Prague for a year with Dreyschock, and then to Liszt at
Weimar. This was in 1851, or thereabouts, and here he remained some
time. Returning to America in 1854 he removed to New York, and took
the commanding position which he has almost ever since occupied as
teacher and as concert pianist. While there are traces of American
training in the musical compositions of Dr. Mason, these traces are
very few, the general character of his work being distinctly German.
His musical talent was strong upon the harmonic side, but upon the
melodic side his imagination was not so free. He has produced several
volumes of compositions, probably about one hundred in all, almost
every one being elegantly written and well made, and many of them of a
classical elegance of style. His reputation as a composer has suffered
from his limiting his work always to the field of the salon, and
especially to the piano. I believe he has never composed an original
song, although he has arranged several which have been very useful
indeed. It is as a composer for the piano that we have to speak of him.

The most sensational of the Mason pieces is his famous "Silver Spring,"
which was composed shortly after the late Scandinavian pianist,
Haberbier, had visited Weimar and had played many brilliant effects of
running work upon the piano, in which the hands were used
"inter-locking," as it is called; that is, the left hand taking now and
then one or two notes of the run. This method of dividing up a run has
the effect of imparting a certain amount of arm element to the touch,
whereby the tone becomes considerably heavier and more brilliant. It
was thought at Weimar at that time that piano playing would very likely
take this direction in future, and that the day of running work in the
fingers of one hand alone had practically passed. Accordingly, Mason
experimented in these new effects which Haberbier had suggested, and
worked out this piece, "The Silver Spring." As he told me, he first
had to find out an accompaniment figure which pleased him, and then to
discover in which chords it would go most easily, because the location
of the black keys with reference to the white plays a very important
part when the hand has to fall in its place in rapid motion. When he
had ascertained these points, he then had to consider what key would
afford the greatest number of chords of this character, and so at last
he came to the key of A and the chords he has in "The