Daniel Gregory Mason

This small volume is a collection of essays by a major musical writer of days gone by. Now forgotten except by specialists, Mason was pretty conservative, even by the standards of his time, which was, of course before Ives was known to more than a few, before Porgy and Bess, and before the mass-influx of German musicians fleeing Nazism. Despite his conservatism, and despite what seems to be an almost quaint simplicity to American musical life back then, Mason is still well worth reading. For starters, he had more raw knowledge and stylistic sense in his little finger than 95% of those claiming to be music critics today. And just what was the dilemma? Guess you'll just have to read and find out!… (meer)