Daniel Gregory Mason: Symphony No. 2 in A Major, Op. 30

It is with sincere thanks that I acknowledge JK Stevenson for allowing me the use of his two videos to present this symphony in its entirety. The sound quality is poor, but the performance is excellent.

Daniel Gregory Mason (1873-1953)

Symphony No. 2 in A Major, Op. 30

I. Allegro maestoso 0:00
II. Andante sostenuto 7:30
III. Vivace scherzando 15:29
IV. Lento, largamente 22:15

New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Bruno Walter, conductor

Daniel Gregory Mason (1873 – 1953) was an American composer and music critic. Mason was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. He came from a long line of notable American musicians, including his father Henry Mason, and his grandfather Lowell Mason. His cousin, John B. Mason, was a popular actor on the American and British stage. Daniel Mason studied under John Knowles Paine at Harvard University from 1891 to 1895, continuing his studies with George Chadwick and Percy Goetschius. He also studied with Arthur Whiting and later wrote a biographical journal article about him. In 1894 he published his Opus 1, a set of keyboard waltzes, but soon after began writing about music as his primary career. He became a lecturer at Columbia University in 1905, where he would remain until his retirement in 1942, successively being awarded the positions of assistant professor (1910), MacDowell professor (1929) and head of the music department (1929-1940). He was elected a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity, the national fraternity for men in music, in 1914 by the Fraternity's Alpha chapter at the 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.