Mason, Lowell (1792-1872)

US composer and educator. In 1832 he cofounded the Boston Academy of Music, which gave instruction to adults and children. A pedagogue of great influence and importance to US music, he remained a prolific arranger and composer of hymns, his familiar tunes including ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’ and ‘From Greenland's Icy Mountains’. Mason was born in Medfield, Massachusetts. He was a church organist and choir director. He published a successful hymn collection in 1822, some of its melodies adopted from classical composers.