Lowell Mason

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Life

Born: 8 January 1792

Died: 11 August 1872

Biography

(abridged) Lowell Mason was born in in Medfield, Massachusetts, and at age 17 became the Music Director of First Parish Church. For a time, he lived in Savannah, Georgia, where he worked a dry-goods store, then became a banker. Showing talent since a youth, he had very strong amateur musical interests. He was choir director and organist at the Independent Presbyterian Church and initiated the first Sunday school for black children in America. He moved to Boston and was choirmaster and organist at Park Street Church. He became a music director for three churches, in a six-month rotation. 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, and was appointed music superintendent for the Boston school system. After retiring from Boston musical activity, he moved to New York City where his sons, Daniel and Lowell, Jr. had established a music business. He developed a great interest for congregational singing after a trip to Europe and accepted the position as music director at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. He was an active leader in music his entire life. He composed many pieces following a more European tradition. He compiled and published many books for musical and singing training. His influence has been enduring and he is oft called the father of American music education. He was the father of Henry Mason (founder of the Mason and Hamlin piano company) and composer William Mason. He was the grandfather of music critic and composer Daniel Gregory Mason, and John B. Mason, a popular late nineteenth and early twentieth-century stage actor.

View the Wikipedia article on Lowell Mason.

List of choral works

Sacred music

Anthems

Introits

Other sacred works

No works currently available

Hymns & hymn settings

Secular music

Arrangements by Lowell Mason

 
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Publications

  • 1821 – The Boston Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music
  • 1824 – Select Chants, Doxologies
  • 1830 – Choral Harmony
  • 1831 – Church Psalmody
  • 1831-1837 – Spiritual Songs for Social Worship (4 vols.; first author: Thomas Hastings)
  • 1832 – Lyra Sacra
  • 1832-1833 – The Choir, or Union Collection
  • 1833 – Sacred Melodies
  • 1834 – The Boston Collection of Anthems
  • 1834 – Sentences, or Short Anthems, Hymn Tunes, and Chants
  • 1834-1835 – The Sacred Harp, or Eclectic Harmony
  • 1835 – The Boston Academy's Collection of Church Music
  • 1836 – Occasional Psalm and Hymn Tunes
  • 1838-1840 – The Seraph: A Monthly Publication of Church Music
  • 1839 – The Boston Anthem Book
  • 1839 – The Modern Psalmist
  • 1840-1841 – The Sacred Harp, or Beauties of Church Music
  • 1841 – Carmina Sacra
  • 1841 – The Harp
  • 1842 – Book of Chants
  • 1842 – Chapel Hymns
  • 1843 – Musical Service of the Protestant Episcopal Church
  • 1843 – Songs of Asaph
  • 1845 – The Psaltery
  • 1847 – The Choralist
  • 1848 – The Congregational Tune Book
  • 1848 – The National Psalmist
  • 1849 – Fifty-Nine Select Psalm and Hymn Tunes
  • 1849-1850 – The Hymnist
  • 1850 – Cantica Laudis
  • 1850 – The New Carmina Sacra
  • 1852 – Mason's Hand-book of Psalmody
  • 1853 – Congregational Church Music
  • 1854 – The Hallelujah
  • 1859 – The Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book
  • 1860 – The People's Tune Book
  • 1866 – The New Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book
  • 1867 – The New Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book: Baptist Ed.
  • 1869 – Carmina Sacra Enlarged: The American Tune Book
  • 1869 – Congregational Church Music

References

  • Mason, Henry L. 1944. Hymn-Tunes of Lowell Mason: A Bibliography. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The University Press.

External websites: