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Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

1809 - 1847 Person Name: Felix Medelssohn Bartholdy Composer of "BARTHOLDI" in Church Hymnal, Mennonite 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
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Person Name: Lowell Mason, 1792-1872 Composer of "HARTEL" in The Christian Hymnary. Bks. 1-4 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.
Lowell Mason

John J. Overholt

1918 - 2000 Author (stanza 3) of "When Christ Beheld in Sin's Dark Night" in The Christian Hymnary. Bks. 1-4 John J. Overholt was born to an Amish family of limited means in the state of Ohio in 1918. As a child he was soon introduced to his father's personal collection of gospel songs and hymns, which was to have a marked influence on his later life. With his twin brother Joe, he early was exposed to the Amish-Mennonite tradition hymn-singing and praising worship. An early career in Christian service led to a two-year period of relief work in the country of Poland following World War II. During that interim he began to gather many European songs and hymns as a personal hobby, not realizing that these selections would become invaluable to The Christian Hymnary which was begun in 1960 and completed twelve years later in 1972, with a compilation of 1000 songs, hymns and chorales. (The largest Menn. hymnal). A second hymnal was begun simultaneously in the German language entitled Erweckungs Lieder Nr.1 which was brought to completion in 1986. This hymnal has a total of 200 selections with a small addendum of English hymns. Mr. Overholt married in 1965 to an accomplished soprano Vera Marie Sommers, who was not to be outdone by her husband's creativity and compiled a hymnal of 156 selections entitled Be Glad and Sing, directed to children and youth and first printed in 1986. During this later career of hymn publishing, Mr. Overholt also found time for Gospel team work throughout Europe. At this writing he is preparing for a 5th consecutive tour which he arranges and guides. The countries visited will be Belgium, Switzerland, France, Germany, Poland, USSR and Romania. Mr. Overholt was called to the Christian ministry in 1957 and resides at Sarasota, Florida where he is co-minister of a Beachy Amish-Mennonite Church. Five children were born to this family and all enjoy worship in song. --Letter from Hannah Joanna Overholt to Mary Louise VanDyke, 10 October 1990, DNAH Archives. Photo enclosed.
John J. Overholt

Samuel F. Coffman

1872 - 1954 Person Name: S. F. Coffman Author of "When Christ Beheld in Sin's Dark Night" in Church Hymnal, Mennonite Born: June 11, 1872, Dale En­ter­prise, Rock­ing­ham Coun­ty, Vir­gin­ia. Died: June 28, 1954, Vine­land, On­tar­io, Ca­na­da. Buried: First Men­non­ite Church, Vine­land, On­tar­io, Ca­na­da. Coffman spent most of his school years in Elk­hart Coun­ty, In­di­a­na, where his fam­i­ly had moved in 1879. He grad­u­at­ed from the Elk­hart High School in 1890, and at­tend­ed the Moo­dy Bi­ble Ins­ti­tute (1894-95 and for six months in 1897-98). From 1890-94, he worked for the Men­non­ite Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny in Elk­hart. He was con­vert­ed at meet­ings held in Elk­hart by his fa­ther, and was bap­tized on May 26, 1888. He was elect­ed su­per­in­tend­ent of the Elk­hart Men­non­ite Sun­day school on De­cem­ber 28, 1893. In 1894-95 he served in the Men­non­ite Home Miss­ion in Chi­ca­go, Il­li­nois. There he was or­dained to the min­is­try in 1895; he be­came bi­shop in Vine­land, On­tar­io, in 1903. Coffman served wide­ly in his de­nom­in­a­tion be­yond the bor­ders of his own con­gre­ga­tion and con­fer­ence. He was mod­er­at­or of the On­tar­io Con­fer­ence in 1931-34, and mod­er­at­or of the Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence in 1911 and 1933. He al­so served as sec­re­ta­ry of the Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence for a time. He was a mem­ber of the fol­low­ing Gen­er­al Con­fer­ence com­mit­tees: Mu­sic Com­mit­tee from its be­gin­ning in 1911 un­til 1947; Peace Prob­lems Com­mit­tee 1925-49; His­tor­ic­al Com­mit­tee from its in­cept­ion in 1911, and its chair­per­son from 1911 un­til 1947; Gen­er­al Sun­day School Com­mit­tee from its be­gin­ning in 1915 un­til it was in­cor­por­at­ed in­to the Com­miss­ion for Christ­ian Ed­u­ca­tion and Young Peo­ple’s Work in 1937. He served for a time on the Miss­ions Com­mitt­ee of the Men­non­ite Board of Miss­ions and Char­i­ties. He served on the Men­non­ite Board of Ed­u­ca­tion from its incep­tion in 1905 un­til about 1944, serv­ing as sec­re­ta­ry for about 20 years. He al­so served on the Pub­li­ca­tion Board and its Pub­lish­ing Com­mit­tee. He was the found­er and served as prin­ci­pal of the On­tar­io Men­non­ite Bi­ble School in Kitch­en­er, 1907-47. He was ed­it­or of the Bi­ble stu­dy de­part­ment of the Christ­ian Mon­i­tor from the be­gin­ning of its pub­li­ca­tion in 1909 un­til 1953. He served as pas­tor of the Moy­er con­gre­ga­tion in Vine­land from 1902 un­til he died in 1954, and as bi­shop of the Ni­a­ga­ra Dis­trict from 1903. He was a char­ter mem­ber of the Non­re­sist­ant Re­lief Or­gan­i­za­tion in On­tar­io, or­gan­ized in 1918, and its se­cre­ta­ry 1920-54. In 1918 he was ap­point­ed the spe­cial cor­res­pond­ent with the Ca­na­di­an gov­ern­ment re­gard­ing mil­i­tary serv­ice and the im­mi­gra­tion of the Russ­ian Men­non­ites. He was as­so­ci­at­ed with the Ca­na­di­an Men­non­ite Board of Col­o­niz­a­tion (1922-44), and ac­tive­ly aid­ed the im­mi­gra­tion from Russ­ia to On­tar­io (1922-25). In his ear­li­er min­is­try, he was wide­ly used in Bi­ble con­fer­ence and evan­gel­is­tic work. In 1901 on a com­miss­ion from the On­tar­io Con­fer­ence, he or­gan­ized a num­ber of con­gre­ga­tions and or­dained min­is­ters and dea­cons in Al­ber­ta. During Coff­man’s time as hymn ed­it­or of the Mu­sic Com­mit­tee, the fol­low­ing books ap­peared at Scott­dale, Penn­syl­van­ia: Church and Sun­day School Hymn­al Sup­ple­ment, 1911 Life Songs, 1916 (co-ed­it­or) Church Hymn­al, 1927 Songs of Cheer for Child­ren, 1928 Life Songs No. 2, 1938 (ed­it­or) Photo & bi­o­graphy cour­te­sy of the Men­non­ite His­tor­ic­al So­ci­e­ty of Ca­na­da
Samuel F. Coffman

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