![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Micah-HEADSHOT.jpg\")
<\/a>Lawson<\/p><\/div>\n
As Micah Lawson heard the concept from Dr. Lee Heritage, professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Music, the 29-year-old graduate music student reimagined the fight song as a fireside holiday instrumental in his head.<\/p>\n
Led by a mellow piano, the song would be substantially slowed down to convey the relaxed mood, Lawson thought. And, of course, the addition of winter sleigh bells was a fait accompli.<\/p>\n
Hours after accepting the task, Lawson was busy composing the initial draft of the song, beginning with reducing \u201cU of Toledo\u201d to its basic parts: melody and harmony.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe style of the UToledo fight song is very energetic,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fast-paced song so that it gets a lot of energy going and it works very well for that. My challenge was to write a very laid-back and mellow version of that. By boiling it down to its most basic parts, I was able to turn the song into the style I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Using music composition software, Lawson worked out a gentle piano-sounding performance that played softly and accurately to his ears. And then he added the sleigh bells to the digital track to complete the song\u2019s holiday vibe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do that very well,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd the combination of the two instruments \u2013 the mellow piano and the sleigh bells \u2013 went a long way to evoking the holiday feeling that I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the initial \u201choliday piano arrangement\u201d draft finished a few hours later, Lawson had his musical template to move forward with other versions.<\/p>\n
He created a \u201cslow holiday jazz arrangement,\u201d with the addition of bass guitar and drums to the piano and sleighbells, which was the unanimous choice as the video\u2019s musical accompaniment for the University\u2019s annual digital holiday card shared by the president.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t the first time \u201cU of Toledo\u201d has been rearranged. Written in 1932 by Dave Connelly, UT athletic director and baseball coach through much of the 1930s and 1940s, “U of Toledo” was unchanged for decades until 1975, when UToledo associate professor of music David Jex arranged the version we know, love and sing.<\/p>\n
Lawson\u2019s holiday take on the fight song is his biggest composition project so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Heritage gave me the opportunity to work on the job here and that is one example out of many in which he\u2019s seen potential in me and given me the opportunity to work on an extracurricular activity,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m very thankful to say that UToledo has delivered on that front in a lot of ways for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heritage said when he received the request for someone to write music for this project, he knew immediately that Lawson \u201cwas the one.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a>Micah Lawson created a \u201cslow holiday jazz arrangement\u201d of ‘U of Toledo’ at his home workstation to be the soundtrack to a new holiday video featuring Rocky.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cMicah Lawson is a talented, hardworking composer who writes wonderfully engaging music for media and the concert stage,\u201d Heritage said. \u201cAs his composition professor, I look forward to seeing what he has composed each week for his composition lessons; he consistently brings fresh, new ideas to the table.\u00a0He writes music quickly and there\u2019s a wonderful sense of emotion and drama that is communicated in his music.\u00a0He never fails to impress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Toledo, Lawson has composed music for much of his life. He wanted to make a major and career of writing music, but while at Springfield High School in Holland, he was steered towards computer science. He pursued that as a major initially at UToledo, leaving to graduate with his computer science degree elsewhere. After joining the workforce, Lawson realized he still wanted to pursue a career in music. He returned to UToledo in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI met with instructors and advisors who were friendly and helpful,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cI saw it as a good place to go to pursue music. That turned out to be right.\u201d<\/p>\n
He graduated with his bachelor of arts degree in music in May, with a focus on composition and a minor in music technology. This fall, Lawson began his master\u2019s in music performance; his goal is to teach music full time and to compose music for media on the side.<\/p>\n
Perhaps his holiday fight song is the first of many soundtracks \u2014 or holiday playlists \u2014 to come.<\/p>\n
Lawson said he expects to play the song with other holiday classics this year as he and his wife, Liz, decorate their Christmas tree.<\/p>\n
He hopes that the Rocket community will enjoy it as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know the fight song is cherished,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cMy goal was that I would do justice to the song for them and that they can take pride and enjoy the song over the holidays. That would be fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Micah Lawson knew right away that his version should be slowed down and feature a gentle piano to convey the proper relaxed mood. And, of course, the addition of winter sleigh bells was a fait accompli.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":878,"featured_media":70273,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,60,35,1,71,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/878"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70267"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70290,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70267\/revisions\/70290"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>