The Composer and Educator

1. Lowell Mason The Composer and Educator

2. To the Basics • Born on January 8th, 1792 • Place of birth Medfield, Norfolk County, Massachusetts • Died August 11, 1872 in Orange, New Jersey • Showed intense interest in music as a child.

3. Early Musical Life • At the age of 13 he received training in a singing school run by Amos Albee • Also studied with Oliver Shaw, a blind composer of hymns and ballads. • Also studied with F.L. Abel, improving to the point where he began to compose his own music.

4. Everday life • Lived in Savannah, Georgia for 15 years. • He was working as a bank clerk. • He directed a choir and led town bands. • He continued to conduct choirs and play the organ in churches until 1827. • Numerous publishers from Philadelphia and Boston rejected his early work. • Later on went to sell 50,000 copies and his music was adopted by singing schools in New England and church choirs.

5. Everyday Life? Cont. • In 1822 he was accepted by the Handel and Hayden Society of Boston, Massachusetts. • His first collection of hymns and anthems was published in 1822. • In 1826 he returned to Boston after seeing the success of his work. • He became the director of music at Hanover, Green, and Park Street churches alternating six months with each church • He made a permanent arrangement with the Bowdoin Street Church.

6. Musical notes • From 1827 to 1832 he was the president and music director of the Boston Handel and Hayden Society. • In 1827 in Boston he became the first music teacher in an American public school • In 1833 he co-founded the Boston Academy of Music. • In 1838 to 1845 he became the music superintendent for the Boston school system. • He took off a year and traveled to Europe. He observed their educational system and lecturing on congregational singing and his theories of musical education.

7. Musical Notes cont. • In 1855 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in music from New York University. • He devoted his later years primarily to compiling collections of music for religious and educational purposes and to writing and teaching. • He wrote over 1,600 religious works and is often called the “father of American church music.” • By 1872 he had published over 48 collections of hymns and anthems, over 11 secular collections, and at least 17 children’s collections and musical exercise books.

8. Some musical pieces • Nearer My God to Thee • My Faith Looks Up to Thee • From Greenland’s Icy Mountains • The Choir, or Union collection of Church Music, 1832 • Union Hymns, with Rufus Babcock, Jr. (Boston, Mass. 1834)

9. Works Cited • http://www.Cyberhymnal.org/bio/m/a/s/mason_1.htm • http://www.answers.com/topic/lowell-mason