Lowell Mason

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Lowell Mason (1792 – August 11, 1872) was a leading figure in American church music, with over 1600 hymn tunes, many of which are now sung.

Joy to the World and the hymn Bethany, which changes the hymn text Nearer, My God, to Thee, are two of his best-known works.

He is largely credited with the inception of music in American public schools, and is widely regarded as the country's first outstanding music educator.

He has also been chastised for largely destroying America's rich tradition of participatory sacred music long before his time.

Life

Mason was born and grew up in Medfield, Massachusetts, where he became the Music Director of First Parish (now First Parish Unitarian Universalist) Church at age 17. In 2011, his birthplace home was saved from demolition. On Green Street, it was relocated to a town park. The Lowell Mason House foundation is a fundraising effort to build a Lowell Mason museum and music education center.

He spent the first part of his adulthood in Savannah, Georgia, where he first worked in a dry-goods store and then in a bank. He had a lot of passions as an amateur musician and studied music with German teacher Frederick L. Abel, eventually starting to write his own music. He also played a key role in the music of the Independent Presbyterian Church, where he served as choir director and organist. His congregation established the first Sunday school for black children in America under his initiative at the now Historic First Baptist Church in Savannah, GA.

Following a previous British model, Mason embarked on a hymnal whose tunes would be based on European classical composers, such as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Mason had a difficult time finding a publisher for this type of work. It was eventually published (1822) by the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston, one of the country's oldest orchestra companies dedicated to classical music. Mason's hymnal was extremely popular. He first published it anonymously, as he felt that his main work was as a banker, and he wanted not to jeopardize his career prospects.

Mason immigrated to Boston in 1827, where he continued his banking career for a while. From 1829 to 1831, Mason served as choirmaster and organist at Park Street Church. In a six-month rotation, including the Hanover Street church, whose pastor was the popular abolitionist Lyman Beecher, he became a music director for three churches.

Mason, a Boston musical legend, was a member of the Handel and Haydn Society, who taught music in the public schools, and was co-founder of the Boston Academy of Music (1833). He was named music superintendent for the Boston school system in 1838. Mason set the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb" to music in the 1830s. The cessation of his services was due to a tumultuous political machinations in the Boston school committee in 1845.

Mason retired from Boston musical life at the age of 59 and moved to New York City, where his sons, Daniel and Lowell, Jr., established a music company. He sailed to Europe on December 20, 1851. During his tour of Europe in 1852, he acquired a keen interest and passion for congregational singing, particularly in German churches, such as the Nikolaikirche in Leipzig or the Kreuzkirche in Dresden.

Mason assumed the role of music director for the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in 1853 after returning to New York City. On Nineteenth Street, it had just begun work on a new church building. He immediately disbanded the choir and orchestra, bringing with his son, William, who was organist. During his tenure, which lasted until 1860, he revived congregational singing to a point where the church was known as having the best congregational singing in the city. In 1859 Mason, along with Edwards A., had been in 1859. The "Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book" was published by Parks and Austin Phelps. This period of his life may have had the most lasting effect on American church music, according to Tony Hawk. Mason changed his mind from imagining that church congregations were reluctant to sing to ardently advocating congregational singing. All professional musicians save the organist, except for the organist.

Mason died in 1860 and moved to Orange, New Jersey, where he was active in the Congregational Church. He remained a key and influential figure for the remainder of his life.

The University of New York granted Mason the degree of doctor of music in 1855, the first musical degree granted by any American college.

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