Laura Lemon
{{Use Canadian English|date=August 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Laura Lemon
|other_names = Austin Fleming, Ian Macdonald
|birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1866|10|15}}
| birth_place = Guelph, Canada West
| death_date = {{death date and age|1924|8|18|1866|10|15|df=y}}
| death_place = Surrey, England
| occupation = Author, composer
}}
Laura Gertrude Lemon (15 October 1866 – 18 August 1924) was a Canadian composer and songwriter who lived and worked in England. She also used the pseudonyms Austin Fleming and Ian Macdonald.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IvoQQU1QL_QC&q=Laura+Lemon+%281866%E2%80%931924%29&pg=PA278|title=The Norton/Grove dictionary of women composers|first1=Julie Anne|last1=Sadie|first2=Rhian|last2=Samuel|year=1994|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=9780393034875}}{{cite journal |title=IAWM journal: Volumes 9–10|publisher=International Alliance for Women in Music|year=2003}} Lemon was mostly known for composing pieces for violin and piano such as "Three Moravian Dances", which was dedicated to the Canadian violinist Kathleen Parlow. However she also noted for her song literature. "My Ain Folk, a ballad of home",{{Cite news|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/my-ain-folk-emc/|title=My Ain Folk|last=Kallmann|first=Helmut|work=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=2017-10-24}} was at one time one of the best-known songs by a Canadian composer.{{cite book|author1=Rosemary Anderson|author2=Dawn Matheson|author3=Guelph Historical Society|title=Guelph: perspectives on a century of change, 1900–2000|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LNA9AQAAIAAJ|date=January 2000|publisher=Guelph Historical Society|isbn=978-0-9690594-2-4|page=22}}
Early life
Lemon was born in Guelph, Ontario. Her father was Andrew Lemon, Queen's Counsel, with a job as a partner in the law firm Lemon and Peterson. Her mother was Laura Armstrong, after whom she was named. In 1881, when she was five years old, the family moved from their Arthur Street home to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Lemon grew up there with an appreciation and skill for music. In her early 20s Lemon moved to England, enrolling in the Royal Academy of Music in London.{{cite book|author1=Frederick Albert Hall|author2=Canadian Musical Heritage Society|title=Chansons IV Sur Textes Anglais|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uu9AAQAAMAAJ|year=1993|publisher=Canadian Musical Heritage Society = Société pour le patrimoine musical canadien|isbn=978-0-919883-21-5|page=vi}}
Musical career
Lemon was a skilled pianist and many of her early works were written for piano. In the 1890s, her compositions began to be published as on sheet music. These titles included "Slumber Songs" and "Three Moravian Dances". Her works were performed by local singers, sometimes with Lemon's accompaniment.{{cite book|title=Musical News|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oOgsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA557|volume=10|year=1896|page=557}}
Lemon began to collaborate with lyricist Wilfrid Mills in 1904. Their work "My Ain Folk" (1904) (subtitled "A Ballad of Home") remains the best recalled of their collaborations.[https://www.therecord.com/living-story/5249618-guelph-born-composer-wrote-hit-song-my-ain-folk-/ "Guelph-born composer wrote hit song ‘My Ain Folk’"]. Waterloo Region Record, 9 Jan 2015 by Rych Mills The prominent English singer, Dame Clara Ellen Butt, popularized the song by performing it during one of her presentations. The first recording that can be traced was sung by Dame Clara for the Gramophone Company Limited in July 1912. Others who later recorded it are John McDermott, John Allan Cameron, Lulu and Kenneth McKellar.
Lemon died in Surrey, England, in 1924.
Works
Lemon composed for violin and piano, but was best known for her songs. The selected works include:
- "Three Moravian Dances", for piano and violin (1910) – dedicated to Kathleen Parlow{{cite web |url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/laura-lemon-emc/|title=Lemon, Laura|access-date=24 October 2017}}
- "My Ain Folk: A Ballad of Home" (1904). Arranged by: Reg Leopold
- Slumber Songs (1895)
- "My Ain Love and My Dearie" (1900)Madelaine Morrison, Domestic Harmonies: Musical Activity in Southwestern Ontario, 1880–1920. Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, 2013, page 314.
- "Canada Ever!" (1907)
- "Mighty Dominion" (1910)
- Canadian Song Cycle (1911), words by Wilfred Mills{{cite book|author1=Timothy James McGee|author2=John Beckwith|title=Taking a stand: essays in honour of John Beckwith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MlkXAQAAIAAJ|date=1 October 1995|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-0583-0|page=192}}
- "Love's Necklet" (1913), words by Lancelot Cayley Shadwell (1882–1963)
External links
- [https://archive.org/details/CSM_01166 Canada ever! : patriotic song by Lemon, Laura G., 1866-1924] hosted as part of the University of Toronto Canadian Sheet Music collection hosted at the Internet Archive.
- [http://guelphpostcards.blogspot.ca/search/label/Laura%20Lemon The Record]
- [https://www.therecord.com/living-story/5249618-guelph-born-composer-wrote-hit-song-my-ain-folk-/ Guelph in postcards]
References
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Category:Canadian women classical composers
Category:Canadian emigrants to England
Category:Musicians from Guelph
Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
Category:20th-century Canadian composers
Category:British classical composers
Category:British women classical composers
Category:20th-century British composers
Category:19th-century British composers
Category:19th-century classical composers
Category:20th-century Canadian classical composers