Composer and Nation: The Folk Heritage in Music

by Sidney Walter Finkelstein

Sidney Finkelstein's contribution to the understanding of music with Composer and Nation is unusual in some respects, and well worth presenting again to a new audience. Only rarely have recent music writers looked at long spans of history. With the proliferation of scholars and the ever-increasing historical detail available from their work, the task of compiling a one-volume history of music is formidable.
Well written, and intended for both the amateur as well as the musician, this volume approaches a time span of 300 years, from 1700 to the present. The presentation avoids detailed analysis of works and does not aim at complete coverage of historical detail. Instead, Finkelstein surveys major details of what is usually called the modern era from an unpretentious sociological premise, namely that musical values and the relationship of the composer to society are reflected in the musical works. It follows then that the structure and texture of the work would reflect the composer's view of society and that important musical events offer insight into contemporary social and historical currents. Finkelstein presents an outline of the era from the viewpoint of the musical sociologist. His lively writing style, in the best tradition of the amateur, and his observation post-removed from the usual musicological context make this new edition a welcome addition to musical and sociological literature.

350 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1989

About the author

Sidney Finkelstein, born in Brooklyn, New York on July 4, 1909, received his Bachelor’s degree from City College in New York in 1929 and his A.M. from Columbia University in 1932 before he became a renowned critic of music, literature, and the arts. In 1955, he earned a second master’s degree from New York University. During the 1930s he served as a book reviewer for the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and worked for the United Postal Service. In the 1940s he joined the music staff of the Herald Tribune and also served as a music reviewer for several other publications including New Masses, Masses, and Mainstream. Finkelstein became active in the Communist Party U.S.A. (CPUSA) where he served as the party’s leading musical and cultural theoretician. Finkelstein applied his interpretation of Socialist Realism in several books on arts and culture, the most famous being Jazz, a People’s Music (1948). Between 1951 and 1973 he served on the staff of Vanguard Records, a New York based record label that specialized in jazz and classical recordings. In 1957 he was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee for his Communist party affiliation. Finkelstein died in Brooklyn, New York on January 14, 1974.