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Henry Baker

1835 - 1910 Composer of "HESPERUS" in The Hymnal Henry Baker, Mus. Bac., son of the Rev. James Baker, Chancellor of the diocese of Durham; born at Nuneham, Oxfordshire; educated at Winchester School; graduated Bachelor in Music at the University of Oxford in 1867. He also worked as a civil engineer. Scottish Church Music, its composers and sources by James Love; William Blackwwod and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1891

Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Person Name: Mason Composer of "[Saviour, when night involves the skies]" in Good-Will Songs 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 19G9. 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). Biographies of Gospel Song and Hymn Writers. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.

Ludwig van Beethoven

1770 - 1827 Composer (arr. from) of "ALSACE" in The Hymnal A giant in the history of music, Ludwig van Beethoven (b. Bonn, Germany, 1770; d. Vienna, Austria, 1827) progressed from early musical promise to worldwide, lasting fame. By the age of fourteen he was an accomplished viola and organ player, but he became famous primarily because of his compositions, including nine symphonies, eleven overtures, thirty piano sonatas, sixteen string quartets, the Mass in C, and the Missa Solemnis. He wrote no music for congregational use, but various arrangers adapted some of his musical themes as hymn tunes; the most famous of these is ODE TO JOY from the Ninth Symphony. Although it would appear that the great calamity of Beethoven's life was his loss of hearing, which turned to total deafness during the last decade of his life, he composed his greatest works during this period. Bert Polman

George Hews

1806 - 1873 Composer of "HOLLEY" in Fellowship Hymns Born: January 6, 1806, Weston, Massachusetts. Died: July 6, 1873, Boston, Massachusetts.

Thomas Gisborne

1758 - 1846 Author of "Saviour, when night involves the skies" in The Hymnal Thomas Gisborne was born at Derby, in 1758. He became perpetual Curate of Barton-under-Needwood, Staffordshire, in 1783, and Prebendary of Durham in 1826. He died in 1846. --Annotations of the Hymnal, Charles Hutchins, M.A. 1872. ================== Osborne, Thomas, M.A., son of Mr. John Gisborne, of Yoxall, was b. circa 1760, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was 5th Wrangler of his year, and Chancellor's Medalist, graduating B.A. in 1780, and M.A. in 1783. Subsequently he became a Prebendary of Durham. He was the author of Sermons; the Duties of Men; the Duties of Women; Poems Sacred and Moral, 1799 (to the later editions of which his hymns were added), 3rd ed. 1803; and of another volume of poetry entitled, Walks in a Forest, 1795. The following hymns by him are found in the Uttoxeter Selection:— 1. A soldier's course from battles won. Soldiers of Christ. No. 72, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines, and in several hymn-books. 2. Hark! 'tis the bell with solemn toll. Death. No. 74, in 6 stanzas of 4 lines. 3. O Father, glorify Thy name. In Sickness. No. 92, in 5 stanzas of 4 lines. 4. Saviour! when night involves the skies. Christ All and in All. No. 80, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. 5. Thy humblest works with full accord. Teachings of Nature. No. 118, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. 6. When groves by moonlight silence keep. The hour of Peace. No. 116, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines. All the above hymns, except No. 2, are in Gisborne's Poems, 3rd ed., 1803. -- Julian, John, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

Henry Hiles

1826 - 1904 Composer of "SWEDEN" in The Hymnal Born: December 31, 1826, Shrewsbury, England. Died: October 20, 1904, Worthing, England. Hiles was educated at Oxford (BMus 1862, DMus 1867). He played the organ at Shrewsbury, as his brother’s deputy (1846); Bishopwearmouth (1847); St. Michael’s, Wood Street (1859); the Blind Asylum, Manchester (1859); Bowden (1861); and St. Paul’s, Manchester (1863-67). He lectured in harmony and composition at Owen’s College in Manchester (1867) and Victoria University (1879), and was Professor at the Manchester College of Music (1893). He also conducted musical societies in Lancashire and Yorkshire, and owned and edited the Quarterly Music Review (1885-88). He retired in 1904, moving to Pinner, near Harrow. His works include: Twelve Tunes to Original or Favourite Hymns, 1867 Harmony of Sounds, three editions: 1871, 1872, 1879 Wesley Tune Book, 1872 (editor) Grammar of Music, 1879 First Lessons in Singing (Manchester: Hime & Addison, 1881) Part Writing or Modern Counterpoint (Novello: 1884) Harmony or Counterpoint, 1889 Harmony, Choral or Counterpun --www.hymntime.com/tch/

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