Harry Silvernale Mason

Harry Silvernale Mason was born in Gloversville, New York, on October 17, 1881, and studied at Syracuse University, graduating in 1911. He built his career in Presbyterian church music and theological education at Auburn, New York. From 1916 to 1939 he served as organist at Auburn Theological Seminary; he also taught music there and later held an appointment in fine arts and religion. His church posts included long service at Auburn's First and Second Presbyterian churches.

Mason undertook graduate work at Boston University from 1924 to 1926. He composed BEACON HILL in 1924, two years before Earl Bowman Marlatt wrote Are Ye Able to fit the melody. Later accounts connect the tune's first form with a university song or hymn competition, although the central institutional and hymnological sources do not supply contemporary documentation for every detail of that story. The original text-and-tune relationship is nevertheless well established: Marlatt and Mason were both connected with Boston University's School of Religious Education, and the words and music entered print together.

BEACON HILL became Mason's most enduring contribution to congregational song. An Auburn Seminary biographical catalogue records his middle name as Silvernale, the spelling used by hymn indexes, though an occasional later institutional source prints Silverdale. Mason died in Torrington, Connecticut, on November 15, 1964.