Samuel Adams Holyoke

Samuel Adams Holyoke was the son of Rev. Elizur Holyoke and Hannah Peabody. He was born on 15 October 1762 in Boxford, Massachusetts, in Essex County, and died on 22 February 1820, Concord, New Hampshire, in Merrimack County. He never married.

Holyoke prepared for college at Phillips Academy, Andover. He had a fine voice and composed music before graduating from Harvard College in 1789. His most famous, and personal favorite was "Arnheim", which he wrote when he was sixteen years old. During 1789, he contributed four compositions to Isaiah Thomas’s "Massachusetts Magazine", (Aug. 1789, Sept. 1789, May 1790 & Sept.1790). It is believed that Samuel Holyoke composed more than 600 compositions; many were psalm-tunes.

In 1793, Holyoke helped to found, along with Samuel Lawrence, Groton Academy, (now Lawrence Academy at Groton,) a famous preparatory school in Groton, Massachusetts, of Middlesex County. He served as the Academy's first headmaster. In 1809--1810 Holyoke served as music instructor at Phillips Academy.

After his death, his music was largely forgotten. However, his importance to American music can be summed up by a quote by the historian George Hood: "There was no man of his day that did more for the cause of music than Samuel Holyoke."

Published works

;1791:"Harmonia Americana.";1795:“The Massachusetts Compiler of Theoretical Principles,” with Oliver Holden & Hans Gram.;1800:“The Instrumental Assistant I.”;1802:“Columbian Repository of Scared Harmony.”;1804:“The Christian Harmonist.”;1807:“Instrumental Assistant II.”

References

*Sidney Perley. "The History of Boxford." 1880.
*Andrew Nichols. "Genealogy of the Holyoke Family." Hist. Colls of the Essex Institute, 1861.
*Robert J. Allison (ed). "American Eras, Development of a Nation 1783-1815." A. Manly, Inc. Book, Gale Research, 1997.
*Karl Kroeger and Harry Eskew (ed). "Samual Holyoke and Jacob Kimball: Selected Works." Music of the New American Nation, 1998.