Masonic Book Club, Vol. 29: The Masonic Harp: Collection of Masonic Odes, Hymns, Songs

If it is legitimate to judge from the physical evidence alone, and in this case it probably is, then George Chase's Masonic Harp was clearly the most successful and popular of all American masonic songbooks. A reasonably diligent search at almost any antiquarian book fair or used book store, at least in the eastern United States, will usually produce a copy or two. They are also still to be found in the dusty back rooms of lodges under a pile of old minute books or superannuated petitions for membership. So ubiquitous is the Masonic Harp and so substantial its residue as to give the impression that it was virtually the sole publication of its kind. Nothing could be further from the truth. A preliminary study has identified forty-four songbook publications of solely or predominantly masonic content published in the nineteenth century, and the actual total is likely significantly larger.

Though the Masonic Harp was apparently far the most popular of its kind, it was certainly not alone in the field, nor in some ways was it even typical of its genre. For these reasons the book presents interesting questions not only about masonic music and the evolution of the Craft's taste in the art, but also about society as a whole and even the nature of publishing practice and trade. Since activity in this field of masonic studies has been slight, some questions can be met only with conjecture or hypothesis until further basic research has brought more of the underlying evidence to light. Masonic songbooks and songsters hold an estimable position in American publishing history. According to Irving Lowens' A Bibliogi^aphy of Songsters Printed in America before 182 f the first songster published in this country was Benjamin Franklin's edition of James Anderson's Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Lowens includes the work because it possesses the texts for a few songs. In fact, of the 649 entries in Lowens' bibliography, 101 or 15.5 per cent possess some masonic connection. This indicates a truly remarkable degree of musical interest in the fraternity. Publishers, perhaps even more then than now, were touched little by altruism, printing only what they thought would find a market. This, notably, was Franklin's own motive in printing the Constitutions. It is safe to conclude that the market for masonic music lay entirely within the fraternity.