Cassius Clement Stearns

Cassius Clement Stearns
Born 23 August 1838
Ashburnham, Massachusetts
Died 7 August 1910
Sharon, Massachusetts
Occupation composer, organist and music teacher
Known for church music

Cassius Clement Stearns was an American composer of church music.[1] He was born on 23 August 1838 in Ashburnham, Massachusetts, the youngest child of Charles Stearns (1796-1874) and Rebecca Green Stearns (née Robbins) (1802-87).[2] He married Gertrude Bottomly (1837-1910)[3] of Leicester, Massachusetts, in Boston on 23 October 1872 (a few days before the Great Fire), the celebrant being the Revd. Phillips Brooks.[4] Stearns died on 7 August 1910 in Sharon, Massachusetts[5] and is buried at Worcester Rural Cemetery, Grove Street, Worcester.[6]

Life

Cassius Stearns, far right with bass viol, in Green's Band 1860[7]

Stearns came from a musical family[8] and showed early promise, playing the bass viol with the choir in the Ashburnham meeting house from childhood.[9] He studied the piano and organ with Professor Benjamin F. Leavens[10] and the cello with Wulf Fries, a member of the Mendelssohn Quintette Club. Starting his musical career in Ashburnham,[11] he moved to Worcester, Massachusetts in 1859, where he was active in the Worcester Music Festival.[12]

Stearns was organist and director in several church choirs. For three or four years from 1867 he was the organist of the Congregational (Unitarian) Church on Court Hill, for whose new pastor he composed an anthem Awake, put on thy strength in 1869.[13] On 4 July 1881 he played the organ at a packed Prayer Meeting at Mechanics Hall following the assassination of the President, James A. Garfield,[14] In 1890 he was the organist and director of music at the Pleasant Street Baptist church.[15] However, he was best known as a teacher and composer, particularly of church music, organ and piano studies and songs.[16] He is described as a music teacher in directories for Worcester between 1860 and 1893[17] and taught instrumental music at the Oread Institute from 1864 to 1868.[18] Stearns left Worcester in 1893, but after brief spells in Santa Barbara, California and Asheville, North Carolina returned to Massachusetts.[19]

Music

Mass in A major by Cassius Clement Stearns

Stearns' numerous compositions included several settings of the Mass and of Vespers including the Magnificat.[20] Other compositions included a Te Deum in G[21] and settings of the Tantum Ergo, O Salutaris Hostia, Regina Coeli and Salve Regina.[22] These were warmly received when first performed,[23] including at the Mechanics Hall,[24] but were later criticized for their 'operatic' style[25] and included on the 'black list' of disapproved music issued after the Motu proprio of Pope Pius X on Sacred Music.[26] Stearns' settings have accordingly been little used since the early 20th century, but interest in them is now reviving.[27] His church anthems, sacred songs, organ voluntaries and a hymnal that he edited were published by White, Smith & Company.[28] Stearns' song The Parish Sexton was dedicated to the operatic comedian Henry Clay Barnabee, who started his career by singing in Boston churches before founding The Bostonians acting troupe.[29]

The Parish Sexton by Cassius Clement Stearns

Stearns' output was summarized in 1890 as follows: "Model Anthems is the title of a new work for quartets and chorus choirs, by Mr. C. C. Stearns, and although only recently published, it is already meeting with a most substantial recognition by some of the best choirs in this city, as well as those in many of the country towns. Choir masters and singers are much interested in the music, which is adapted to the wants and capacities of the most cultivated choirs, and also to those of average ability. Mr. Stearns has also recently published his Easter cantata for Sunday schools, a worthy companion to his Christmas cantata. His masses in D and F, vespers in B flat and G, two masses for children's voices, entitled, Mass of the Angel Guardian and Children's Festival Mass are standard works in Catholic churches throughout the country, and two choice vocal duets, Is Life Worth Living and Hope Abides Forever for concert or church purposes, together with a trio, Father in Heaven, have met with a cordial reception from singers who are on the lookout for something new and interesting. Mr. Stearns's profession as a teacher of the piano and organ has led him to write some available compositions for these instruments and Glad Hours and Loving Hearts' Gavotte are among the most popular piano pieces. For the organ he has written two excellent books which organ students appreciate,[30] also an illustration for the organ, Contemplation[31] founded on the motto: 'An ever-pervading mystery broods over the universe and the soul of man, at times weird and solemn and again calm and reposeful, full of tender memories like a benediction of peace.' All of Mr. Stearns' compositions are published by the White, Smith Music company, of Boston, and the above named are a few of the most prominent ones."[32]

Recent celebration of Vespers using a setting by Cassius Clement Stearns

There is a pastoral quality to Stearns' music, as illustrated by the evocative bird song effects in the organ part of Beatus Vir in his Vespers in G.[33] A contemporary wrote that "Mr. Stearns has given an apt expression of his love for his native town and a sensitive appreciation of its scenic attractions, in several musical compositions, suggested by, and dedicated to the mountains and lakes of the landscape."[34]

References

  1. ↑ "Prof. C.C. Stearns was born in Ashburnham, Mass., August 23, 1838, and was the son of Charles and Rebecca Greene (Robbins) Stearns. He went to Worcester to live in 1859, and made that city his home until 1893. During that time he taught music in Worcester and was organist and director of music in a number of Protestant churches. He taught instrumental music at the Oread from 1864 to 1868. He was for many years one of the members of the Board of Government of the Worcester Festival. In 1877 he was one of the Conductors of the Festival, at which time a Mass composed by him was sung. He has also been Conductor of the Westboro Musical Society and of the North Brookfield Musical Society. He has written many musical criticisms and reviews of musical work, and has also lectured on music. His musical compositions number many hundreds, his speciality being church music, written for both the Protestant and the Catholic church. Of special excellence among his choir pieces are the following: Praise the Lord Jehovah, Blessed is the Man (Psalm I), Great is the Lord, How Beautiful Upon the Mountains, Sing and Rejoice, Benedictus, God is our Hope and Strength and Glad Tidings of Great Joy all published by the White-Smith Music Publishing Co. Of his compositions of secular music his Scenes from Nature: Six Musical Sketches is worthy of special mention. On October 23, 1872, he was married to Miss Gertrude Bottomly of Leicester, Mass. They have no children. Since Professor Stearns left Worcester in 1893, he has resided in Santa Barbara, Cal. and Asheville, N.C., and is living at present in Sharon, Mass." History of the Oread Collegiate Institute, Worcester, Mass. (1849-1881): With Biographical Sketches, p. 265, Martha Burt Wright and Anne M. Bancroft, Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1905
  2. ↑ Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line] and Genealogy and memoirs of Isaac Stearns and his descendants, entries 2521-2529, Avis Stearns Van Wagenen, 1901. Thomas Stearns Eliot and his mother Charlotte Champe Stearns were also descendants of Isaac Stearns (ibid, entry 2917), a Puritan who emigrated from Stoke Nayland in Suffolk to Watertown, Massachusetts in 1630.
  3. ↑ Daughter of Booth and Miranda (Deputerin) Bottomly. She is described by Van Wagenen as a fine naturalist. A sister, Augusta Camilla Bottomly, married Church Howe, President of the Nebraska State Senate and US Consul to Palermo, Italy, 1897-1900; Sheffield, England, 1900-1903; Antwerp, Belgium, 1903-1906; Montreal, Canada, 1906-1907; and Manchester, England, 1907-1912. Another sister, Florence Blanca (Bottomly) Condy, was Stearns' executrix. Booth Bottomly came from Saddleworth, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. His father was connected with the Episcopal Church of All Saints, Worcester Ma.: "Thomas Bottomly was one of the most zealous supporters of the early church. Senior warden from 1843 to 1861, he gave the second largest amount ($300) to the first Church Building Fund, and served on many important committees. He was a native of Yorkshire, England, came to Leicester in 1820, and through his activities in woolen manufacturing, was really the founder of Cherry Valley as a manufacturing village. He was active in the Church at Rochdale, from which Reverend Mr. Blackaller was called, and died in 1865, leaving sons in Leicester to carry on his factories." All Saints church, Worcester, Massachusetts ; a centennial history, 1835-1935, Robert Kendall Shaw, Worcester Ma., 1935. Under the leadership of William Reed Huntington All Saints installed a new organ in 1864 and established a choir in 1868, but there is no mention in Shaw's book (pp. 42-43) of Stearns having a connection with the church.
  4. ↑ Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]. Brooks was the Rector of Trinity Church (Boston) (an Episcopal parish founded in 1733) and later Bishop of Massachusetts; he is now most famous as the author of the words of the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem
  5. ↑ Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 [database on-line]
  6. ↑ See Cassius C. Stearns grave
  7. ↑ Green's Band was a small dance or social orchestra based in Fitchburg, Ma. In addition to Stearns and his brother-in-law, Addison A. Walker, the band included the Litch brothers (Aaron Kimball and Charles), who are described in The Keyed Bugle, Ralph Thomas Dudgeon, 2004
  8. ↑ History of Ashburnham, Massachusetts, chapter XI, Ezra S. Stearns, 1887. His parents, although not professionals, taught music and were prominent members of the choir in the Congregational meeting house. (The 1791 meeting house survives as the premises of the Ashburnham Historical Society, but was replaced by a new meeting house in the 1830s). His sister, Rebecca Hill Stearns, was a soprano and music teacher and married Capt. Addison A. Walker (see photo), who was known as a fine clarionet player. His brother George Henry Stearns was a musician in the Brigade Band, Twentieth Army Corps during the Civil War and was with General Sherman in his 'March to the Sea'.
  9. ↑ "In this choir ... C.C. Stearns, when a lad, accurately played the bass viol." History of Ashburnham, Massachusetts, p. 329, Ezra S. Stearns, 1887. See also Genealogy and memoirs of Isaac Stearns and his descendants, Avis Stearns Van Wagenen, 1901: "His musical taste and ability were manifested at an early age and his proficient execution in boyhood is pleasantly remembered by the residents of his native town, Ashburnham, Mass. He played the bass viol in the Congregational Church before his stature would permit him to reach the strings, and Mr. Miller, the chorister, made a cricket [foot stool] for him to stand upon."
  10. ↑ "Benjamin Franklin Leavens [1822-81] early developed a musical taste, and at the age of eighteen was organist at Christ Church, Boston. He afterward went to St. Paul's Church on Tremont St., where he organized the first boy choir of Boston. In 1857 he removed to Burlington, N. J., and took charge of the music at St. Mary's and at Burlington College under the patronage of his friend, Bishop Doane, of the diocese of New Jersey. Here he remained until the death of Bishop Doane, and in 1863 he removed to Hartford, Conn. During the remainder of his life he was connected with St. John's, Trinity and other Churches, serving also as professor of music in Trinity College until 1870 — making an uninterrupted service with the Episcopal Church of over thirty years. He was an ardent admirer of a high order of Church music, and in the course of his life had collected an extensive library of Church and classical music. Besides the organ, he gave instruction on other instruments. So much time was devoted to instruction that he did not progress in composition, though possessing talent in that direction." from The Leavens name including Levings; an account of the posterity descending from emigrant John Levins, 1632-1903, Philo French Leavens, Passaic N.J., 1903
  11. ↑ Massachusetts, State Census, 1855 [database on-line]
  12. ↑ Stearns was a Vice President of the Worcester County Musical Association, which organized the Festival, from 1867 to 1873 and on the Board of Government thereafter. See also Collections of the Worcester Society of Antiquity Volume VI, Worcester Ma., 1881: "Mr. Zerrahn and C. C. Stearns were the conductors in 1877; and this year the time of the festivals was changed to the last week in September, and they have been held in September since that time. An interesting feature of the exercises this year was the performance of the Mass in D, under the direction of the composer, Mr. Stearns.". Further information is given in The Worcester Music Festival in New England Magazine, An Illustrated Monthly, New Series Volume XXIII No.1, Boston, September 1900 and in History of Worcester and its people (Volume 2), Charles Nutt, 1919: "The chorus is the mainstay of the festival, the cause of its existence; and the credit of moulding it belongs first of all to Mr. Zerrahn, who served as conductor for thirty-two years, coming here in 1866 and resigning after the festival of 1897. During eleven years he was the sole conductor, but previous to 1897 he had direction of only oratorios and similar works, while the church music, glees and smaller choruses were intrusted to ... responsible musicians of local repute, as ...C. C. Stearns".
  13. ↑ Reminiscences of Worcester from the Earliest Period, Historical and Genealogical With Notices, pp. 146-148, Caleb A. Wall, Worcester Ma., 1877
  14. ↑ Stearns played a Funeral march (by Chopin?) arranged by Batiste as the organ voluntary and the hymns Nearer my God to Thee; O God, our Help in ages past and Oh God of Bethel, by whose hand. The President did not die until 19 September 1881. James Abram Garfield, Memorial Observances in the City of Worcester, Printed by order of the City Council, p.10-11, Worcester Ma., 1881
  15. ↑ Light: A Journal of Social Worcester and her Neighbors, Worcester Ma., 22 March 1890. The church was rebuilt at that time.
  16. ↑ Genealogy and memoirs of Isaac Stearns and his descendants, Avis Stearns Van Wagenen, 1901. See also Music in Worcester in Dictionary of Worcester (Massachusetts) and its vicinity, Franklin P. Rice, 1893: "C. C. Stearns, the well-known musical composer and teacher, has for the past thirty years resided in Worcester."
  17. ↑ U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]
  18. ↑ History of the Oread Collegiate Institute, Worcester, Mass. (1849-1881): With Biographical Sketches, p. 265, Martha Burt Wright and Anne M. Bancroft, Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Company, 1905
  19. ↑ In 1898 he was living in Mansfield, Massachusetts, working as an organist and teacher of music in Boston U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 [database on-line]. From 1900 he lived in Sharon, Massachusetts 1900 and 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line].
  20. ↑ Mass in A (1864), Mass in D (1869), Mass in F (1885), Mass in Honor of the Angel Guardian (1888, "A very pleasing and melodious work intended especially for children's voices" Donahoe's Magazine volume 18, p.98), Children's Festival Mass (1888 but a different work from the previous one, republished 1916, "A very useful Mass for the use of Sunday Schools, well written and attractive" Donahoe's Magazine volume 19, p.482), Mass in G in honor of St Peter (1892), Vespers in B-flat (1887, "A work that is destined to become very widely used by our Catholic choirs, being just what has been long desired, melodious and within the reach of ordinary choirs and organists" Donahoe's Magazine volume 19, p.185), Vespers in G (1889), Vespers in C (pre 1900, copyright renewed 1928). Stearns's Mass in D was listed in A Dictionary of Musical Information, Containing Also a Vocabulary of Musical Terms, and a List of Modern Musical Works Published in the United States from 1640 to 1875 Volume 1, p.208, John Weeks Moore, Boston, 1876. The Mass setting was first sung at St Anne's Church, Worcester at Easter 1869 and was seen in manuscript before publication by, amongst others, George P. Burt, Organist and Professor of Music at the College of the Holy Cross, whom Stearns knew through the Worcester Music Festival.
  21. ↑ "a composition of decided excellence, written in true ecclesiastical style" Dwight's Journal of Music: A Paper of Art and Literature, Volumes 21-22, 1862-63, p. 104. Copyright renewed 1916, original entry 1888.
  22. ↑ The Universal handbook of musical literature. Practical and complete guide to all musical publications (Volume 28), Franz Pazdírek (ed.), Vienna, 1900. See also Stearns, C. C. and Notated Music
  23. ↑ "Mr. C. C. Stearns's concert and the first performance of his new Mass...took place on Thursday evening, filled Washburn Hall to its full extent, and was pronounced one of the best concerts ever given in Worcester. It opened with a Tantum Ergo, composed by Mr. Stearns, and well sung by the club under his leadership, with assistance of an efficient little orchestra of seven pieces. The work was well received, especially the second movement, which was brilliant and telling....The second part of the programme was occupied by Mr. Stearns's original Mass in A, a work noticed at length in our columns last week, and which, on the occasion of its first public performance, revealed new beauties to those who heard it in rehearsal, and won from the large audience only high encomiums of praise. Rarely does it happen that a young composer succeeds so well in bringing out his first work, in summoning such efficient aid — choral and instrumental, and in more than meeting public expectation. A more enthusiastic audience is rarely found in our concert-rooms; and yet it was not demonstrative, did not even demand an encore; but there was that unmistakeable air of cordial appreciation, more valued doubtless by composer and performers than the loudest applause. The choruses were well sung; so, too, the majority of the solos, quartets, &c. The strong points of the work came out with new force, and the unity of the whole was even more apparent than before. The Et Incarnatus the Agnus Dei — with the Miserere breathed out, rather than sung; and the Dona Nobis, were especially admired. The orchestral parts were the subject of general remark for their originality, richness, and the sound musical knowledge shown in their composition. It is the general desire that the performance of the Mass should be repeated. We hope to hear it in Mechanics Hall, with a larger orchestra and an organ. Why not at the dedication of the fine instrument to be held here during the coming fall?" Dwight's Journal of Music: A Paper of Art and Literature, Volumes 23-24, 1863-65, p. 210
  24. ↑ "An original Mass by a young native composer was the main attraction of a concert lately, which appears to have excited great interest.... Mechanics Hall has seldom been the scene of a more interesting musical event than on the evening of the 23d inst., the occasion of the second public performance of Mr. Stearns's Mass in A. The composer had spared no pains nor expense to give the work the best possible performance, and a large and appreciative audience, many from adjoining and even distant towns, rewarded his efforts....The chorus singers selected for the Mass had been well chosen. Every voice told, and the parts were well balanced. Moreover, the rehearsals had been frequent and faithful. Very pleasant it was to notice that each singer made the work his own for the time; and all sang as if heart and soul were with the young composer and his music — no small compliment to the innate merit of the work which could voluntarily command such interest.... The Mass bears repetition; indeed it is rich in material for study. Very fine is the working up of some of its choruses; as for instance the "Amen", with its fugue treatment, and the magnificent "Sanctus", which was rendered on Tuesday evening with thrilling effect. The "Et Incarnatus" is finely conceived, as all must have felt who heard the quartet sung the other evening by sympathetic, well-trained voices. Fragments of the "Gloria", the "Agnus Dei", and "Dona Nobis" were hummed and whistled in the streets, and drummed out of pianos for months after the first performance of the Mass, and yet these melodies are as artistic as they are original, and as far as possible removed from the clap-trap which seizes the popular ear for a time, to be soon condemned as worthless." Dwight's Journal of Music: A Paper of Art and Literature, Volumes 25-26, 1865-67, p. 184. See also Mr. C.C. Stearns' concert at Mechanics Hall, January 23, 1866, Worcester, Mass., 1866 and Mechanics Hall, Margaret Erskine, Worcester, Ma. (Worcester Bicentennial Commission), 1977
  25. ↑ "We have listened ad nauseam to the ... weary list of Masses and Vespers with their borrowings of the worst characteristics of an operatic style which even in the theatre has been rejected as artificial and unworthy of serious consideration from a purely artistic standpoint.... Who that has learned to appreciate the noble magnificence of a Palestrina ...could tolerate the twaddle of our Mercadantes or Peters or Stearns?", Church Music and the Parish School, The Rev. James A. Boylan D.D. (Professor of Gregorian Chant at the Philadelphia Theological Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo), in American Ecclesiastical Review, 1920
  26. ↑ See Black list of disapproved music. The 'black list' was enforced by detailed regulations, e.g. Church Music Regulations. For an overview see Catholic Music Through the Ages: Balancing the Needs of a Worshipping Church, Edward E. Schaefer, Chigago, 2008.
  27. ↑ One of Stearns' Vespers settings was used at the church of St Magnus the Martyr, London on Thursday, 18 December 2014 before the launch of a CD containing some of his music.
  28. ↑ See Sacred songs by C. C. Stearns, Cross and Crown Hymnal 1893 and In memoriam
  29. ↑ The Parish Sexton, Song for Bass Voice, S.R. Leland & Co., Worcester Ma., 1876; see The Parish Sexton
  30. ↑ Organ Harmonies: A Collection of Voluntaries for Pipe or Reed Organ and Short Voluntaries for Pipe or Reed Organ (both 1887). The organist's sketch book : a new collection of pieces for pipe or reed organ was published in 1895 and Original and selected compositions for violin & organ was published in 1902.
  31. ↑ Contemplation ; illustration for organ, White Smith music pub. co., Boston, 1888
  32. ↑ Light: A Journal of Social Worcester and her Neighbors, Worcester Ma., 8 March 1890
  33. ↑ Sleeve notes from CD Inexplicable Splendour, The Choir of St Magnus the Martyr directed by William Petter, London, 2014
  34. ↑ Genealogy and memoirs of Isaac Stearns and his descendants, Avis Stearns Van Wagenen, 1901
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