Henry Theophilus Finck Explained

Henry Theophilus Finck
Birth Name:	Henry Gottlob Finck
Birth Date:	22 September 1854
Birth Place:	Bethel, Missouri
Death Place:	Rumford, Maine
Alma Mater:	Harvard University
Credits:	New York Evening Post The Nation
Signature:	Signature of Henry Theophilus Finck.png

Henry Theophilus Finck (22 September 1854 – 1 October 1926) was an American music critic and author. Among "the most prolific and influential critics of his day", he was chief classical music critic of both the New York Evening Post and The Nation from 1881 to 1924. He championed Romantic music, promoting composers such as Liszt, Wagner, Grieg and MacDowell.^[1] Along with his contemporaries Richard Aldrich, W.J. Henderson, James Huneker and Henry Edward Krehbiel, Finck is considered part of the 'Old Guard', a group of leading New York–based music critics who first established a uniquely American school of criticism.

Biography

Finck was born at Bethel, Missouri, and raised in Portland, Oregon, where he was taught piano and violoncello. He taught himself Latin and Greek so thoroughly that he was able to enter Harvard as a sophomore in 1872. At Harvard, he studied philosophy, the classics, and music. He graduated in 1876.^[1]

He attended the Bayreuth Festival in 1876, of which he wrote accounts for newspapers and magazines. The Harris fellowship from Harvard being awarded to him, he spent three years (1878–1881) in the study of physiological psychology in Berlin, Heidelberg, and Vienna.^[1]

He became musical editor of the New York Evening Post in 1881 and was on the editorial staff of the associated journal, The Nation. He was connected with them for forty years. While at the Post, he also served as the epicurean editor and reviewed all the new garden books.^[1] He taught music history at the National Conservatory of Music of America for 30 years.^[2]

Publications

• The Gastronomic Value of Odours (1886)
• Romantic Love and Personal Beauty (New York, 1887)
• Chopin and Other Musical Essays (1889)
• Pacific Coast Scenic Tour (1890)
• Spain and Morocco (1891)
• Wagner and his Works (1893)
• Paderewski and his Art (1895)
• Lotus Time in Japan (1895)
• Primitive Love and Love Stories^[3] (1899)
• Pictorial Wagner (1899)
• Anton Seidl (1899)
• Songs and Song Writers^[4] (1900, 1921)
• Edvard Grieg (1905)
• Grieg and his Music (1909)
• Success in Music and How it is Won (1909)
• Massenet and his Opera (1910)
• Food and Flavor: A Gastronomic Guide to Health and Good Living^[5] (1913)
• Thirty Years of the National Conservatory of Music of America (1916)
• Richard Strauss: the Man and his Works (1917)
• Gardening With Brains: Fifty Years' Experience of a Horticultural Epicure^[6] (1922)
• Musical Laughs: Jokes, Tittle-tattle and Anecdotes Mostly Humorous About Musical Celebrities Gathered during his Forty-Three Years as Critic of the New York Evening Post (1924)
• My Adventures in the Golden Age of Music (1926)

Sources

• Encyclopedia: Engeman . Richard . 2020 . . Henry Theophilus Finck . . Portland . subscription .
• Book: Horowtiz, Joseph . Joseph Horowitz . 2012 . Moral Fire: Musical Portraits from America's Fin de Siècle . . Berkeley . 978-0-520-26744-2 .
• Mueser . Barbara . 1975 . The Criticism of New Music in New York: 1919–1929 . University of New York . New York . Ph.D. . 19804587 .
• Encyclopedia: Yellin . Victor Fell . 2000 . 1999 . . Finck, Henry Theophilus . . Oxford . 10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1800391 . 978-0-19-860669-7 . subscription .
• Finck, Henry Theophilus.
• Finck, Henry Theophilus. 1900.

Notes and References

1. Encyclopedia: Lowens . Margery Morgan . 2001 . . Finck, Henry T(heophilus) . . Oxford . 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.09659 . 978-1-56159-263-0 . subscription .
2. Book: Finck, Henry T. . Thirty Years of the National Conservatory of Music of America . 1916 . 26709151.
3. Web site: Primitive love and love-stories.. Henry Theophilus. Finck. 28 December 1899. New York : C. Scribner's Sons. Internet Archive.
4. Web site: Songs and song writers. Henry Theophilus. Finck. 28 December 1921. New York : C. Scribner. Internet Archive.
5. Web site: Food and flavor, a gastronomic guide to health and good living. Henry Theophilus. Finck. 28 December 1913. New York, The Century Co.. Internet Archive.
6. Web site: Gardening with brains; fifty years' experiences of a horticultural epicure. Henry Theophilus. Finck. 28 December 1922. [New York] : Harper and brothers. Internet Archive.