Mason, Daniel Gregory

Eminent American musician and composer.

Composed 1935-36. First performance New York, 17 November 1937, New York Philharmonic Society, John Barbirolli conductor.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Composed 1919-20. First performance Chicago, 4 March 1921, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Frederick Stock conductor, John Powell soloist. Dedicated to John Powell. Revised 1932.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

American composer, author, teacher.

American composer, writer on music, and teacher.

Composed 1928-30. First performance Cincinnati, 7 November 1930, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner conductor. Dedicated to M.L.M. Final revision 1948.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

Composed originally as the 2nd movement of Sonata for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 14, 1912-15. First performance of this arrangement New York, 2 January 1917, New York Chamber Music Society, Carolyn Beebe conductor. Dedicated to the New York Chamber Music Society.--Cf. Fleisher Collection.

As the life of Bruno Walter is well documented in standard reference sources, a brief overview of his life should suffice.

Bruno Schlesinger was born in Berlin on Sept. 15, 1876. His early musical instruction was in the form of piano lessons. As a student at the Stern Conservatory he began to receive notice as early as 1887. By the 1890s his interest gravitated toward conducting and he made his conducting debut in 1894. He first met Gustav Mahler in Hamburg, 1895. In 1901 Walter was appointed to the Court Opera in Vienna where Mahler was the Music Director. The two developed a close relationship that lasted until the composer's death in 1911. By the turn of the century Walter dropped Schlesinger as a last name. In 1900 he conducted the world premiere of Hans Pfitzner's Der arme Heinrich, and remained a close friend of the composer and of his wife (Walter's last letter, written the day before he died, was addressed to the composer's widow, Mali Pfitzner). Sometime in this first decade Walter married Elsa Korneck. Though she lived until the early 1940s, she remains a shadowy figure, and the papers hold scant evidence of her existence (though Mahler did address two cards to her).

Walter's appointment to Vienna ended in 1913 when he became the Music Director of the Munich Opera. His departure from Munich in 1922 was cause for an outpouring of public expression. Following this tenure, Walter made guest appearances several orchestras. From 1925-1929 he was Music Director of the Berlin Städtische Opera -- a position that was not without a certain amount of friction between him and the Generalintendant Heinz Tietjen. In 1929 Walter succeeded Furtwängler as Music Director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus.

With the rise to power of the Nazi party in 1933, Bruno Walter was removed from his post at Leipzig and made Austria the center of his activities for the next few years. The Anschluss of 1938 forced Walter to emigrate to France where he became a citizen in 1940. The subsequent occupation of France led Walter to find his home in the United States, where he settled in 1941, in Beverly Hills. He obtained United States citizenship in 1945.

Despite a brief stint as Acting Music Director of the New York Philharmonic (1947-1949), Walter was engaged primarily as a guest conductor with orchestras in North America and in Europe. He became acquainted with Rudolf Bing while the latter was in charge of the Edinburgh Festival. When Bing became General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in 1950 he was able to entice Walter into leading several operatic performances, most notably a revival of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte in 1956.

Though his public appearances became less frequent during the 1950s, his recording activity assumed a major place in his life. A mild heart attack in 1957 led Walter to curtail many of his appearances. Even after his final public performances in 1960, Walter continued to record for Columbia Records, and plan for future recording projects.

Bruno Walter died in his sleep at his home in Los Angeles on February 17, 1962.

Daniel Gregory Mason was an American composer and educator.

Mason was born on November 20, 1873 in Brookline, Massachusetts into a musical family. (His grandfather was composer Lowell Mason, his uncle was pianist William Mason, and his father, Henry Mason, was a co-founder of the Mason and Hamlin piano manufacturing firm.) While attending Harvard he studied with John Knowles Paine, graduating in 1895. He continued his studies with Arthur Whiting (in piano), Percy Goetschius (in theory), and George Chadwick (in orchestration). Mason joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1905. In order to perfect his skills at composition Mason went to Paris in 1912 to study briefly with Vincent D'Indy. Mason remained on the faculty of Columbia University until his retirement in 1942, gaining the title MacDowell Professor of Music and becoming chairman of the music department.

Daniel Gregory Mason's compositional style is resolutely conservative based in the Germanic tradition, and somewhat influenced by colorist devices of the French. He was outspoken opponent of corrupting foreign influences in American music, such as music influenced by African-Americans or Jewish-American styles.

A consumate teacher, Mason is credited with being a pioneer in the field of music appreciation, publishing books such as From Grieg to Brahms (1902), The appreciation of music (1907, a textbook), A students' guide to music (1909), Music as a humanity and other essays (1921), and numerous other works.

Mason died at Greenwich, Connecticut, on December 4, 1953.

Daniel Gregory Mason (1873-1953) was born into a well-renowned musical family in Brookline, Massachusetts, and was the grandson of Lowell Mason, the musical educational pioneer (1792-1872). He was also the nephew of the concert pianist William Mason and son of Henry Mason, co-founder of the American piano company Mason and Hamlin. He was educated at Harvard University.

He was a composer chiefly of orchestral and chamber music, a pioneer of American symphonic music, with his best known works being his Clarinet Sonata (1915), String Quartet on Negro Thomas (1919), Second Symphony (1930) and Third Symphony ('Lincoln') (1937). Although he studied music in Paris, he was most influenced by the German classical and romantic tradition, and trained in European theory, composing in a conservative style modelled mainly on the early Romantic era.

He was also a well-published author and critic, contributing to the New Grove Dictionary, and also publishing works which focused on the Romantic era, especially Brahms and Beethoven. A renowned educator of classical music to the general public, he was also Professor of Music at Columbia University, New York, where he taught throughout his career between 1905 and 1942.