macgregor's gathering.