Lowell Mason Research Articles

Book Review: Lowell Mason: His Life and Work

Book Review: Lowell Mason: His Life and Work

Lowell Mason: His Life and Work

Lowell Mason: His Life and Work

Lowell Mason on European Church Music and Transatlantic Cultural Identification: A Reconsideration

Research Article| July 01 1985 Lowell Mason on European Church Music and Transatlantic Cultural Identification: A Reconsideration Michael Broyles Michael Broyles Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (1985) 38 (2): 316–348. https://doi.org/10.2307/831567 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Michael Broyles; Lowell Mason on European Church Music and Transatlantic Cultural Identification: A Reconsideration. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 July 1985; 38 (2): 316–348. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/831567 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search This content is only available via PDF. Copyright 1985 The American Musicological Society, Inc. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Lowell Mason on European Church Music and Transatlantic Cultural Identification: A Reconsideration

Lowell Mason on European Church Music and Transatlantic Cultural Identification: A Reconsideration

Art and Music in the Pestalozzian Tradition

This paper compared the relative impact of Pestalozzianism on art and music instruction in the early 19th century. Both methods departed from traditional rote methods through the use of exercises to measure space (drawing) and time (vocal music). Instruction was similarly organized around basic elements (rhythm, melody, and dynamics [music], and geometric lines and curves [drawing]). These were introduced in a simple-to-complex sequence in typical Pestalozzian fashion. Partly refuted is Ellis's claim that Lowell Mason's treatment of Pestalozzian music was in error. The argument suggests that Pestalozzianism had become a generic term for several similar methods by the 1820s and 1830s. The paper also suggested that music and art, though starting out on essentially the same foot, developed differently because of social forces that affected their respective roles in education.

OLD FOLKS CONCERTS AND THE REVIVAL OF NEW ENGLAND PSALMODY

BY the 1830s the music of the New England singing schools had fallen into disrepute and was being replaced by a church hymnody more European in orientation and more conventional in style.1 The native idiom and in particular the fuging tune were considered inferior to the more scientific music of such composers as Lowell Mason and Thomas Hastings. If the old tunes were included in collections, they were often corrected or rearranged to suit the new ideas of taste.2

The Lowell Mason Library

Lowell Mason, a father figure in the history of American music, brought together in his lifetime (1792-1872) a library of music notable for its period and still of value. The recent gift to the Music Library of Yale University from the estate of Henry Lowell Mason, of Boston, consisting of correspondence and documents assembled as source material for the biography of his grandfather, comes as a reminder that it was only a little short of one hundred years ago that the Lowell Mason Library was given to Yale College. With the thought that to the Music Library Association the centenary of a library within its own field may be an occasion worth marking we offer an account of its history and contents. Subscribers to Notes may find it useful to have in their files information fuller and more precise than that available in current reference works.

The Responsorial and Antiphonal Practice in Gospel Song

he gospel song and its stylistic peculiarities found its origin and development in the United States. Though a certain sentimentality and subjectivism in text, together with certain musical characteristics common to gospel songs, appeared in the tune books of Lowell Mason, Thomas Hastings, William Batchelder Bradbury, and others during the first half of the nineteenth century (Ellinwood 1953:105), the great upsurge of gospel songs did not begin until after 1870 and might conveniently be dated from the English tour of Dwight Lyman Moody and Ira David Sankey in 1873 (McCutchan 1937:277-78). R. G. McCutchan writes of the gospel songs:

Origins of the First Music Educators Convention

1 It should be noted that these were not people as we normally associate the word teachers. The membership of these early conventions (until ca. 1850) consisted primarily of singing school masters, church choir directors, interested choristers of choral societies and church choirs, and young men and women aspiring to be music teachers. 'Henry Moore (1802-1841) was born in Andover, New Hampshire. He was an excellent musician, a publisher, a singing school master, and a compiler of tune books. Later in this essay quotations are given from the Boston Eoliad-a weekly paper devoted to the subject of music-which he began publishing only weeks before his death. tional abilities than Henry Moore. This man, no significant innovator, but with an uncanny sense of timeliness and the ability to organize ideas and men, was down the pike in Boston, and it was he, Lowell Mason, who was to gather the spark and fan the idea of musical conventions into a flame

Our Changing School Music Program

MOST AREAS of the curriculum today have that atmosphere of excitement and unrest which permeate a period of change. In the field of music there seems to be, under the surface, something like a volcanic bubbling which erupts from time to time in response to certain pressures and which constantly threatens a really big explosion. The recent changes which have occurred have altered the outline of the music curriculum appreciably and the volcano is still boiling and forecasting more eruptions. Every school curriculum has its own history of ups and downs and shifts in emphasis. These have resulted from changes in educational philosophy and from developments in our country and in the world. The periods that have occurred in the history of the music program are directly influencing today's curriculum, so it is important to review them here briefly. In this case, as the words above the National Archives building in Washington say, What is Past is Prologue. Music came into the American public schools as a direct outgrowth of the activities of the old-time singing schools. Singing as a group activity very early became an accepted part of what was considered a good elementary school curriculum. The first regularly organized program of music throughout a school system on general record was begun in Boston in the 1830s under Lowell Mason's supervision. During the years which followed, in addition to the elementary school singing instruction, the secondary schools sometimes included the activity of choral singing in the program. In a very few cases there were also instrumental music groups and even classes in music theory and history. The latter subject, of course, was usually taught entirely from a book, since phonograph records were not yet available and live concerts were few and far between.

Elam Ives and the Pestalozzian Philosophy of Music Education

IN 183 1 A SMALL BOOK of songs entitled The JuveniZe Lyre was published by Carter, Hendee & Co., of Boston. In later years, Lowell Mason, who was one of two compilers of book, described it as the first school song book published in this country. The intent here is not to argue this point (as tempting an assignment as that might be), but rather to establish identity of second man of this team; for here was a man whose influence in development of a philosophy of American music pedagogy was much greater than has been recognized. This man was Elam Ives, Jr. Although Ives published an imposing list of books and art songs during 30-year period 1830-1860 one can search in vain through standard biographical reference works for more than a short sentence about him. Yet it was he who actually founded in America musical practice of Pestalozzianism, which was dominant philosophy of music education in this country during greater portion of l9th century. Indeed? many Pestalozzian precepts are still followed in music education today. Ives' early experiments and writings had direct influence on such leaders as Lowell Mason and Thomas Hastings. Before this point is developed, however, let us consider few facts we are able to piece together concerning life of this man.

An Experiment in Teaching Children To Read Music with Shape Notes

A CRUCLAL PROBLEM facing our conscientious elementary music teachers is how to teach successfully the skill of reading music at sight. This is a report of an experimental study designed to compare the effectiveness of several approaches to music reading, including one making use of shape notes. In an article in the Journal of Reseerch sn Music Educstion Irving Lowens and Allen P. Britton suggest that, had Lowell Mason adopted the shape note system of William Little and William Smith as set forth in The Eesy Instructor ( 1798), we might have been more successful in developing skilled music readers and enthusiastic amateur choral singers in the public schools.''l The hypothesisuponwhich the present epperiment is predicated is that singing with shape notes will increase the accuracy of pitch and syllable naming and therefore will be reflected in the superiority of students using this method of learning to read music over those who learn by the use of the usual methods. Stated as a null hypothesis, the experiment attempted to show that there would be no difference in the music reading ability of control groups of children taught to read by orthodox methodologies when compared with the music reading abil-

Lowell Mason and the Manual of the Boston Academy of Music

Lowell Mason and the <i>Manual of the Boston Academy of Music</i>

The Emergence of Song

A s OUR KNOWLEDGE and appreciation of the biology of the human organism increases, our point of view regarding the education of the individual changes. Since the founding of public school music by Lowell Mason and his associates, the area of emphasis has been shifted twice, and we are now in the process of shifting it a third time. The early period was one requiring salesmanship; and, therefore, emphasis was placed on the idea that it was possible to teach all children to perform vocally. The second period was characterized by the testing movement which was initiated and supported by many leading psychologists. It was believed that the individual was endowed by original nature with certain capacities which could be measured at an early age. Thus, emphasis was placed on the sorting out of the musically gifted so that they might receive special training.

Lowell Mason, the Father of Singing among the Children

Lowell Mason, the Father of Singing among the Children

Lowell Mason-"The Father of Singing among Children"

Lowell Mason-"The Father of Singing among Children"

Hymn-Tunes of Lowell Mason, A Bibliography

Hymn-Tunes of Lowell Mason, A Bibliography

Lowell Mason's Philosophy of Music Education

Lowell Mason's Philosophy of Music Education

School Songs by Lowell Mason

School Songs by Lowell Mason

Lowell Mason Sesquicentennial

Lowell Mason Sesquicentennial