Lowell Mason
(b Medfield, ma, 8 Jan 1792; d Orange, nj, 11 Aug 1872). American music educator,composer and conductor. He was the chief pioneer in introducing music instruction to American schools and a leading reformer of American church music. In Savannah, 1812-27, then in Boston to 1851, he was highly successful as a church choirmaster, and he directed the Boston Handel and Haydn Society, 1827-32. Through his singing classes for children, his hymn tunebooks and music instruction books (based on European models), and especially through the teacher training offered at his Boston Academy of Music (1833), he succeeded in giving music a regular place in Boston schools. He continued to teach until 1851. In later years he produced further books, church music collections and compositions, mostly sacred vocal works. Among the best known are the hymn arrangements Azmon (‘O for a thousand tongues to sing’) and Hamburg (‘When I survey the wondrous cross’) and the original tunes Olivet (‘My faith looks up to thee’) and Bethany (‘Nearer, my God, to thee’).
His son Daniel Gregory (1820-69) founded the religious music publishing firm Mason Brothers in 1853 with his brother Lowell (1823-85). A third son William (1829-1908) was a concert pianist, teacher and composer, and a fourth, Henry (1831-90), was an instrument builder and father of
