Sonata

By Daniel G. Mason

Item Number: RW.RFE-65

Daniel Gregory Mason (1873-1953) was the grandson of the music publisher and educator Lowell Mason (1792-1872) and the son of the piano and reed organ manufacturer Henry Mason (1831-1890), who founded the firm of Mason & Hamlin in 1854. Daniel Gregory Mason studied with John Knowles Paine at Harvard University (1891-5), and later with George Chadwick and with Vincent d'Indy in Paris, who became a strong influence on his music. Tchaikovsky was another strong influence: he approved of his melodies and the element of emotionalism in his music. He was a composer, musicologist and educator who started what is now called music appreciation. He described himself as a 'musical humanist' and was a member of the ultra conservative school known as the 'Boston classicists' who rejected programmatic music, Impressionists and considered many American composers as 'polyglot parrots.' Mason was appointed a lecturer at Columbia University in 1905, was appointed assistant professor in 1910, was named MacDowell Professor in 1929, served as head of Columbia's music department from 1929-1940 and retired in 1942.