Hans Gram
Hans Gram (1754-1804) was a Danish composer and musician who emigrated to the United States in the early 1780s. In Boston, Massachusetts, he served as organist of the Brattle Street Church, and as a music teacher. He lived in Charlestown; and in Boston on Belknap's Lane and Common Street.
Hans Gram
- Born
- 1754 · Copenhagen.
- Died
- 1804 · Boston.
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- composer
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Hans Gram (1754-1804) was a Danish composer and musician who emigrated to the United States in the early 1780s. In Boston, Massachusetts, he served as organist of the Brattle Street Church, and as a music teacher. He lived in Charlestown; and in Boston on Belknap's Lane and Common Street.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Hans Gram. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q5650074
In this article
Works
Works
His music "was performed at the funeral of John Hancock." He died in Boston in 1804. In 1810 a "Hans Gram Musical Society" formed in Fryeburg, Maine.
• Death Song of a Cherokee Indian. 1791 • (Compositions published in Massachusetts Magazine, ca.1791) • Sacred Lines, for Thanksgiving Day • Bind Kings with Chains, an anthem for Easter Sunday • (Compiled and edited by Hans Gram, Samuel Holyoke and Oliver Holden). • Hymn to Sleep. (Gram translated lyrics from German and added his verses)
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Copenhagen.
Birth place
Boston.
Death place
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.One of his students, "born blind and but 15 years of age," played organ at the Universal Meeting House. Columbian Centinel, 05-02-1792
- 2.Columbian Centinel, 02-18-1795
- 3.Boston Directory. 1798
- 4.Boston Directory. 1800, 1803
- 5."According to a manuscript note by Oscar Sonneck at the Library of Congress." Gillian B. Anderson. "The Funeral of Samuel Cooper." New England Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Dec., 1977)
- 6."Died, in this town, after a lingering illness, Hans Gram, Esq. formerly of Copenhagen..." The Repertory (Boston), 05-08-1804
- 7."...Though he possessed a peculiar eccentricity of character, yet he had virtues to imitate, and talents to admire ... his ambitions, usefulness, and talents, became obscured -- and, as monuments erected to human honor and glory decay by the violence of storms ... he gradually mouldered away. Alas! how unstable is human knowledge and worth!" Boston Centinel, reprinted in: Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, 05-11-1804
- 8.Bray, Oliver. An Oration on Music pronounced at Fryeburg, before the Hans Gram Musical Society on their First Anniversary, October 10, 1811. Portland, 1812.
- 9.Massachusetts Register. 1813, 1816, 1817
- 10."For singing schools & societies. Thomas and Andrews, Faust's statue, no.45 Newbury-street, Boston." Salem Gazette 11-18-1794
- 11.Salem Gazette 11-18-1794
- 12.The Massachusetts Compiler "was largely influential in establishing the custom of using seven syllables in the scale (do, re, me, fa, sol, la, si) in place of the four syllables (fa, sol, la, mi)." Robert G. McCutchan. "American Church Music Composers of the Early Nineteenth Century." Church History, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Sep., 1933)
- 13.Boston Evening Gazette, reprinted in: Hallowell Gazette, 02-15-1815
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- "A Digraceful Practice." Boston Post; reprinted in: New Hampshire Gazette, 09-08-1846. Describes Gram drunk.
- Samuel Kirkland Lothrop. A history of the church in Brattle street, Boston. W. Crosby and H. P. Nichols, 1851. (Sermon #4, about Peter Thacher, describes the drama in 1790 of getting an organ).
- Frank Johnson Metcalf. American writers and compilers of sacred music. The Abingdon Press. 1925.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 20 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,307 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Hans GeforsPerson
- Hans Georg NägeliPerson
- Hans GillesbergerPerson
- Hans GmürPerson
- Hans GrimmPerson
- Hans GrischkatPerson
- Hans GrüßPerson
- Hans Hagerup FalbePerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Hans Gram?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.