author
Daniel Gregory Mason
1873–1953
An American composer, critic, and teacher from a deeply musical family, he helped shape how classical music was taught and discussed in the United States. His work joined composition, criticism, and education in a career that stretched from the late 19th century into the middle of the 20th.
5 Audiobooks
From Grieg to Brahms: Studies of Some Modern Composers and Their Art
by Daniel Gregory Mason
The Romantic Composers
by Daniel Gregory Mason
The Appreciation of Music - Vol. 1 (of 3)
by Thomas Whitney Surette, Daniel Gregory Mason
Beethoven and His Forerunners
by Daniel Gregory Mason
Contemporary Composers
by Daniel Gregory Mason
About the author
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1873, Daniel Gregory Mason came from a remarkable American musical lineage: he was the grandson of Lowell Mason, the influential music educator, and the son of Henry Mason, a founder of Mason & Hamlin. He studied at Harvard and went on to build a career not only as a composer but also as a thoughtful writer on music.
Mason became especially influential through his teaching at Columbia University, where he spent many years on the music faculty and eventually became a professor. Alongside his academic work, he wrote music criticism and books on musical style and appreciation, helping introduce generations of readers and students to concert music in an approachable way.
As a composer, he is remembered for orchestral, chamber, piano, and vocal works, including three symphonies. His career reflects a period when American concert music was defining its own identity, and he played a notable part in that story as both a creator and an interpreter of musical culture.