Johnson, A(rtemas) N(ixon)
Johnson, A(rtemas) N(ixon)
Johnson, A(rtemas) N(ixon), American organist, music educator, and composer; b. Middlebury, Vt., June 22, 1817; d. New Milford, Conn., Jan. 1, 1892. He studied with George Webb and Lowell Mason in Boston and later received instruction in theory from Schnyder von Wartensee in Frankfurt am Main (1842-43). He was active as a teacher in Boston for the Musical Education Soc. (1837-39), in the public schools (1839-c. 1855), and at the Academy of Music (1840-49). He was also organist and later director of music at the Park Street Church (1840-58), and likewise engaged in editorial and publishing affairs. He adopted his own “Johnson’s System” (as opposed to Mason’s “Pestalozzian” system) for vocal instruction in 1849, declaring that the student should learn his art by doing. He later produced the first formal choral method as the Chorus Choir Instruction Book (1877). At the close of the Civil War, he organized various music schools and conservatories from N.Y. to Ind. He wrote 2 cantatas, 67 anthems and similar pieces, 279 hymn tunes, and 26 Sabbath school and gospel songs. He publ. 11 vols, of sacred music, 10 collections of choral music, 3 books of keyboard pieces, and 6 theory books.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire