James Oswald (composer)

James Oswald (baptised 21 March 1710 – 2 January 1769) was a Scottish composer, arranger, cellist, and music publisher, who was appointed as Chamber Composer for King George III and also wrote and published many Scottish folk tunes. Life Oswald was born in Crail, Scotland in 1710, being baptised on 21 March, and died in Knebworth, Hertfordshire on 2 January 1769. In London Oswald eventually set up his own publishing house and published the Caledonian Pocket Companion, a collection of Scottish folk tunes, some with his own variations. This ran to 12 volumes and many editions. Like many others whose works feature in the Wighton Collection in Dundee, he was a member of “The Temple of Apollo”, a secret musical society of composers in London along with Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie, John Reid, Charles Burney and others. Oswald’s first wife, Mary Ann, died in 1756. He married Leonora Robinson Lytton after she was widowed in 1762. Leonora was the aunt of Richard Warburton Lytton. Compositions He wrote variations of popular Scottish folk tunes, arranged these for the fiddle and composed other original tunes in the same genre. He published his chamber works under the nom de plume “Dott