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Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Composer of "ROCKINGHAM" in The Voice of Thanksgiving Dr. Lowell Mason (the degree was conferred by the University of New York) is justly called the father of American church music; and by his labors were founded the germinating principles of national musical intelligence and knowledge, which afforded a soil upon which all higher musical culture has been founded. To him we owe some of our best ideas in religious church music, elementary musical education, music in the schools, the popularization of classical chorus singing, and the art of teaching music upon the Inductive or Pestalozzian plan. More than that, we owe him no small share of the respect which the profession of music enjoys at the present time as contrasted with the contempt in which it was held a century or more ago. In fact, the entire art of music, as now understood and practiced in America, has derived advantage from the work of this great man. Lowell Mason was born in Medfield, Mass., January 8, 1792. From childhood he had manifested an intense love for music, and had devoted all his spare time and effort to improving himself according to such opportunities as were available to him. At the age of twenty he found himself filling a clerkship in a banking house in Savannah, Ga. Here he lost no opportunity of gratifying his passion for musical advancement, and was fortunate to meet for the first time a thoroughly qualified instructor, in the person of F. L. Abel. Applying his spare hours assiduously to the cultivation of the pursuit to which his passion inclined him, he soon acquired a proficiency that enabled him to enter the field of original composition, and his first work of this kind was embodied in the compilation of a collection of church music, which contained many of his own compositions. The manuscript was offered unavailingly to publishers in Philadelphia and in Boston. Fortunately for our musical advancement it finally secured the attention of the Boston Handel and Haydn Society, and by its committee was submitted to Dr. G. K. Jackson, the severest critic in Boston. Dr. Jackson approved most heartily of the work, and added a few of his own compositions to it. Thus enlarged, it was finally published in 1822 as The Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music. Mason's name was omitted from the publication at his own request, which he thus explains, "I was then a bank officer in Savannah, and did not wish to be known as a musical man, as I had not the least thought of ever making music a profession." President Winchester, of the Handel and Haydn Society, sold the copyright for the young man. Mr. Mason went back to Savannah with probably $500 in his pocket as the preliminary result of his Boston visit. The book soon sprang into universal popularity, being at once adopted by the singing schools of New England, and through this means entering into the church choirs, to whom it opened up a higher field of harmonic beauty. Its career of success ran through some seventeen editions. On realizing this success, Mason determined to accept an invitation to come to Boston and enter upon a musical career. This was in 1826. He was made an honorary member of the Handel and Haydn Society, but declined to accept this, and entered the ranks as an active member. He had been invited to come to Boston by President Winchester and other musical friends and was guaranteed an income of $2,000 a year. He was also appointed, by the influence of these friends, director of music at the Hanover, Green, and Park Street churches, to alternate six months with each congregation. Finally he made a permanent arrangement with the Bowdoin Street Church, and gave up the guarantee, but again friendly influence stepped in and procured for him the position of teller at the American Bank. In 1827 Lowell Mason became president and conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society. It was the beginning of a career that was to win for him as has been already stated the title of "The Father of American Church Music." Although this may seem rather a bold claim it is not too much under the circumstances. Mr. Mason might have been in the average ranks of musicianship had he lived in Europe; in America he was well in advance of his surroundings. It was not too high praise (in spite of Mason's very simple style) when Dr. Jackson wrote of his song collection: "It is much the best book I have seen published in this country, and I do not hesitate to give it my most decided approbation," or that the great contrapuntist, Hauptmann, should say the harmonies of the tunes were dignified and churchlike and that the counterpoint was good, plain, singable and melodious. Charles C. Perkins gives a few of the reasons why Lowell Mason was the very man to lead American music as it then existed. He says, "First and foremost, he was not so very much superior to the members as to be unreasonably impatient at their shortcomings. Second, he was a born teacher, who, by hard work, had fitted himself to give instruction in singing. Third, he was one of themselves, a plain, self-made man, who could understand them and be understood of them." The personality of Dr. Mason was of great use to the art and appreciation of music in this country. He was of strong mind, dignified manners, sensitive, yet sweet and engaging. Prof. Horace Mann, one of the great educators of that day, said he would walk fifty miles to see and hear Mr. Mason teach if he could not otherwise have that advantage. Dr. Mason visited a number of the music schools in Europe, studied their methods, and incorporated the best things in his own work. He founded the Boston Academy of Music. The aim of this institution was to reach the masses and introduce music into the public schools. Dr. Mason resided in Boston from 1826 to 1851, when he removed to New York. Not only Boston benefited directly by this enthusiastic teacher's instruction, but he was constantly traveling to other societies in distant cities and helping their work. He had a notable class at North Reading, Mass., and he went in his later years as far as Rochester, where he trained a chorus of five hundred voices, many of them teachers, and some of them coming long distances to study under him. Before 1810 he had developed his idea of "Teachers' Conventions," and, as in these he had representatives from different states, he made musical missionaries for almost the entire country. He left behind him no less than fifty volumes of musical collections, instruction books, and manuals. As a composer of solid, enduring church music. Dr. Mason was one of the most successful this country has introduced. He was a deeply pious man, and was a communicant of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Mason in 1817 married Miss Abigail Gregory, of Leesborough, Mass. The family consisted of four sons, Daniel Gregory, Lowell, William and Henry. The two former founded the publishing house of Mason Bros., dissolved by the death of the former in 19G9. Lowell and Henry were the founders of the great organ manufacturer of Mason & Hamlin. Dr. William Mason was one of the most eminent musicians that America has yet produced. Dr. Lowell Mason died at "Silverspring," a beautiful residence on the side of Orange Mountain, New Jersey, August 11, 1872, bequeathing his great musical library, much of which had been collected abroad, to Yale College. --Hall, J. H. (c1914). Biographies of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.

George J. Elvey

1816 - 1893 Person Name: G. J. Elvey (1816-1893) Composer of "ST. CRISPIN" in Hymns of Worship and Service George Job Elvey (b. Canterbury, England, 1816; d. Windlesham, Surrey, England, 1893) As a young boy, Elvey was a chorister in Canterbury Cathedral. Living and studying with his brother Stephen, he was educated at Oxford and at the Royal Academy of Music. At age nineteen Elvey became organist and master of the boys' choir at St. George Chapel, Windsor, where he remained until his retirement in 1882. He was frequently called upon to provide music for royal ceremonies such as Princess Louise's wedding in 1871 (after which he was knighted). Elvey also composed hymn tunes, anthems, oratorios, and service music. Bert Polman

Ludwig van Beethoven

1770 - 1827 Person Name: Beethoven Composer of "[How beauteous were the marks divine]" in Songs Celestial A giant in the history of music, Ludwig van Beethoven (b. Bonn, Germany, 1770; d. Vienna, Austria, 1827) progressed from early musical promise to worldwide, lasting fame. By the age of fourteen he was an accomplished viola and organ player, but he became famous primarily because of his compositions, including nine symphonies, eleven overtures, thirty piano sonatas, sixteen string quartets, the Mass in C, and the Missa Solemnis. He wrote no music for congregational use, but various arrangers adapted some of his musical themes as hymn tunes; the most famous of these is ODE TO JOY from the Ninth Symphony. Although it would appear that the great calamity of Beethoven's life was his loss of hearing, which turned to total deafness during the last decade of his life, he composed his greatest works during this period. Bert Polman

Joseph Haydn

1732 - 1809 Person Name: Haydn Composer of "HURSLEY" in Songs for the Service of Prayer Franz Joseph Haydn (b. Rohrau, Austria, 1732; d. Vienna, Austria, 1809) Haydn's life was relatively uneventful, but his artistic legacy was truly astounding. He began his musical career as a choirboy in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, spent some years in that city making a precarious living as a music teacher and composer, and then served as music director for the Esterhazy family from 1761 to 1790. Haydn became a most productive and widely respected composer of symphonies, chamber music, and piano sonatas. In his retirement years he took two extended tours to England, which resulted in his "London" symphonies and (because of G. F. Handel's influence) in oratorios. Haydn's church music includes six great Masses and a few original hymn tunes. Hymnal editors have also arranged hymn tunes from various themes in Haydn's music. Bert Polman

Richard Redhead

1820 - 1901 Person Name: Richard Redhead, (1820- ) Composer of "TUNBRIDGE" in Hymnal Amore Dei Richard Redhead (b. Harrow, Middlesex, England, 1820; d. Hellingley, Sussex, England, 1901) was a chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford. At age nineteen he was invited to become organist at Margaret Chapel (later All Saints Church), London. Greatly influencing the musical tradition of the church, he remained in that position for twenty-five years as organist and an excellent trainer of the boys' choirs. Redhead and the church's rector, Frederick Oakeley, were strongly committed to the Oxford Movement, which favored the introduction of Roman elements into Anglican worship. Together they produced the first Anglican plainsong psalter, Laudes Diurnae (1843). Redhead spent the latter part of his career as organist at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Paddington (1864-1894). Bert Polman

Samuel Webbe

1740 - 1816 Composer of "NAZARETH" in New Manual of Praise Samuel Webbe (the elder; b. London, England, 1740; d. London, 1816) Webbe's father died soon after Samuel was born without providing financial security for the family. Thus Webbe received little education and was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker at the age of eleven. However, he was determined to study and taught himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and Italian while working on his apprenticeship. He also worked as a music copyist and received musical training from Carl Barbant, organist at the Bavarian Embassy. Restricted at this time in England, Roman Catholic worship was freely permitted in the foreign embassies. Because Webbe was Roman Catholic, he became organist at the Portuguese Chapel and later at the Sardinian and Spanish chapels in their respective embassies. He wrote much music for Roman Catholic services and composed hymn tunes, motets, and madrigals. Webbe is considered an outstanding composer of glees and catches, as is evident in his nine published collections of these smaller choral works. He also published A Collection of Sacred Music (c. 1790), A Collection of Masses for Small Choirs (1792), and, with his son Samuel (the younger), Antiphons in Six Books of Anthems (1818). Bert Polman

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

1809 - 1847 Person Name: Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Composer of "SELWYN" in The Pilgrim Hymnal Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (b. Hamburg, Germany, 1809; d. Leipzig, Germany, 1847) was the son of banker Abraham Mendelssohn and the grandson of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. His Jewish family became Christian and took the Bartholdy name (name of the estate of Mendelssohn's uncle) when baptized into the Lutheran church. The children all received an excellent musical education. Mendelssohn had his first public performance at the age of nine and by the age of sixteen had written several symphonies. Profoundly influenced by J. S. Bach's music, he conducted a performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829 (at age 20!) – the first performance since Bach's death, thus reintroducing Bach to the world. Mendelssohn organized the Domchor in Berlin and founded the Leipzig Conservatory of Music in 1843. Traveling widely, he not only became familiar with various styles of music but also became well known himself in countries other than Germany, especially in England. He left a rich treasury of music: organ and piano works, overtures and incidental music, oratorios (including St. Paul or Elijah and choral works, and symphonies. He harmonized a number of hymn tunes himself, but hymnbook editors also arranged some of his other tunes into hymn tunes. Bert Polman

I. B. Woodbury

1819 - 1858 Composer of "OLIVET" in The Otterbein Hymnal Woodbury, Isaac Baker. (Beverly, Massachusetts, October 23, 1819--October 26, 1858, Columbia, South Carolina). Music editor. As a boy, he studied music in nearby Boston, then spent his nineteenth year in further study in London and Paris. He taught for six years in Boston, traveling throughout New England with the Bay State Glee Club. He later lived at Bellow Falls, Vermont, where he organized the New Hampshire and Vermont Musical Association. In 1849 he settled in New York City where he directed the music at the Rutgers Street Church until ill-health caused him to resign in 1851. He became editor of the New York Musical Review and made another trip to Europe in 1852 to collect material for the magazine. in the fall of 1858 his health broke down from overwork and he went south hoping to regain his strength, but died three days after reaching Columbia, South Carolina. He published a number of tune-books, of which the Dulcimer, of New York Collection of Sacred Music, went through a number of editions. His Elements of Musical Composition, 1844, was later issued as the Self-instructor in Musical Composition. He also assisted in the compilation of the Methodist Hymn Book of 1857. --Leonard Ellinwood, DNAH Archives

Robert Schumann

1810 - 1856 Person Name: Robert Alexander Schumann Composer of "CANONBURY" in The Cyber Hymnal Robert Alexander Schumann DM Germany 1810-1856. Born at Swickau, Saxony, Germany, the last child of a novelist, bookseller, and publisher, he began composing music at age seven. He received general music instruction at the local high school and worked to create his own compositions. Some of his works were considered admirable for his age. He even composed music congruent to the personalities of friends, who took note of the anomaly. He studied famous poets and philosophers and was impressed with the works of other famous composers of the time. After his father’s death in 1826, he went to Leipzig to study law (to meet the terms of his inheritance). In 1829 he continued law studies in Heidelberg, where he became a lifelong member of Corps Saxo-Borussia Heidelberg. In 1830 he left the study of law to return to music, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. His teacher, Friedrich Wieck, assured him he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but an injury to his right hand (from a practicing method) ended that dream. He then focused his energies on composition, and studied under Heinrich Dorn, a German composer and conductor of the Leipzig opera. Schumann visited relatives in Zwickau and Schneeberg and performed at a concert given by Clara Wieck, age 13 at the time. In 1834 he published ‘A new journal for music’, praising some past composers and deriding others. He met Felix Mendelssohn at Wieck’s house in Leigzig and lauded the greatness of his compositions, along with those of Johannes Brahms. He also wrote a work, hoping to use proceeds from its sale towards a monument for Beethoven, whom he highly admired. He composed symphonies, operas, orchestral and chamber works, and also wrote biographies. Until 1840 he wrote strictly for piano, but then began composing for orchestra and voice. That year he composed 168 songs. He also receive a Doctorate degree from the University of Jena that year. An aesthete and influential music critic, he was one of the most regarded composers of the Romantic era. He published his works in the ‘New journal for music’, which he co-founded. In 1840, against the wishes of his father, he married Clara Wieck, daughter of his former teacher, and they had four children: Marie, Julie, Eugenie, and Felix. Clara also composed music and had a considerable concert career, the earnings from which formed a substantial part of her father’s fortune. In 1841 he wrote 2 of his 4 symphonies. In 1843 he was awarded a professorship in the Conservatory of Music, which Mendelssohn had founded in Leipzig that same year, When he and Clara went to Russia for her performances, he was questioned as to whether he also was a musician. He harbored resentment for her success as a pianist, which exceeded his ability as a pianist and reputation as a composer. From 1844-1853 he was engaged in setting Goethe’s Faust to music, but he began having persistent nervous prostration and developed neurasthenia (nervous fears of things, like metal objects and drugs). In 1846 he felt he had recovered and began traveling to Vienna, Prague, and Berlin, where he was received with enthusiasm. His only opera was written in 1848, and an orchestral work in 1849. In 1850 he succeeded Ferdinand Hiller as musical director at Dusseldorf, but was a poor conductor and soon aroused the opposition of the musicians, claiming he was impossible on the platform. From 1850-1854 he composed a wide variety of genres, but critics have considered his works during this period inferior to earlier works. In 1851 he visited Switzerland, Belgium, and returned to Leipzig. That year he finished his fourth symphony. He then went to Dusseldorf and began editing his complete works and making an anthology on the subject of music. He again was plagued with imaginary voices (angels, ghosts or demons) and in 1854 jumped off a bridge into the Rhine River, but was rescued by boatmen and taken home. For the last two years of his life, after the attempted suicide, Schumann was confined to a sanitarium in Endenich near Bonn, at his own request, and his wife was not allowed to see him. She finally saw him two days before he died, but he was unable to speak. He was diagnosed with psychotic melancholia, but died of pneumonia without recovering from the mental illness. Speculations as to the cause of his late term maladies was that he may have suffered from syphilis, contracted early in life, and treated with mercury, unknown as a neurological poison at the time. A report on his autopsy said he had a tumor at the base of the brain. It is also surmised he may have had bipolar disorder, accounting for mood swings and changes in his productivity. From the time of his death Clara devoted herself to the performance and interpretation of her husband’s works. John Perry

Henry Percy Smith

1825 - 1898 Person Name: H. Percy Smith Composer of "MAYTON" in Church Hymnal, Mennonite Henry Percy Smith (b. Malta, 1825; d. Bournemouth, Hampshire, England, 1898) was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, England, and ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1850. He served five churches, including St. Michael's York Town in Farnborough (1851-1868), Great Barton in Suffolk (1868-1882), Christ Church in Cannes, France (1882-1892), and the Cathedral in Gibraltar (1892-1898). MARYTON is his only tune found in contemporary hymnals and is thought to be the only tune he published. Bert Polman