HASTINGS, THOMAS. 



HEGNENBERG-DUX, COUNT. 379 



the delicate, sensitive boy, but, despite his im- 

 perfect vision, he was exceedingly fond of 

 study. He early developed a taste for music, 

 and even with the meagre facilities for musi- 

 cal study which were within his reach, attained 

 to such a measure of skill in it as to be ap- 

 pointed, when only about eighteen years of 

 age, a chorister in the village choir. About 

 tliis time an elaborate treatise on music fell 

 into his hands. It was thoroughly scientific, 

 deducing its doctrines from the science of 

 acoustics, and illustrating them by algebraic 

 formulas, while he, poor boy, had no knowl- 

 edge of either musical grammar or the higher 

 mathematics, but he struggled with these diffi- 

 culties with indomitable will, and finally 

 mastered the treatise thoroughly, and found it 

 of great value to him. In his twenty-first 

 year he first made the attempt to find employ- 

 ment as a teacher of vocal music, or singing- 

 school master, as they were then called, but 

 could find no employment in that capacity. A 

 year later, however, he was invited to take 

 charge of a singing-school in Bridgewater, 

 Oneida County, and at Brookh'eld (then in 

 Herkimer, now in Madison County). He 

 achieved such success, that his services were 

 in great demand, and the choirs he taught 

 were acknowledged to be better trained than 

 any others in that region. After three years 

 of service, he was compelled by ill health to 

 relinquish his work for a time, and, engaged in 

 other pursuits, he did not resume it until 1816. 

 Meantime, in connection with President Back- 

 us of Hamilton College, and Prof. Norton, he 

 had been engaged in compiling the " Musica 

 Sacra," the first of his collections of church- 

 music. His reputation had extended in 1817 

 to Troy, where he taught successfully, and or- 

 ganized an efficient choir for one of the 

 churches. From Troy he went to Albany, 

 and, in addition to the care of his large music- 

 schools, became the chorister or precentor in 

 Rev. Dr. Chester's Presbyterian Church, sub- 

 sequently Rev. Dr. Sprague's. This was, we 

 think, the first attempt at really scientific con- 

 gregational singing in any church in this 

 country. Besides Mr. Hastings, there was a 

 well-trained voluntary quartette, the pastor be- 

 ing the tenor, to lead the singing, in which 

 the whole congregation joined. In 1822 Mr. 

 Hastings published a "Dissertation on Musical 

 Taste," a work which had cost him much 

 thought, and which received the high com- 

 mendations of the late Dr. Lowell Mason 

 and Chancellor Kent. In 1823 he removed to 

 Utica, to take editorial charge of the Religious 

 Recorder, a semi-monthly religious paper, 

 which gave, for that time, a large space to 

 church-music. He continued his editorial la- 

 bors for nine years, though his reputation as a 

 musician and composer of sacred music had 

 caused him to be repeatedly called to lecture 

 on the subject in Albany, New York, Phila- 

 delphia, and at Princeton College. In 1832 

 he was invited to come to New York City, 



and endeavor to improve the character of the 

 church-music in the Presbyterian churches 

 there. He accepted the invitation, and made 

 that city his home for the remaining forty 

 years of his life. He accomplished a great 

 work there in the improvement of sacred mu- 

 sic as well as in the hymnology of the time. 

 For some years, he led the choir in Rev. Dr. 

 Mason's Church, in Bleecker Street, and de- 

 voted his time to the preparation of collections 

 of church music, the composition of tunes, and 

 occasionally of hymns also, the editing of mu- 

 sical periodicals, and the compilation of hymn- 

 books more in accordance with the better taste 

 he had done so much to improve, than those 

 previously in use. In 1836 he published the 

 " Christian Psalmist," an excellent collection 

 of psalms and hymns, which after the lapse of 

 thirty-seven years is still largely in use. The 

 next year he prepared and published the Man- 

 hattan Collection. He edited and published 

 for two years (1836 and 1837) the Musical 

 Magazine. In 1840 he published the " Sacred 

 Lyre," a new collection of tunes. His other 

 publications were " Spiritual Songs," which 

 we believe ante-dates most of those mentioned 

 above ; " Nursery Songs ; " a " Collection of 

 Hymns for Mothers' Meetings ; " a volume of 

 " Original Hymns ; " an Essay on the subject 

 of " Sacred Praise ; " a series of " Essays on 

 Prayer ; " a small collection of " Indian Melo- 

 dies " for the Methodist Church ; two editions 

 of the " Sacred Songs," and " The Songs of 

 Zion," for the American Tract Society ; " The 

 Presbyterian Psalmodist," and the "Juvenile 

 Psalmodist," for the Presbyterian Board ; "The 

 Psalmodist," a collection of music with the 

 lateW. B. Bradbury, in 1844; "The Choral- 

 isf'in 1847; "The Mendelssohn Collection" 

 in 1849; " The Psalm ista " in 1851; "Selah" 

 in 1856. He had also revised his "Disserta- 

 tion on Musical Taste ; " published a " History 

 of Forty Choirs," and a " Sunday-School Hymn 

 and Tune Book." In 1858, in connection with 

 his son, Rev. Thomas S. Hastings, he brought 

 out " The Church Melodies," one of the best 

 Church hymn and tune books for congrega- 

 tional singing ever published. Through all 

 these years, and up to his death, he had been 

 an almost constant contributor to the religious 

 weekly press, and to religious reviews. 



HEGNENBERG-DUX, Count FREDERICK 

 VON, Prime-Minister of Bavaria, and Minister 

 of Foreign Affairs, born in Munich, in 1810 ; 

 died there, June 3, 1872. The Emperor Na- 

 poleon I. was his godfather. At an early age 

 he became a page at the court of King' Louis 

 I., who afterward appointed him chamber- 

 lain and took him on his travels in Italy and 

 Greece. In 1840 he became a member of the 

 Bavarian House of Representatives, and in 1847 

 he was elected its president. He took an active 

 part in the movement which compelled King 

 Louis I. to expel Lola Montez from Bavaria, and 

 to abdicate his throne. During the revolution 

 of 1848 Count Hegnenberg-Dux sided with the 



