MASON (Sherwin)

Composer: William F. Sherwin

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 th… Go to person page >

MASON, by William F. Sherwin (PHH 8), was published as a setting for the first three stanzas of Psalm 86 in the 1912 Psalter and in all previous editions of the Psalter Hymnal. Since he studied with Lowell Mason (PHH 96), Sherwin could well have named the tune after him. Dale Grotenhuis (PHH 4) harmonized MASON in 1985. The seven phrases of this tune should be sung with the sense of two very long lines. Antiphony is useful in singing the entire psalm.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1988