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Lowell Mason

1792 - 1872 Composer of ""GREAT IS THE LORD"" in The Seventh-Day Adventist Hymn and Tune Book 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.

Fred A. Fillmore

1856 - 1925 Composer of "[Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised]" in Songs of Rejoicing Born: May 15, 1856, Paris, Illinois. Died: November 15, 1925, Terrace Park, Ohio. Buried: Milford, Ohio. Frederick Augustus Fillmore, who was born on May 15, 1856, in Paris, IL, one of seven children, five sons and two daughters, born to Augustus Damon and Hannah Lockwood Fillmore. His father was a preacher in the Christian Church, as well as a composer, songbook compiler, and hymn publisher who developed his own system of musical notation using numbers on the staff in place of note heads. Augustus eventually settled in Cincinnati, OH, and established a music publishing business there. Until 1906, there was no official distinction between "Christian Churches" and "Churches of Christ." The names were used pretty much interchangeably, and many older churches of Christ which are faithful today were once known as "Christian Churches." Fred and his older brother James took over their father's publishing business following the death of Augustus in 1870 and established the Fillmore Brothers Music House. This became a successful Cincinnati music form, publishing church hymnals and later band and orchestral music. For many years the firm issued a monthly periodical, The Music Messenger. The brothers edited many hymnbooks and produced many songs which became popular. Beginning with the songbook Songs of Glory in 1874, there appeared many Fillmore publications which became widely used through churches, especially in the midwest. For these collections, Fred provided a great deal of hymn tunes. --launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/hymnoftheday

William Boyce

1711 - 1779 Person Name: W. Boyce Composer of "[Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised]" in The Methodist Hymn-Book with Tunes William Boyce (baptised 1711 – d. 7 February 1779) was an English composer and organist. See also in: Wikipedia

William H. Callcott

1807 - 1882 Person Name: Dr. W. Calcott Composer of "[Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised]" in The Brethren Hymnody CALLCOTT, WILLIAM HUTCHINS (1807–1882), musical composer, a younger son of Dr. John Wall Callcott [q. v.], was born at Kensington in 1807. As a child he received some instruction from his father, and later continued his studies under his brother-in-law, William Horsley. On 4 July 1830 he was elected a member of the Royal Society of Musicians. In 1836 he published an abridgment of his father's ‘Grammar,’ in 1840 a collection of psalm and hymn tunes for Bickersteth's ‘Christian Psalmody,’ and in 1843 ‘The Child's own Singing Book.’ In the latter work he was assisted by his wife Maria, who was the authoress of several unimportant religious stories, &c. In 1851 Callcott published ‘Remarks on the Royal Albert Piano’ (exhibited at the International Exhibition), and in 1859 ‘A few Facts on the Life of Handel.’ Callcott was for some years organist of Ely Place Chapel. In the latter part of his life he suffered much from ill-health. He died at 1 Campden House Road, Kensington, on 5 Aug. 1882, and was buried on the 9th at Kensal Green. Callcott composed several songs, glees, and anthems, but his name is principally known by his arrangements and transcriptions for the piano, which amount to many hundred pieces. A son of his, Robert Stuart Callcott, who showed great promise as an organist and musician, died in the spring of 1886 at an early age. --en.wikisource.org/wiki/

Callcott

Person Name: Dr. Calcott Composer of "GREAT IS THE LORD" in The American Vocalist

John H. Maunder

1858 - 1920 Person Name: J. H. Maunder Composer of "[Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised]" in The Methodist Hymn-Book with Tunes John Henry Maunder United Kingdom 1858-1920. Born at Chelsea, England,,the son of a carpenter, he attended the Royal Academy of Music. He began his career as a theatre composer, but later specialized in sacred music for the Anglican Church. He became an author and composer, as well as a musician. He was organist at St. Matthew’s, Sydenham (1876-77); St. Paul’s, Forest hill (1878-1879); and at churches in Blackheath and Sutton. He married Ellen Fanny Fulgoux Dakin, and they had a daughter, Winifred. He provided musical accompaniment for concerts in Albert Hall, and, in 1881, conducted the Civil Service Vocal Union. He wrote about 20 church anthems, 10 cantatas, several carols, tunes for around 30 hymns, 19 songs and ballads, 12 services and canticles, two operettas, and six instrumentals. His best known cantata was “Olivet to Calvary”. He was known for his good musical style and great technical facility. His compositions were full of melodic ideas and were written for ease of interpretation. He died at West Brompton, London, England. John Perry