Finney, Theodore M(itchell)

views updated

Finney, Theodore M(itchell)

Finney, Theodore M(itchell), American music educator, brother of Ross Lee Finney; b. Fayette, Iowa, March 14, 1902; d. Pittsburgh, May 19, 1978. He studied with Donald Ferguson at the Univ. of Minn. (B.A., 1924), at the American Cons, in Fontainbleau (1926), at the Stern Cons, and the Univ. of Berlin (1927–28), and at the Univ. of Pittsburgh (Litt.M., 1938). After serving as a violist in the Minneapolis Sym. Orch. (1923–25), he was an asst. prof, of music at Carleton Coll. (1925–32) and a lecturer at the Smith Coll. Summer School (1930–32); subsequently he was a prof, and chairman of the music dept. at the Univ. of Pittsburgh (1936–68).

Writings

A History of Music (N.Y., 1935; 2nd ed., rev, 1947); Hearing Music: A Guide to Music (N.Y., 1941); We Have Made Music (Pittsburgh, 1955); A Union Catalogue of Music and Books on Music Printed before 1801 in Pittsburgh Libraries (Pittsburgh, 1959; 2nd ed., 1963; suppl., 1964).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire