Introduction

Biography

Massah was the son of Ben­ja­min War­ner and An­na Lou­isa Stotz, and hus­band of Ce­les­tine Vic­tor­ia Rein­ke, grand­daugh­ter of Mo­ra­vi­an bi­shop Chris­tian Got­tlieb Huef­fel (mar­ried March 30, 1869, Beth­le­hem, Penn­syl­van­ia).

He was a Mo­ra­vi­an or­gan­ist, com­pos­er, and hym­nal ed­it­or.

In his youth, War­ner served a year in Sa­lem as ap­pren­tice to the print­ing trade, then took up the stu­dy of mu­sic, es­pe­cial­ly the pi­ano.

He spent a year in Phi­la­del­phia, then three years in Leip­zig, Ger­many, stu­dy­ing un­der Hans von Bü­low and oth­er Ger­man mas­ters.

Returning to Phi­la­del­phia, Warner took up mu­sic as a pro­fess­ion. He played the or­gan at St. Luke’s Epis­co­pal Church in Ger­man­town, and lat­er at the Wood­land Pres­by­te­ri­an Church, where he served the rest of his life.