Daniel Gregory Mason

Daniel Gregory Mason (1873–1953) was an American composer, teacher and writer on music. Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, into a family of musicians and piano makers, he was the grandson of the hymn composer Lowell Mason and studied at Harvard and with Vincent d'Indy in Paris. He taught at Columbia University from 1905 to 1942, holding the MacDowell chair of music. His compositions, including three symphonies, were conservative and German in orientation. He was more influential as a writer: From Grieg to Brahms, The Romantic Composers (1906), Beethoven and His Forerunners and The Dilemma of American Music brought serious music criticism to a wide American readership.