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Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Hymnal Number: 131 Composer of "[My soul in silence waits for God]" in Bible Songs No. 4 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.

Richard Redhead

1820 - 1901 Hymnal Number: 120b Composer of "[God be merciful to me]" in Bible Songs No. 4 Richard Redhead (b. Harrow, Middlesex, England, 1820; d. Hellingley, Sussex, England, 1901) was a chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford. At age nineteen he was invited to become organist at Margaret Chapel (later All Saints Church), London. Greatly influencing the musical tradition of the church, he remained in that position for twenty-five years as organist and an excellent trainer of the boys' choirs. Redhead and the church's rector, Frederick Oakeley, were strongly committed to the Oxford Movement, which favored the introduction of Roman elements into Anglican worship. Together they produced the first Anglican plainsong psalter, Laudes Diurnae (1843). Redhead spent the latter part of his career as organist at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Paddington (1864-1894). Bert Polman

John H. Stockton

1813 - 1877 Person Name: J. H. Stockton Hymnal Number: 39 Composer of "[Jehovah hear thee in the day]" in Bible Songs No. 4 Stockton, John Hart, a Methodist minister, was born in 1813, and died in 1877. He was a member of the New Jersey Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the successive pastoral charges that he filled as a member of that Conference are found in the Conference Journal. He was not only a preacher, but a musician and composer of tunes, as well as hymn writer. He published two gospel song books: Salvation Melodies, 1874, and Precious Songs, 1875. Hymn Writers of the Church by Charles Nutter, 1911 =============== Stockton, John Hart, b. April 19, 1813, and d. March 25, 1877, was the author of "Come, every soul by sin oppressed" (Invitation), in I.D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos, 1878, and of "The Cross, the Cross, the blood¬stained Cross" (Good Friday) in the same collection. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907) =============== Stockton, John Hart. (New Hope, Pennsylvania, April 19, 1813--March 25, 1877). Born of Presbyterian parents, he was converted at a Methodist camp meeting in 1838, being received into full membership in the New Jersey Conference in 1857. Because of ill health he twice took the "supernumerary relations." He withdrew from actual pastoral work in 1874 and engaged in compiling and publishing gospel hymn books, issuing Salvation Melodies that year and Precious Songs in 1875, writing both words and music for a number of the songs. He died suddenly after attending a Sunday morning service at Arch Street Church, Philadelphia. Our Hymnody, McCutchan, has, perhaps, the fullest account of him readily available. --Robert G. McCutchan, DNAH Archives

Oliver Holden

1765 - 1844 Hymnal Number: 156 Composer of "[Now blessed be Jehovah]" in Bible Songs No. 4 Holden, Oliver, one of the pioneers of American psalmody, was born in 1765, and was brought up as a carpenter. Subsequently he became a teacher and music-seller. He died at Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1844. His published works are American Harmony, 1793; the Worcester Collection, 1797; and other Tune books. One of his most popular tunes is "Coronation." It is thought that he edited a small hymn-book, published at Boston before 1808, in which are 21 of his hymns with the signature "H." A single copy only of this book is known, and that is without title-page. Of his hymns the following are in common use:— 1. All those who seek a throne of grace. [God present where prayer is offered.] Was given in Peabody's Springfield Collection, 1835, No. 92, in a recast form as, “They who seek the throne of grace." This form is in extensive use in America, and is also in a few collections in Great Britain. 2. With conscious guilt, and bleeding heart. [Lent.] This, although one of the best of Holden's hymns, has passed out of use. It appeared, with two others, each bearing bis signature, in the Boston Collection (Baptist), 1808. 3. Within these doors assembled now. [Divine Worship.] [Rev. F. M. Bird, M.A.] -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology

Chas. H. Gabriel

1856 - 1932 Hymnal Number: 239 Composer of "[How shall the young direct their way?]" in Bible Songs No. 4 Pseudonyms: C. D. Emerson, Charlotte G. Homer, S. B. Jackson, A. W. Lawrence, Jennie Ree ============= For the first seventeen years of his life Charles Hutchinson Gabriel (b. Wilton, IA, 1856; d. Los Angeles, CA, 1932) lived on an Iowa farm, where friends and neighbors often gathered to sing. Gabriel accompanied them on the family reed organ he had taught himself to play. At the age of sixteen he began teaching singing in schools (following in his father's footsteps) and soon was acclaimed as a fine teacher and composer. He moved to California in 1887 and served as Sunday school music director at the Grace Methodist Church in San Francisco. After moving to Chicago in 1892, Gabriel edited numerous collections of anthems, cantatas, and a large number of songbooks for the Homer Rodeheaver, Hope, and E. O. Excell publishing companies. He composed hundreds of tunes and texts, at times using pseudonyms such as Charlotte G. Homer. The total number of his compositions is estimated at about seven thousand. Gabriel's gospel songs became widely circulated through the Billy Sunday-Homer Rodeheaver urban crusades. Bert Polman

William F. Sherwin

1826 - 1888 Hymnal Number: 13 Composer of "[Lord, our Lord, Thy glorious Name]" in Bible Songs No. 4 Sherwin, William Fisk, an American Baptist, was born at Buckland, Massachusetts, March 14,1826. His educational opportunities, so far as schools were concerned, were few, but he made excellent use of his time and surroundings. At fifteen he went to Boston and studied music under Dr. Mason: In due course he became a teacher of vocal music, and held several important appointments in Massachusetts; in Hudson and Albany, New York County, and then in New York City. Taking special interest in Sunday Schools, he composed carols and hymn-tunes largely for their use, and was associated with the Rev. R. Lowry and others in preparing Bright Jewels, and other popular Sunday School hymn and tune books. A few of his melodies are known in Great Britain through I. D. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos, where they are given with his signature. His hymnwriting was limited. The following pieces are in common use:— 1. Grander than ocean's story (1871). The Love of God. 2. Hark, bark, the merry Christmas bells. Christmas Carol. 3. Lo, the day of God is breaking. The Spiritual Warfare. 4. Wake the song of joy and gladness. Sunday School or Temperance Anniversary. 5. Why is thy faith, 0 Child of God, so small. Safety in Jesus. Mr. Sherwin died at Boston, Massachusetts, April 14, 1888. -- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) ================== Sherwin, W. F., p. 1055, i. Another hymn from his Bright Jewels, 1869, p. 68, is "Sound the battle cry" (Christian Courage), in the Sunday School Hymnary, 1905, and several other collections. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

George C. Stebbins

1846 - 1945 Person Name: Geo. C. Stebbins Hymnal Number: 276 Composer of "[Give thanks to God, for good is He]" in Bible Songs No. 4 Stebbins studied music in Buffalo and Rochester, New York, then became a singing teacher. Around 1869, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, to join the Lyon and Healy Music Company. He also became the music director at the First Baptist Church in Chicago. It was in Chicago that he met the leaders in the Gospel music field, such as George Root, Philip Bliss, & Ira Sankey. At age 28, Stebbins moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he became music director at the Claredon Street Baptist Church; the pastor there was Adoniram Gordon. Two years later, Stebbins became music director at Tremont Temple in Boston. Shortly thereafter, he became involved in evangelism campaigns with Moody and others. Around 1900, Stebbins spent a year as an evangelist in India, Egypt, Italy, Palestine, France and England. (www.hymntime.com/tch)

Mrs. C. H. Morris

1862 - 1929 Hymnal Number: 44 Composer of "[The Lord my Shepherd holds me]" in Bible Songs No. 4 Lelia (Mrs. C.H.) Morris (1862-1929) was born in Pennsville, Morgan County, Ohio. When her family moved to Malta on the Muskingum River she and her sister and mother had a millinery shop in McConnelsville. She and her husband Charles H. Morris were active in the Methodist Episcopal Church and at the camp meetings in Sebring and Mt. Vernon. She wrote hymns as she did her housework. Although she became blind at age 52 she continued to write hymns on a 28-foot long blackboard that her family had built for her. She is said to have written 1000 texts and many tunes including "Sweeter as the years go by." Mary Louise VanDyke

William B. Bradbury

1816 - 1868 Person Name: Wm. B. Bradbury Hymnal Number: 227 Composer of "[Most kind and righteous is the Lord]" in Bible Songs No. 4 William Bachelder Bradbury USA 1816-1868. Born at York, ME, he was raised on his father's farm, with rainy days spent in a shoe-shop, the custom in those days. He loved music and spent spare hours practicing any music he could find. In 1830 the family moved to Boston, where he first saw and heard an organ and piano, and other instruments. He became an organist at 15. He attended Dr. Lowell Mason's singing classes, and later sang in the Bowdoin Street church choir. Dr. Mason became a good friend. He made $100/yr playing the organ, and was still in Dr. Mason's choir. Dr. Mason gave him a chance to teach singing in Machias, ME, which he accepted. He returned to Boston the following year to marry Adra Esther Fessenden in 1838, then relocated to Saint John, New Brunswick. Where his efforts were not much appreciated, so he returned to Boston. He was offered charge of music and organ at the First Baptist Church of Brooklyn. That led to similar work at the Baptist Tabernacle, New York City, where he also started a singing class. That started singing schools in various parts of the city, and eventually resulted in music festivals, held at the Broadway Tabernacle, a prominent city event. He conducted a 1000 children choir there, which resulted in music being taught as regular study in public schools of the city. He began writing music and publishing it. In 1847 he went with his wife to Europe to study with some of the music masters in London and also Germany. He attended Mendelssohn funeral while there. He went to Switzerland before returning to the states, and upon returning, commenced teaching, conducting conventions, composing, and editing music books. In 1851, with his brother, Edward, he began manufacturring Bradbury pianos, which became popular. Also, he had a small office in one of his warehouses in New York and often went there to spend time in private devotions. As a professor, he edited 59 books of sacred and secular music, much of which he wrote. He attended the Presbyterian church in Bloomfield, NJ, for many years later in life. He contracted tuberculosis the last two years of his life. John Perry

Ira David Sankey

1840 - 1908 Person Name: Ira D. Sankey Hymnal Number: 53 Composer of "[Lord, to me Thy ways make known]" in Bible Songs No. 4 Sankey, Ira David, was born in Edinburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1840, of Methodist parents. About 1856 he removed with his parents to New Castle, Pennsylvania, where he became a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Four years afterwards he became the Superintendent of a large Sunday School in which he commenced his career of singing sacred songs and solos. Mr. Moody met with him and heard him sing at the International Convention of the Young Men's Christian Association, at Indianapolis, and through Mr. Moody's persuasion he joined him in his work at Chicago. After some two or three years' work in Chicago, they sailed for England on June 7, 1872, and held their first meeting at York a short time afterwards, only eight persons being present. Their subsequent work in Great Britain and America is well known. Mr. Sankey's special duty was the singing of sacred songs and solos at religious gatherings, a practice which was in use in America for some time before he adopted it. His volume of Sacred Songs and Solos is a compilation from various sources, mainly American and mostly in use before. Although known as Sankey and Moody’s Songs, only one song, "Home at last, thy labour done" is by Mr. Sankey, and not one is by Mr. Moody. Mr. Sankey supplied several of the melodies. The English edition of the Sacred Songs & Solos has had an enormous sale; and the work as a whole is very popular for Home Mission services. The Songs have been translated into several languages. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) Pseudonymns: Harry S. Lower Rian A. Dykes ==================== Sankey, I. D., p. 994, i. During the past fifteen years Mr. Sankey's Sacred Songs and Solos have had a very large sale, which has justified him in increasing the number of songs and hymns, including " New Hymns and Solos," to 1200. In 1906 he published My Life and Sacred Songs (London : Morgan & Scott). In addition to the "Story of his Own Life," the work contains an account of the most popular of his solos, with interesting reminiscences of the spiritual awakening of many who were influenced through his singing of them in public. In this respect it corresponds in some measure with G. J. Stevenson's Methodist Hymn Book, &c, 1883 (p. 1094, i.). It is an addition to the Sacred Songs and Solos, which will be held in esteem by many. In addition to his hymn, noted on p. 994, ii., Mr. Sankey gives details of the following:— 1. Out of the shadow-land into the sunshine. [Heaven Anticipated.] Mr. Sankey's account of this hymn is:— "I wrote this hymn specially for the memorial service held for Mr. Moody in Carnegie Hall, where 1 also sang it as a solo. It is the last sacred song of which I wrote both the words and music. The idea was suggested by Mr. Moody's last words, 'Earth recedes; heaven opens before me . . . God is calling me, and I must go.' On account of its peculiar association with my fellow-labourer in the Gospel for so many years, the words are here given in full." The hymn follows on p. 185, in 3 stanzas of 4 lines and a chorus. 2. Rejoice! Rejoice! our King is coming, [Advent.] Mr. Sankey writes concerning this hymn:— "During one of my trips to Great Britain on the SS. City of Rome a storm raged on the sea. The wind was howling through the rigging, and waves like mountains of foam were breaking over the bow of the vessel. A great fear had fallen upon the passengers. When the storm was at its worst, we all thought we might soon go to the bottom of the sea. The conviction came to me that the Lord would be with us iu the trying hour, and sitting down in the reading room, I composed this hymn. Before reaching England the tune had formed itself in my mind, and on arriving in London I wrote it out, and had it published in Sacred Songs and Solos, where it is No. 524 in the edition. of 1888. From Mr. Sankey's autobiographical sketch we gather that he was born at Edinburgh, in Western Pennsylvania, Aug. 28, 1840, joined Mr. Moody in 1871, and visited England for the first time in 1873. The original of the Sacred Songs, &c, of 23 pieces only, was offered as a gift to the London publishers of P. Phillips's Hallowed Song, and declined by them. It was subsequently accepted by Mr. K. O. Morgan, of Morgan & Scott, and is now a volume of 1200 hymns. From a return kindly sent us by Messrs. Morgan & Scott, we find that the various issues of the Sacred Songs and Solos were:— In 1873, 24 pp.; 1874, 72 pp. ; 1876, 153 hymns; 1877, 271 hymns; 1881, 441 hymns; 1888, 750 hymns; 1903, 1200 hymns. In addition, The Christian Choir, which is generally associated with the Sacred Songs and Solos, was issued in 1884 with 75 hymns, and in 1896 with 281. The New Hymns & Solos, by the same firm, were published in 1888. --John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)