Person Results

Switch back to the old search page.Advanced Search

Showing 1 - 9 of 9Results Per Page: 10 20 50

Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Composer of "NAIN" in The Presbyterian Book of Praise 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 1869. 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). Biography of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.

J. Evans

Author of "I'm nearer my home" in Song-Flowers

Love H. Jameson

1811 - 1892 Person Name: L. H. Jameson Arranger of "I'm nearer my home" in New Christian Hymn and Tune Book Born: April 17, 1811, Jefferson County, Indiana. Died: April 12, 1892, Indianapolis, Indiana. Buried: Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, Indiana. Love Humphreys Jameson was born in Jefferson County in what was then the Territory of Indiana on May 17, 1811, the son of Thomas Jameson. Thomas had moved from Virginia to Kentucky around 1800 and later to the Indiana Territory in 1810 or early 1811. Thomas’s parents were members of the Calvinistic Kirk of Scotland and his wife’s parents held the views of the Church of England, but the family became Christians in 1816 with Love’s father and mother being baptized by John McClung, a young associate of Barton Warren Stone. Love, whose education was attended with all the difficulties associated with frontier life and was mostly under the tuition of his parents, was baptized in the fall of 1829 during a protracted meeting with Beverly Vawter and then preached his first sermon that same year on Dec. 25, following which he began preaching the gospel regularly. From 1830 to 1834, Jameson taught school during the winters and made preaching trips in the summers. One of his mentors was Walter Scott, with whom he frequently travelled and worked. Moving to southern Ohio, in 1834, he, along with Scott, attended the famous debate of 1837 between Alexander Campbell and Bishop Purcell at Cincinnati, OH. In addition, he wrote frequently for Campbell’s paper, The Millennial Harbinger, in which Campbell spoke of him as the brother “whose praise is in all the churches in Indiana.” After preaching at various churches in Hamilton County, OH, Jameson worked with the church in Dayton from 1835 to 1837, when he married Elizabeth M. Clark. Also, in the closing years of B. W. Stone’s life, Jameson often accompanied the elderly preacher on his journeys. In 1840 he returned to Indiana and located at Madison, IN, the following year. His wife died of an apoplectic stroke suddenly soon afterwards, and he married Elizabeth R. Robinson in 1842, moving to Indianapolis, IN, which became his headquarters for the rest of his life. In 1845, Jameson was asked, along with John O’Kane, to evangelize in the southwestern part of the state. Then after 1854, he made regular preaching trips into Ohio, Kentucky, Western Missouri, Illinois, New York, and even portions of New England. “There is a Habitation” was penned about 1860, with both words and original music by Jameson, but it never achieved any degree of popularity because of its slow, ponderous, torpid melody. The song as we know it was first published under the title, “O Sion, Sion,” in the New Christian Hymn and Tune Book, Part II, compiled at Cincinnati, OH, in 1882 by James Henry Fillmore. Jameson, who also provided the lyrics for “Night, With Ebon Pinion,” died ten years later, on May 1, 1892, in Indianapolis. --hymnstudiesblog.wordpress.com

Alice Cary

1820 - 1872 Person Name: Alice Carey Author of "A Crown of Glory" in Westminster Sabbath School Hymnal, a collection of hymns and tunes for use in sabbath-schools and social meetings Alice Cary (1820-1871) was born and raised in Mount Healthy in Hamilton County, Ohio. Her family had come from Lyme, New Hampshire when her grandfather was given land in return for his service in the Continental Army. She had been nationally recognized as an interpreter of pioneer traditions. Her short story collections depict Mount Healthy as it was transformed from an isolated rural village to a Cincinnati suburb. She and her sister Phoebe wrote for local religious periodicals before Alice moved to New York City. John Greenleaf Whitier praised Alice's stories as "simple, natural, truthful [with] a keen sense of humor and pathos of the comedy and tragedy of life in the country." Her hymn "Along the mountain track of life" was published in H.W.Beecher's Plymouth Collection, 1856. Her hymn titled "Nearer Home" was published in W.A.Ogden's Crown of Life (Toledo, OH: Whitney, 1875). Mary Louise VanDyke ====================================== Cary, Alice, the elder of two gifted sisters, was born near Cincinnati, Ohio, 1820, removed to New York in 1852, and died there Feb. 12, 1871. The story of the two sisters—of their courageous move from a rural, western home, their life in the metropolis, their mutual affection, and inability to live apart—has attracted much admiring and sympathetic interest. As poets they were of nearly equal merit. Besides some prose works, Alice published a volume of Poems in 1850. Her hymns are:— 1. Earth with its dark and dreadful ills. Death anticipated. This fine lyric is given in Hymns and Songs of Praise, N. Y., 1874, and dated 1870. 2. Along the mountain track of life. Lent. The authorship of this hymn, although sometimes attributed to Alice Cary, is uncertain. It appeared anonymously in H. W. Beecher's Plymouth Collection, 1855, No. 438. It would seem from its tone and the refrain, "Nearer to Thee," to have been suggested by Mrs. Adams's "Nearer, my God, to Thee," which appeared in 1841. In addition to these there are the following hymns by her in the Lyra Sacra Americana, 1868:— 3. Bow, angels, from your glorious state. Peace desired. 4. I cannot plainly see the way. Providence. 5. Leave me, dear ones, to my slumber. Death anticipated. 6. Light waits for us in heaven. Heaven. 7. A crown of glory bright. His Fadeless Crown. In the Methodist Sunday School Hymn Book (London), 1879. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ====================== Cary, Alice, p. 214, i. From her Ballads, Lyrics and Hymns, N.Y., 1866, the following are in Horder's Worship Song, 1905:— 1. O day to sweet religious thought. Sunday. 2. Our days are few and full of strife. Trust in God. The original begins, "Fall, storms of winter, as you may." 3. To Him Who is the Life of life. God and Nature. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Anonymous

Person Name: Unknown Author of "I'm nearer my home" in Hallowed Songs In some hymnals, the editors noted that a hymn's author is unknown to them, and so this artificial "person" entry is used to reflect that fact. Obviously, the hymns attributed to "Author Unknown" "Unknown" or "Anonymous" could have been written by many people over a span of many centuries.

Phoebe Cary

1824 - 1871 Author of "A crown of glory bright" in The Presbyterian Book of Praise Phoebe Cary, (1824-1871) was born and raised in Mount Healthy in Hamilton County, Ohio. Her family came from Lyme, New Hampshire to Ohio when her grandfather was given land in return for his service in the Continental Army. She was the younger sister of Alice Cary (1820-1871). She and Alice submitted poetry to religious periodicals. Phoebe remained in Ohio and continued to write many hymns, including, "One sweetly solemn thought." Mary Louise VanDyke =========================================== Cary, Phoebe, sister of Alice Cary, born near Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 4, 1824, and died within six months of the death of the same sister at Newport, July 31, 1871. Her works include Poems and Parodies, 1854; and Poems of Faith, Hope and Love, 1868. With Dr. Charles F. Deems she compiled Hymns for all Christians, 1869. Her hymns are:— 1. One sweetly solemn thought. Anticipation of Heaven. This piece was not intended for public use, nor is it a suitable metre for musical treatment, yet it has won universal acceptance and popularity. In some instances this has been attained by change of metre as in the Supplement to the Baptist Psalms & Hymns 1880, No. 1185. Johnson's Encyclopedia is in error in saying it was "written at the age of 17." The Congregational Quarterly for Oct., 1874, says, "it was written, she tells us, in the little back third story bedroom, one Sabbath morning in 1852, on her return from church." This statement shows that it was composed when she was 28, and not 17. The popularity of the hymn in Great Britain arose mainly through its use in the Evangelistic services of Messrs. Moody and Sankey. In the Protestant Episcopal Hymns for Church and Home, Phila., 1860, No. 383, it is given as "A sweetly solemn thought." The following additional pieces by this author are in the Lyra Sacra Americana, 1868:— 2. Go and sow beside all waters. Seed Sowing. 3. Great waves of plenty rolling up. Gratitude. 4. I had drunk, with lips unsated. Living Waters. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

William H. Clark

1854 - 1925 Person Name: W. H. Clark Composer of "REWARD" in The New Sabbath School Hosanna Clark, William Henry. (Racine, Wisconsin, April 8, 1854--November 8, 1925, Rome, New York). Free Methodist. In his infancy, his parents returned to their former home in New York State, where his mother soon died, and his father married a close friend of hers, who forecast, after William's conversion in 1873, that one day he would be a bishop. He served the Susquehanna Conference of his denomination as a pastor and district superintendent from 1876 until 1919, when his stepmother's prediction came true. Meanwhile, he had been a member of the joint commission of the Free and Wesleyan Methodist Churches which compiled the Hymnal of 1910, and contributed some items to it. He died in office, requesting no eulogy at his funeral. --Arlene Clyde, DNAH Archives, rev. Hugh McKellar

Sir Arthur Somervell

1863 - 1937 Person Name: A. Somervell Composer of "FIDELIS" in The Church Hymnary b. June 5, 1863, Windermere, d. May 2, 1937, London; English composer and educationist

John M. Evans

Composer of "[A crown of glory bright]" in Gems of Song Evans, John M. (Hilltown, Pennsylvania, November 30, 1825--?). Baptist. Appointed superintendent of the Sunday School at Tenth Baptist Church, Philadelphia, in 1854. Under his direction, the Sunday School became the first in that city to make music a prominent feature of its activities. In 1872, he was elected President of the Baptist Sunday School Association of Philadelphia. Author of several hymns and tunes. Included in Devotional Hymn Book (Philadelphia, 1864) is the text "Amid the joyous scenes of earth" which is interesting in that the refrain is the same as the one for the Doddridge text "Oh, happy day, that fixed my choice." --Deborah Carlton Loftis, DNAH Archives

Export as CSV