Given the great gift which art in general, and music in particular, has, that is, to bring like-minded people together. Also given the aims of the Freemasons to help their fellow man and in doing so, bring a degree of unity and fellowship to the world, it's hardly surprising that many great composers, poets and other artists have been 'masons.

Quite apart from the mutual aid aspects of the society, and the membership's tendency towards social libertarianism, the sheer attraction of being in contact with other great exponents of the arts would have brought many of these powerful intellects together.

To say nothing of the pageantry and mystique of the ceremony, and the majestic solemnity of the rolled up trouser leg.