Mason, Lowell

Lowell Mason, (born January 8, 1792, Medfield, Massachusetts, U.S.—died August 11, 1872, Orange, New Jersey), hymn composer, music publisher, and one of the founders of public-school music education in the United States.

Mason went to Savannah, Georgia, as a bank clerk and became choirmaster at the Independent Presbyterian Church in that city. In 1822 he published The Handel and Haydn Society’s Collection of Church Music. The first edition was published without attribution, but later editions acknowledged his role as editor. Mason returned to Boston in 1827, having negotiated a position as music director at three Boston churches, and between 1829 and 1869 he published about 20 further collections of hymns. Those collections favoured adaptations of tunes by prominent European composers rather than the traditional rural hymn tunes.

In 1832 he founded the Boston Academy of Music, and in 1838 he established in Boston the first public-school music program in the United States. He was also influential in the training of music teachers. His compositions include the hymn tunes for “From Greenland’s Icy Mountains,” “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” and “My Faith Looks Up to Thee.”