Gould, Nathaniel Duren

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Gould, Nathaniel Duren

Gould, Nathaniel Duren, American singing-school teacher and tune-book compiler; b. Bedford, Mass., Nov. 26, 1781; d. Boston, May 28, 1864. His father was the church builder Reuben Duren. After being adopted by a maternal uncle in 1792, he took the name Gould in 1806. He studied vocal music with Reuben Emerson. He organized his first singing school in Stoddard, N.H. (1798). He then formed the New Ipswich military band (1804), and was conductor of the Middlesex (Mass.) Musical Soc. (from 1805). From 1819 he lived mainly in Boston, where he was active as a teacher of vocal music and chirography. He publ. 8 anthologies for singing-school use, including National Church Harmony (1832; 4th ed., 1836). His study Church Music in America (Boston, 1853) remains a standard work in spite of its inaccuracies.

Bibliography

J. Ingalls, N. D. G. 1781-1864 (thesis, Univ. of Lowell [Mass.], 1980).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire