Daniel Gregory Mason

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Daniel Gregory Mason circa 1915

Daniel Gregory Mason (November 20, 1873 – December 4, 1953) was an American

music critic
.

Biography

Mason was born in

New England Conservatory
in Boston.

After 1907, Mason began devoting significant time to composition, studying with

Vincent D'Indy in Paris in 1913, garnering numerous honorary doctorates and winning prizes from the Society for the Publication of American Music and the Juilliard Foundation
.

He died in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Style

Mason's compositional idiom was thoroughly

Negro spirituals) into his scores or evoking them through suggestive titles, though he was not a thorough-going nationalist.[citation needed
] He was a fastidious composer who repeatedly revised his scores (the manuscripts of which are now held at Columbia).

List of compositions

Note:This list is incomplete.

Orchestral

  • Symphony no.1 in C minor, Op. 11 (1913–14)
  • Prelude and Fugue, Op. 12, pf, orch (1914)
  • Chanticleer, festival ov. (1926)
  • Symphony no.2, in A major, Op. 30 (1928–9)
  • Suite after English Folksongs, Op. 32 (1933–4)
  • Symphony no.3 in B-flat major 'A Lincoln Symphony’, Op. 35 (1935–6)
  • Prelude and Fugue, c, Op. 37, str (1939)
  • also wrote some incidental music, transcriptions

Vocal

  • 4 Songs (M. Lord), Op. 4, 1v, pf (1906)
  • 6 Love Songs (M.L. Mason), Op. 15, 1v, pf, 1914–15, arr. S, orch (1935)
  • Russians (W. Bynner), song cycle, Op. 18, 1v, pf, 1915–17, arr. Bar, orch (1915–17)
  • Songs of the Countryside (
    A.E. Housman
    ), Op. 23, chorus, orch (1923)
  • 5 Songs of Love and Life, Op. 36, 1v, pf, (1895–1922)
  • 3 (Nautical) Songs (W. Irwin), Op. 38, 1v, pf (1941)
  • 2 Songs, Op. 41, Bar, pf (1946–7)
  • Soldiers, song cycle, Op. 42, Bar, pf (1948–9)
  • Also wrote ~50 songs without opus numbers.
  • Unaccompanied choral pieces, Opp. 25, 29

Chamber works

  • Sonata, Op. 5, vn, pf (1907–8)
  • Piano Quartet, Op. 7 (1909–11)
  • Pastorale, Op. 8, vn, cl/va, pf (1909–12)
  • 3 Pieces, Op. 13, fl, hp, str qt (1911–12)
  • Sonata, Op. 14, cl/vn, pf (1912–15)
  • Intermezzo, Op. 17, str qt (1916)
  • String Quartet on Negro Themes, Op. 19 (1918–19)
  • Variations on a Theme of John Powell, str qt (1924–5)
  • Divertimento, Op. 26b, wind quintet (1926)
  • Fanny Blair, folksong fantasy, Op. 28, str qt, (1927)
  • Serenade, Op. 31, str qt (1931)
  • Sentimental Sketches, pf trio (Op. 34)
  • Variations on a Quiet Theme, Op. 40, str qt (1939)

Keyboard works

  • Birthday Waltzes, Op. 1, pf (1894)
  • Variations on Yankee Doodle, Op. 6, pf (c1911)
  • Passacaglia and Fugue, Op. 10, org (1912)
  • 2 Choral Preludes on Lowell Mason’s Tunes, Op. 39, organ (1941), organ work written for Lowell Mason's sesquicentennial celebrations (one of which was Dort).[2]
  • other piano pieces, Opp. 2, 3, 9, 16, 21, 33

Writings

Mason was once "the most widely read author in America of books about music and composers."

Toscanini
) for rarely including American works in their programs.

Retrospective analysts of Mason's career have observed that his conservative aesthetic opinions were intertwined with "troubling" rhetoric about national, racial, and religious identity.

anti-Semitism in this country" and affirming "the loyalty and patriotism of our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith,"[9]
he had written only two months earlier:

The Oriental, especially the Jewish, infection in our music, seemingly less widespread than the German was or the French is, may prove even more virulent... The insidiousness of the Jewish

Hitlerian nationalism." Mason and other "Yankee" composers such as Charles Ives saw their duty as the preservation and redemption of the American spirit, and saw their enemy in composers such as George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, Ernest Bloch (all of Jewish heritage), Igor Stravinsky, and jazz music generally.[4]

List of books

  • From Grieg to Brahms (New York, 1902, 2/1927/R)
  • Beethoven and his Forerunners (New York, 1904, 2/1930)
  • The Romantic Composers (New York, 1906)
  • with T.W. Surette : The Appreciation of Music (New York, 1907)
  • The Orchestral Instruments (New York, 1908)
  • A Child's Guide to Music (New York, 1909)
  • A Neglected Sense in Piano Playing (New York, 1912)
  • The Dance (New York, 1916)
  • with M.L. Mason : Great Modern Composers (New York, 1916, 2/1968)
  • Contemporary Composers (New York, 1918)
  • Short Studies of Great Masterpieces (New York, 1918)
  • Music as a Humanity (New York, 1920)
  • From Song to Symphony (New York, 1924)
  • Artistic Ideals (New York, 1925)
  • The Chamber Music of Brahms (New York, 1928/R)
  • The Dilemma of American Music and Other Essays (New York, 1928)
  • Tune in, America (New York, 1928/R)
  • Music in my Time, and Other Reminiscences (New York, 1938)
  • The Quartets of Beethoven (New York, 1947)

Sources
  1. ^ Mason, D. G. "Arthur Whiting". The Musical Quarterly. 23 (January 1937), pp. 26-36.
  2. ^ "Honor Lowell Mason with Three Services" (PDF). The Diapason. 33 (3): 1. February 1, 1942.
  3. doi:10.1093/mq/XXXIV.1.46
    .
  4. ^ a b Moore, McDonald Smith (1985). Yankee Blues: Musical Culture and American Identity. Indiana University Press.
  5. ^ Kushner, David Z. (June–July 1989). "Ernest Bloch, Daniel Gregory Mason And The Jewish Question". The American Music Teacher. 38 (6): 16–19.
  6. ^ Dack Kushner, Leslie C. (1988). The prose works of Daniel Gregory Mason (Thesis). University of Florida. p. 245-261.
  7. ^ Perlove, Nina (May 16, 2003). Ethereal Fluidity: The Late Flute Works of Aaron Copland (Thesis). University of Cincinnati. p. 41.
  8. ^ Shapiro, Michael J. (2006). Deforming American Political Thought: Ethnicity, Facticity, and Genre. University Press of Kentucky. p. 137.
  9. ^ "Issue a Protest on Anti-Semitism: A Notable Document Signed by Distinguished Americans, Led by President, Put on Record". The New York Times. January 17, 1921. p. 10.
  10. ^ Mason, Daniel Gregory (November 1920). "Is American Music Growing Up? Our Emancipation from Alien Influences". Arts & Decoration: 40B.

Further reading

External links

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