Lowell Mason
Encyclopedia
Hymn tune
A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm , and no refrain or chorus....
s, many of which are often sung today. His most well-known tunes include Mary Had A Little Lamb and the arrangement of Joy to the World
Joy to the World
"Joy to the World" is a Christian Christmas carol.The words are by English hymn writer Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 98 in the Bible. The song was first published in 1719 in Watts' collection; The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and...
. He was also largely responsible for introducing music into American public schools, and is considered to be the first important music educator in the United States. In the last part of his career, as music director of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church is a large congregation of the Presbyterian Church . The church was founded in 1808 as the Cedar Street Presbyterian Church and has been located on Fifth Avenue at 55th Street in midtown Manhattan since 1875. It has approximately 3,250 members from a variety...
in New York City, he radically transformed American church music from a practice of having professional choirs and accompaniment to congregational singing accompanied by organ music.
Life
Mason was born and grew up in Medfield, MassachusettsMedfield, Massachusetts
Medfield is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,024 according to the 2010 Census. Medfield is an affluent community about 17 miles southwest of Boston....
, where he became the Music Director of First Parish (now First Parish Unitarian Universalist) Church at age 17. His birthplace was saved from development in 2011. It was relocated to a town park on Green Street. The Lowell Mason Foundation is leading a grassroots community effort, in conjunction with music educators, to create a Lowell Mason museum and music education center.
He spent the first part of his adulthood in Savannah, Georgia
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
, where he worked first in a dry-goods store, then in a bank. He had very strong amateur musical interests, and studied music with the German teacher Frederick L. Abel, eventually starting to write his own music. He also became a leader in the music of the Independent Presbyterian Church, where he served as choir director and organist. Under his initiative, his church also created the first Sunday school
Sunday school
Sunday school is the generic name for many different types of religious education pursued on Sundays by various denominations.-England:The first Sunday school may have been opened in 1751 in St. Mary's Church, Nottingham. Another early start was made by Hannah Ball, a native of High Wycombe in...
for black children in America.
Following an earlier British model, Mason embarked on the task of producing a hymnal
Hymnal
Hymnal or hymnary or hymnbook is a collection of hymns, i.e. religious songs, usually in the form of a book. The earliest hand-written hymnals are known since Middle Ages in the context of European Christianity...
whose tunes would be drawn from the work of European classical composers such as Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
and Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
. Mason had great difficulty in finding a publisher for this work. Ultimately, it was published (1822) by the Handel and Haydn Society
Handel and Haydn Society
The Handel and Haydn Society is an American chorus and period instrument orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1815, it remains one of the oldest performing arts organizations in the United States.-Early history:...
of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, which was one of the earliest American organizations devoted to classical music. Mason's hymnal turned out to be a great success. The work was at first published anonymously—Mason felt that his main career was as a banker, and he hoped not to damage his career prospects.
Park Street Church
The Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts is an active Conservative Congregational Church at the corner of Tremont Street and Park Street. The church is currently pastored by Gordon P. Hugenberger.-History:...
from 1829 to 1831. Mason eventually became a music director for three churches including the Hanover Street whose pastor was the famous Lyman Beecher, in a six-month rotation.
Mason became an important figure on the Boston musical scene: He served as president of the Handel and Haydn Society, taught music in the public schools, was co-founder of the Boston Academy of Music
Boston Academy of Music
The Boston Academy of Music is an institute of higher education in the field of music, located in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1833 by Lowell Mason and George James Webb. It was the first music school of its kind in the country....
(1833), and in 1838 was appointed music superintendent for the Boston school system. In the 1830s, Mason set to music the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb". In 1845 political machinations in the Boston school committee led to the termination of his services.
In 1851, at the age of 59, Mason retired from Boston musical activity and moved to New York City where his sons, Daniel and Lowell, Jr. had a music business. On December 20, 1851 he set sail to Europe. During his tour of Europe in 1852 he developed a great interest and enthusiasm for congregational singing, especially that in the German churches of Nicolaikirche in Leipzig and the Kreuzkirche in Dresden.
Following his return to New York City he accepted the position as music director in 1853 for the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church is a large congregation of the Presbyterian Church . The church was founded in 1808 as the Cedar Street Presbyterian Church and has been located on Fifth Avenue at 55th Street in midtown Manhattan since 1875. It has approximately 3,250 members from a variety...
which had just completed construction of a new church edifice on Nineteenth Street. He immediately disbanded its choir and orchestra and installed an organ with his son, William, serving as organist. During his tenure, which lasted until 1860, he developed congregational singing to the point where the church was known has having the finest congregational singing in the city. In 1859 Mason, along with Edwards A. Parks and Austin Phelps published the "Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book".
In 1860 he retired to his estate in Orange, New Jersey
Orange, New Jersey
The City of Orange is a city and township in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 30,134...
, where he remained active in the Congregational Church there. He remained an important and influential figure for the rest of his life.
Assessment of life
The editors of the Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansGrove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is an encyclopedic dictionary of music and musicians. Along with the German-language Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, it is the largest single reference work on Western music. The dictionary has gone through several editions since the 19th century...
condemn Mason for his focus on European classical music as a model for Americans. The famous Christmas carol "Joy to the World
Joy to the World
"Joy to the World" is a Christian Christmas carol.The words are by English hymn writer Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 98 in the Bible. The song was first published in 1719 in Watts' collection; The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and...
" is a good example: it is debated whether the tune of this hymn is by George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
or by Mason himself, but it certainly sounds inspired by European classical music.
Mason is given credit for popularizing European classical music in a region where it was seldom performed, and since his day the United States has been firmly part of the global region in which this form of music is cultivated.
The New Grove editors condemn Mason's introduction of European models for American hymnody for choking off a flourishing participatory native tradition of church music which had produced outstanding compositions by such composers as William Billings
William Billings
William Billings was an American choral composer, and is widely regarded as the father of American choral music...
. Mason and his colleagues (notably his brother Timothy Mason) characterized this music as backwoods material, "unscientific" and unworthy of modern Americans. They taught their views through a new form of singing school
Singing school
Historically, singing schools have been strongly affiliated with Protestant Christianity. Some are held under the auspices of particular Protestant denominations that maintain a tradition of a cappella singing, such as the Church of Christ and the Primitive Baptists...
, set up to replace the old singing schools dating from colonial times.
In comparison with the earlier forms of American sacred music, the music that Mason and his colleagues propagated would be considered by many musicians to be rhythmically more homogeneous and harmonically less forceful. By emphasizing the soprano line, it also made the other choral parts less interesting to sing. Lastly, the new music generally required the support of an organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, which, perhaps only incidentally, was a Mason family business.
The earlier tradition retreated to the inland rural South, where it resisted efforts at conversion, surviving in the form of (for example) Sacred Harp
Sacred Harp
Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music that took root in the Southern region of the United States. It is part of the larger tradition of shape note music.- The music and its notation :...
music, a genre that in modern times has actually grown in popularity as Americans in all regions rediscover the vigor of pre-Lowell Mason American sacred music.
The final part of his career at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
The Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church is a large congregation of the Presbyterian Church . The church was founded in 1808 as the Cedar Street Presbyterian Church and has been located on Fifth Avenue at 55th Street in midtown Manhattan since 1875. It has approximately 3,250 members from a variety...
probably had the most enduring impact on American church music. Mason made the dramatic shift personally from viewing church congregations as utterly devoid of any propensity for singing to one in which he vigorously promoted congregational singing and eliminated all professional musicians save the organist.
Although Presbyterians were slow in their acceptance of this radical change, congregational singing, in time, became the accepted standard in all denominations to one extent or another, with the Roman Catholic Church being the last holdout until the latter decades of the 20th century. It is only within recent years with the advent of Contemporary Christian Music in Pentecostal and other Evangelical churches that church music is now making a broad shift back from congregational singing accompanied by only a piano, organ or piano and organ together, to music led by "worship teams" and "praise teams."
Relatives
Lowell Mason was the father of Henry MasonHenry Mason
Henry Mason was one of the co-founders of the American piano manufacturer Mason and Hamlin.He was the son of American church music composer Lowell Mason, and the brother of composer William Mason.-Notes:...
(the founder of the Mason and Hamlin
Mason and Hamlin
Mason & Hamlin is a piano manufacturer based in Haverhill, Massachusetts.-The nineteenth century:Mason & Hamlin was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1854 by Henry Mason, son of Lowell Mason, the American hymn composer and musical educator, and Emmons Hamlin, a mechanic and inventor who had...
firm), as well as composer William Mason
William Mason (composer)
William Mason was an American composer and pianist and a member of a musical family.Mason's father was composer Lowell Mason, a leading figure in American church music...
. He was the grandfather of Daniel Gregory Mason
Daniel Gregory Mason
Daniel Gregory Mason was an American composer and music critic.-Biography:...
, a music critic and composer and John B. Mason
John B. Mason
John B. Mason was an American stage actor popular over the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century.-Early life:...
, a popular late nineteenth and early twentieth century stage actor.
Further reading
- The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (published in hard copy and available as a fee site on line) provides good coverage of Mason's life and work.
- White Spirituals in the Southern Uplands, by George Pullen Jackson (1932), out of print but available in many libraries, offers a vivid account of how Lowell and Timothy Mason won the battle for their own kind of sacred music in the city of Cincinnati.
External links
- A brief biography with portraits
- Short essay on Lowell's musical legacy
- Mason's 'The Boston Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music' Title page and sample hymn, from the Web site of Centre College
- The Lowell Mason Papers at Yale University Music Library
- Lowell Mason's papers, at the University of Maryland
- Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church
- Lowell Mason Foundation Lowell Mason birthplace and museum and music education center.