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Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Person Name: Dr. Lowell Mason Composer of "[O Thou in Whom alone is found]" in The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892 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.

John Baptiste Calkin

1827 - 1905 Person Name: J. B. Calkin Composer of "WALTHAM" in Worship Song John Baptiste Calkin United Kingdom 1827-1905. Born in London, he was reared in a musical atmosphere. Studying music under his father, and with three brothers, he became a composer, organist, and music teacher. At 19, he was appointed organist, precenter, and choirmaster at St. Columbia's College, Dublin, Ireland, 1846 to 1853. From 1853 to 1863 we was organist and choirmaster at Woburn Chapel, London. From 1863 to 1868, he was organist of Camden Road Chapel. From 1870 to 1884 he was organist at St. Thomas's Church, Camden Town. In 1883 he became professor at Guildhall School of Music and concentrated on teaching and composing. He was also a professor of music and on the council of Trinity College, London, and a member of the Philharmonic Society (1862). In 1893 he was a fellow of the College of Organists. John and wife, Victoire, had four sons, each following a musical carer. He wrote much music for organ and scored string arrangements, sonatas, duos, etc. He died at Hornsey Rise Gardens. John Perry

Henry Ware

1794 - 1843 Person Name: Dr. Henry Ware Author of "O Thou in Whom alone is found" in The Hymnal, Revised and Enlarged, as adopted by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892 Henry Ware was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1793. His father was a Unitarian minister; afterwards a Professor in Harvard College. Young Ware graduated at Harvard, studied theology, and became minister of the Second Unitarian Society, in Boston, in 1817. After a ministry of twelve years, he made a foreign tour, and on his return was elected "Parkman Professor of Pulpit Eloquence and Pastoral Theology" in Harvard College. In this position he obtained eminence. He died in September, 1843. His collected works in four volumes, were edited after his death, by the Rev. Chandler Robbins. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A., 1872 =================== Ware, Henry, D.D., son of Dr. H. Ware, pastor of the Unitarian congregation at Hingham, Massachusetts, and afterward Hollis Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, U.S.A., was born at Hingham, April 21, 1794. Before going to Harvard College, in 1808, he was under the care of Dr. Allyn, at Duxbury, and then of Judge Ware, at Cambridge. He graduated at Harvard in high honours, in 1812; and was then for two years an assistant teacher in Exeter Academy. He was licensed to preach by the Boston Unitarian Association, July 31, 1815; and ordained pastor of the Second Church of that city, Jan. 1, 1817. In 1829, in consequence of his ill health, he received the assistance of a co-pastor in the person of Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the same year Ware was appointed Professor of Pulpit Eloquence and Pastoral Care in the Cambridge Theological School. He entered upon his duties in 1830, and resigned in 1842. He removed to Framingham, and died there, Sept. 25, 1843. His D.D. degree was conferred upon Memoir, published by his brother John Ware, M.D., were numerous and on a variety of topics. He edited the Christian Disciple, which was established in 1813, and altered in title to the Christian Examiner in 1824, for some years before the change of title, and gave it his assistance subsequently. The Rev. Chandler Robbins collected his works and published them in four volumes, in 1847. His hymns, many of which are of more than usual excellence, are given in vol. i. Of these the following are in common use: 1. All nature's works His praise declare. Opening of an Organ. Dated Nov. 9, 1822. It is in Horder's English Congregational Hymns, 1884. 2. Around the throne of God The host angelic throngs. Universal Praise. Dated 1823, and printed in the Christian Disciple, vol. v., and in Putnam, 1874. A fine hymn of praise. 3. Father of earth and heaven, Whose arm upholds creation. Thanksgiving for Divine Mercies. Appeared in Cheever's American Common Place Book, 1831; and in Lyra Sacra Americana, 1868. 4. Father, Thy gentle chastisement. In Sickness. Dated March, 1836; and in Lyra Sacra Americana, 1868. 5. Great God, the followers of Thy Son. Ordination. Written for the Ordination of Jared Sparks, the historian, as pastor of the Unitarian Church, Baltimore, 1819. Given in Lyra Sacra Americana, 1868, and Putnam, 1874. 6. In this glad hour when children meet. Family Gatherings. Dated Aug. 20, 1835. In Lyra Sac. Americana, 1868, and Putnam, 1874. 7. Lift your glad voices in triumph on high. Easter. Dated 1817, and was published in the Christian Disciple of that year, in 2 stanzas of 8 lines. It is in Lyra Sac. Americana, 1868; Putnam, 1874, and numerous hymnbooks. Sometimes stanza ii. is given separately as, "Glory to God, in full anthems of joy." 8. Like Israel's hosts to exile driven. American National Hymn. Written for the Centennial Celebration of the Boston Thursday Lecture, Oct. 17,1833, and given in Lyra Sac. Americana, 1868, and Putnam, 1874. It is a quasi American National Hymn in praise of the Pilgrim Fathers. 9. 0 Thou in Whom alone is found. Laying Foundation Stone of a Place of Worship. In Lyra Sacra Americana, 1868, and Thring's English Collection, 1882. 10. 0 Thou Who on Thy chosen Son. Ordination. Written for an Ordination, March, 1829. In Putnam, 1874, and Dale's English Hymn Book, 1874. 11. Oppression shall not always reign. Against Slavery. "This was Mr. Ware's last composition in verse. It bears date March 15, 1843. In its original form it is longer than as presented here [in 3 stanzas of 8 lines], and is unsuited to a church-book. The following stanzas, taken from one of the Collections [stanzas i., ii. are in Longfellow and Johnson's Book of Hymns, 1848] are a part of the original, altered and transposed, and thus adapted to sacred worship." 12. To prayer, to prayer; for the morning breaks. Prayer. This poem of 10 stanzas of 6 lines is dated 1826, and is given in Lyra Sac. Americana, 1868, and Putnam, 1874. Two centos therefrom are in common use The first begins with stanza i., adapting it for Morning, and the second with stanza ii., "To prayer, for the glorious sun is gone," for Evening. 13. We rear not a temple, like Judah of old. Dedication of a Place of Worship. This is dated 1839, and is given in Putnam, 1874. 14. With praise and prayer our gifts we bring. Opening of a Place of Worship. In Dale's English Hymn Book. 1874. With American Unitarians Dr. Ware ranks very high, and by them his hymns are widely used. [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================== Ware, H., p. 1233, i. Another of his hymns in common use is "Great King of all, our nation's God" (National Humiliation). His hymn "To prayer, to prayer," is in Cheever's American Common-Place Book of Poetry, 1831. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)