MASON: A Rural Wedding, played on Mason & Hamlin melodeon

William Mason (1829-1908) was an American composer and pianist, part of an important musical family. His father was composer Lowell Mason, a leading figure in American church music. William's younger brother, Henry Mason, co-founded the Mason & Hamlin Organ Co. in Boston in 1854. The firm became one of the leading American manufacturers of reed organs; they later built pipe organs and very fine pianos. William Mason, following a successful debut at the Boston Academy of Music, went to study in Europe in 1849. He was the first American piano student of Franz Liszt. By the mid-1850s, he was in New York City, serving as organist at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, where his father was music director. William Mason published several pedagogical works and flamboyant salon pieces for piano. "A Rural Wedding" was included in an 1899 collection of organ music called "Classic and Modern Gems." (Many thanks to my friend Pam for lending me her original edition!) Performed by Michael Hendron on a Mason & Hamlin melodeon, built in Boston in 1861. Shortly thereafter, James T. Matthews, a harness-maker in Honesdale, Pennsylvania bought the melodeon for his teenage daughter Melissa; it has remained in the Matthews family ever since. The case is veneered in rosewood with its original finish, and has folding legs to make it portable. The five-octave ivory keyboard and two blank stops control two ranks of reeds—8' and 4'. I restored this instrument in 1997 for the present owner, in whose Chevy Chase, Maryland home we made this recording 3 May 2011.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• William
• Mason
• Lowell
• Henry
• Hamlin
• melodeon
• reed
• organ
• Michael
• Hendron

[Musique3579]

How delightful a piece and what an nice sounding and BEAUTIFUL Melodeon! Looks as if the bellows are in very good shape and the case super nice! I have always loved the look of a Meloden. Great video!

[gerardbedecarter]

Very nice. William Mason was an important pupil of Liszt because he documented a lot about Liszt in the early 1850s. He heard Liszt play his Sonata in B minor "many times'.

[rodneyjantzi]

@RegPor1943 - I agree whole heartedly, it is not very often we get to hear these old and fabulous melodeons sound so good and played so well!

[RegPor1943]

Michael,

I love this. I had never heard one of these small instruments played before. What a thrill. The music is very lovely and, as usual, your playing is a pleasure.

Thank you!

Reg