MASON, LOWELL. 



499 



that State, and a teacher of music in the 

 churches. His own choir was so successful 

 that he was invited to Boston in 1827, to take 

 a kind of general charge of music in the 

 churches there. He had, for some years be- 

 fore this, entered upon his work of reform in 

 regard to church-music. Finding a strong 

 tendency on the part of most of the churches 

 to adopt the fantastic, artificial, and absurd 

 style of fugue music, which had just then 

 taken the place of the old and simple tunes of 

 an earlier day, he immediately put himself in 

 opposition to it, and, by careful selection and 

 adaptation of simple but etfective melodies 

 from European collections of music, and the 

 addition of some very sweet and simple tunes 

 of his own, he sought to turn the tide toward 

 a better style of church-music. At first he 

 had great difficulty in finding a publisher for 

 the volume of tunes he had compiled, but at 

 length, in 1821, persuaded the Boston Handel 

 and Haydn Society, of which he was a mem- 

 ber, to allow it to be published in their name, 

 as their collection, they receiving half the 

 profits of the publication. The book was a 

 great success from the first, and accomplished 

 in part what was his principal object in its 

 publication, the cultivation of a higher and 

 better taste in church-music. When he re- 

 moved to Boston in 1827, he began the in- 

 struction of classes in vocal music, devoting 

 special attention to the training of children to 

 the performance of the alto part in choral 

 music, and to the introduction of vocal music 

 into the public schools. About 1828, William 

 C. Woodbridge called his attention to the 

 Pestalozzian method of teaching music, and 

 especially to the various improvements upon 

 it ; and, after careful and protracted examina- 

 tion, Mr. Mason became a champion of the 

 new method. Juvenile classes were estab- 

 lished and taught gratuitously by him for 

 many years, and he was soon compelled, by 

 the extent of his labors, to take G. J. Webb as 

 an associate. Under his influence vocal music 

 received % a new and extraordinary impulse in 

 Boston, and throughout New England. Emi- 

 nent teachers were introduced into the 

 schools ; the Boston Academy of Music was 

 established ; music was prescribed as a regu- 

 lar branch of instruction in the public schools 

 of Boston, and subsequently very generally 

 throughout the entire country; permanent 

 musical classes, lectures on music, concerts, 

 schools for instrumental music, and teachers' 

 institutes, were also widely established. He 

 became an enthusiastic Pestalozzian, and one 

 of the most successful teachers of the induc- 

 tive method of instruction, not only in music, 

 but also in general education. In 1837 Mr. 

 Mason visited Europe, and made himself ac- 

 quainted with all the improvements in music- 

 teaching in the Continental cities. The grow- 

 ing taste for music which he had inspired in- 

 cited him to prepare about this time numerous 

 text-books for juvenile classes, glee-books, and 



collections of church-music. The musical 

 text-books were prepared with great care, 

 and in each he sought to bring out and em- 

 phasize some particular point, till he had com- 

 pleted the circle of musical instruction. His 

 numerous collections of church-music all had 

 a similar purpose, to multiply the number of 

 simple and effective tunes for public worship. 

 During his later years, he labored diligently 

 to promote what had always been a favorite 

 object with him, the introduction of strictly 

 congregational singing into the churches, lay- 

 ing down two positions as essential to its 

 perfection, viz. : That the tunes used in the 

 churches should be such that all could sing 

 them ; and that they should be subordinate to 

 the words used. With these two principles to 

 guide his action, he devoted some of the best 

 labors of his life to the preparation, in connec- 

 tion with Rev. Drs. Park and Phelps, of the 

 " Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book," a work 

 eminently adapted, both in its hymns and 

 tunes, for congregational singing, and he lived 

 to see it a great success, not only in its wide 

 circulation, but in its stimulus to others to 

 follow in the same track. In 1855 the Uni- 

 versity of New York conferred on him the 

 degree of Doctor of Music, the first instance 

 of the conferring such a degree by an Ameri- 

 can college, and, though European universities 

 had conferred it on eminent musical com- 

 posers, they had never honored an American 

 composer with it. The later years of his life 

 were passed at Orange, N. J., and his devotion 

 to musical study and composition continued 

 till his death. Dr. Mason's published works 

 exceed fifty volumes, and many of them have 

 had tin immense sale. The aggregate sale of 

 the collections of church-music somewhat ex- 

 ceeded two million copies, and several of the 

 juvenile collections have sold very largely. 

 The following is a list of the principal of these 

 works, those having an asterisk affixed being 

 the joint production of Dr. Mason and Mr. G. 

 J. Webb. " Boston Handel and Haydn Col- 

 lection," 1821; "Juvenile Psalmist," 1829; 

 "Juvenile Lyre" (first book of school-songs 

 published in this country), 1830; "The Choir, 

 or Union Collection," 1833 ; "Manual of In- 

 struction in Vocal Music," 1834; "Juvenile 

 Singing-School," 1835; *"The Musical Li- 

 brary" (Glee-Book), 1835; "Sabbath-School 

 Songs," 1836; "The Boston Academy Collec- 

 tion," 1836; "Sabbath-School Harp," 1837; 

 " Lyra Sacra," 1837 ; " Occasional Psalmody," 

 1837; "Juvenile Songster," 1838; *" Boston 

 Glee-Book," 1838 ; " Songs of Asaph," 1838 ; 

 "The Seraph," 1838; "Juvenile Music for 

 Sabbath-Schools," 1839; * " The Odeon " 

 (Glee-Book), 1839; "The Modern Psalmist," 

 1839; "Boston School Song-Book," 1840; 

 " Little Songs for Little Singers," 1840 ; " Car- 

 mina Sacra," 1841. Of this and its two re- 

 visions, the " New Carmina Sacra " and the 

 " American Tune-Book," more than six hun- 

 dred thousand copies have been sold; "The 



