Oh Music: A Song History

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"Oh Music" appears to be the short round better known as "O Music, Sweet Music."[1] Teaching materials and songbooks usually credit the melody to Lowell Mason, though some say only that it is attributed to him, and the words are listed as anonymous.[1][2][3] None of the sources consulted here points to a Mason publication that contains the round. The credit is therefore best treated as customary rather than proven.

Watercolor of a woman singing in a parlor, accompanied by a pianist and a cellist

Thomas Eakins, The Pathetic Song, watercolor on paper, 1881. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0).

Whoever wrote it, the round belongs to the classroom tradition Mason helped build. Mason (1792–1872), a Massachusetts-born hymn composer and music publisher, founded the Boston Academy of Music in 1832. Six years later he launched a music program in the Boston public schools, which Britannica describes as the country’s first.[4] The round is sung in three parts over just two chords. Teaching materials describe it as easy to learn and a good first step in singing together, and one recommends it for Music In Our Schools Month.[1][5] It also turns up in church collections, such as MIA Let's Sing (1962), a songbook of the Latter-day Saints’ Mutual Improvement Association, which prints it with music credited to Mason.[3] It is still arranged for choirs, including a published version with madrigal-style “fa-la” refrains.[6]

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Sources

  1. Music K-8: "O Music, Sweet Music".
  2. SingPraises.net: "Tune: O music, sweet music (Lowell Mason)".
  3. SingPraises.net: "O Music, Sweet Music (Round)" in MIA Let's Sing (1962).
  4. Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Lowell Mason".
  5. ChimeWorks: "O, Music, Sweet Music".
  6. J.W. Pepper: "O Music, Sweet Music" (arr. Dave & Jean Perry, BriLee Music).