Nathaniel Duren Gould

Nathaniel Duren Gould (Bedford, Massachusetts, 1781 – Boston, 1864) was an American singing master and compiler of tune books, a representative figure of popular music teaching in New England in the early nineteenth century. His interest in sacred and choral music makes him a useful witness to the musical life of his era.

Born into a family connected with church building, he was the son of Reuben Duren, a builder of some renown. In 1792 he was adopted by a maternal uncle in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, and in 1806 he took the surname Gould in honour of his uncle. He received his vocal training from Reuben Emerson, and in 1798 he gave his first singing lessons in Stoddard. By his own account, he taught at some 115 singing schools over roughly fifty years, although this figure comes only from his own statements. In 1804 he organised a militia band in New Ipswich and the following year directed the newly founded Middlesex Musical Society. After living in Boston and New York, he settled permanently in Boston in 1829, where he devoted himself to teaching singing and penmanship.

His most ambitious work, Church Music in America, published in Boston in 1853, is today a historiographical reference, although its digressions and inaccuracies call for a critical reading.