Other Masonic Composers
Several composers had documented connections with Freemasonry. Membership, music written for a lodge and later interpretations of a composition are separate questions: a composer's membership does not establish that every work expresses Masonic ideas.
Documented connections
Joseph Haydn joined the lodge Zur wahren Eintracht in Vienna in 1785.[1] His Emperor's Hymn, “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser”, was written for Emperor Francis II's birthday in 1797. The International Joseph Haydn Foundation's chronology records its first performance on 12 February that year. It was not a commission for the installation of a Masonic Grand Master.[2]
Franz Liszt belonged to German lodges from 1841, according to the Grand Lodge of Austria's historical account.[3] That membership alone does not establish a Masonic programme for his symphonic poem Mazeppa.
Johann Nepomuk Hummel left documentary evidence of his application to the Weimar lodge Anna Amalia zu den drei Rosen. In 2022 the Hummel Society placed two manuscripts from 1819 on permanent loan at the Goethe and Schiller Archive: his declaration of commitment to joining the lodge and his written responses to questions from it.[4]
Jean Sibelius joined Suomi Lodge No. 1 in Helsinki in 1922. His Musique religieuse, Op. 113, provides a documented example of music composed for Freemasonry: the initial group of pieces was completed and performed in 1927, and the collection was subsequently expanded.[5]
Uncertain membership and mistaken attributions
Ludwig van Beethoven's membership remains unconfirmed. The Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon discusses arguments in its favour but acknowledges the absence of a definite Masonic record. This supports a qualified account of his connections, rather than a statement that he belonged to a named Viennese lodge.[6]
The Harmonious Blacksmith is by George Frideric Handel, not Carl Friedrich Abel. A nineteenth-century printed arrangement in the Library of Congress explicitly identifies Handel as the composer. An attribution to Abel therefore cannot support a claim about Abel's Masonic compositions.[7]
References
- ↑ Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, Franz Joseph Haydn, citing William R. Denslow, 10,000 Famous Freemasons.
- ↑ International Joseph Haydn Foundation, Chronicle, entry for 1797.
- ↑ Grand Lodge of Austria, Grand Lodge, historical members: Franz Liszt.
- ↑ Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Autographen von Johann Nepomuk Hummel an Klassik Stiftung Weimar übergeben, 11 October 2022.
- ↑ Music for Freemasonry, Jean Sibelius website, sections on Suomi Lodge and the Masonic music.
- ↑ Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, Ludwig van Beethoven, citing Andrew Pearmain's 1988 Prestonian Lecture and Claire M. Nelson's 1997 study in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum.
- ↑ George Frideric Handel, The Harmonious Blacksmith: Air with Variations, adapted for beginners by H. Maylath, E. Eberhardt, 1885. Library of Congress, digitised score.
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