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Montana Freemason March 2016
odes #2 and #3, and #4 (the fourth one is listed in
Mystic Chord as an Opening or Closing Ode).
The last Opening Ode is a bit different. The ode we
print as #5 is an Entered Apprentice’s “Opening”
Ode. It has been printed and reprinted since at least
the 1850s, (for instance, by Robert Macoy in his
“The Masonic Vocal Manual” of 1859, who sets it to
the dune of “Dundee”) through the 1860’s (Vol VIII,
No. 23 of the “National Freemason” newspaper,
the June 8, 1867 edition, p.357), 1870’s (Waldemar
Malmene’s “The Freemason’s Hymnal” of 1871,
who sets it to the tune of “Dundee” OR “Peterboro”),
etc.
It was played as late as 1910 to open the Grand
Lodge of New Jersey’s annual communication,
where it was set to the tune of “Arlington.”
Music was, formerly, a staple of public life, where
people gathered in taverns, and sang popular songs,
set to tunes that all were generally familiar with –
several of our own popular American songs of the
Revolutionary Era are simply new words over old
English tunes. Taverns, or “pubs” as the English
call them (the word deriving from roots for public,
and publicans, those who catered to the public)
were early meeting places for Freemasons, not, as
our current Masonic would-be writers inform us,
because of their atmosphere, but because they were
exactly that: public buildings, available for use. And
singing was a group activity in these public spaces.
Montana’s Masonic history, from the Civil War
Era 1860’s, through the 1890’s, kept the spirit of
community singing at gatherings, as Masonic Lodges
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of the era were apt to do. The turn of the century
saw a dramatic and swift decline in the practice, and
it is telling that one of the last known usages of one
of our Masonic Odes was in 1910, when this sort of
group singing was falling out of fashion.
Reading the words to our Opening Odes, it is
possible to see a similarity between each of these,
and church hymns; that is because they are, in fact,
derived from Hymnals used in churches. It may
also explain why they were less popular over time,
as non-religious music became widely available
(think of the explosion in music and the technology
to record and broadcast music in the first decades
after 1900), and as Masons endeavored to be less
confused by outsiders for participating in a religious
organization, rather than a fraternity with moral
principles.
After 100 years of our
Monitor’s history, the
Opening Odes were
returned. The histories
behind the hymns
that were adapted
to Masonic use are
interesting. One of our
Closing Odes (there
are Closing Odes!
– through oversight
they were accidentally
omitted in the newly
combined Monitor and
Mnemonics of 2014,
the ritual with the red
cover) was a hymn written by Sarah Flower Adams,
in 1841, called “Part in peace! Is day before us?” – a
fitting subject for Closing a Lodge. The Adams hymn
appears in several Unitarian Hymn collections.
In many ways, music was a part of life for the
Masons in Montana for 50 years. And then, for 100
years, it wasn’t. There are other instances where
music was used in Montana Masonry – hymns used
for old Funeral Services – or is still, such as in our
second degree “Staircase Lecture,” and memorably
in the third degree’s “Funeral Dirge,” but, even in
these instances, it is becoming obsolete.
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