Sidney Finkelstein (1909–1974) was a writer of music who specialized in jazz and was best known for his books ''Jazz, A People's Music'' (1948) and ''How Music Expresses Ideas'' (1952). Along with

Charles Seeger Charles Louis Seeger Jr. (December 14, 1886 – February 7, 1979) was an American musicologist, composer, teacher, and folklorist. He was the father of the American folk singers Pete Seeger (1919–2014), Peggy Seeger (b. 1935), and Mike Seeger ...

(father of

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notabl ...

), Finkelstein is considered "one of two American Marxist musical theoreticians of consequence." He has also been compared to British jazz writer "Francis Newton," pseudonym for British Marxist historian

Eric Hobsbawn Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. A life-long Marxist, his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work. ...

Background

Sidney Walter Finkelstein was born on July 4, 1909, in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

. In 1929, he received a BA from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

. In 1932, he received an MA from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

. (In 1955, he received a second MA from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

Career

In the 1930s, Finkelstein was a book reviewer for the ''

Brooklyn Daily Eagle :''This article covers both the historical newspaper (1841–1955, 1960–1963), as well as an unrelated new Brooklyn Daily Eagle starting 1996 published currently'' The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''King ...

'' while also working for the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the Federal government of the Uni ...

. In the 1940s, he joined staff of the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'' as a music reviewer, while also contributing to publications including the ''

New Masses ''New Masses'' (1926–1948) was an American Marxist magazine closely associated with the Communist Party USA. It succeeded both ''The Masses'' (1912–1917) and ''The Liberator''. ''New Masses'' was later merged into '' Masses & Mainstream'' (19 ...

'' and its successor ''

Masses and Mainstream ''Masses & Mainstream'', published from 1948 to 1963, was an American Marxist monthly publication. It resulted from a merger between ''New Masses'', which ceased publication in January 1948, and ''Mainstream'', a Communist cultural quarterly estab ...

'' (where he remained until its close in 1963). In 1951, Finkelstein joined the staff of

Vanguard Records Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City. It was a primarily classical label at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but also has a catalogue of recordings by a nu ...

, a New York record label for in jazz and classical music, where he worked until 1973. Finkelstein, "a former newspaper writer turned Marxist art critic," was an active member of the

Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA, officially the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), is a communist party in the United States which was established in 1919 after a split in the Socialist Party of America following the Russian Revo ...

(CPUSA), serving as the Party's musical and cultural theoretician. He applied

Socialist Realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is ch ...

in his books.

Investigation

In 1957, the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...

(HUAC) subpoenaed Finkelstein for testimony and cited his Communist party affiliation. In its subsequent report, HUAC specifically identified him as "cultural spokesman for the Communist Party" and was a member of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Music School of New York City, which HUAC claimed was "controlled by identified Communists." The school's founder and director, Lilly Popper, refused to answer questions about Party affiliation. Mildred Roth accompanied Finkelstein as legal counsel. Finkelstein said he had been a board member 1955-1957 and had previously taught at the school. He would not disclose where else he had taught (specifically the

Jefferson School of Social Science The Jefferson School of Social Science was an adult education institution of the Communist Party USA located in New York City. The so-called "Jeff School" was launched in 1944 as a successor to the party's New York Workers School, albeit skewed more ...

). He refused to comment about affiliation with the CPUSA or on HUAC's repeated questions about "communist conspiracy." With regard to conspiracy against the Nation ic Finkelstein retorted, "The Nation might be reduced to the terrible procedure of having to jail people for crimes only if it found that they actually committed them or found that they did something criminal, not just thinking." HUAC cited the Jefferson School as a subversive according to the

Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations The United States Attorney General's List of Subversive Organizations (AGLOSO) was a list drawn up on April 3, 1947 at the request of the United States Attorney General (and later Supreme Court justice) Tom C. Clark. The list was intended to be a c ...

of 2 January 1957. Immediately following his testimony, Finkelstein's name appeared in three issues of the anti-communist newsletter ''

Counterattack A counterattack is a tactic employed in response to an attack, with the term originating in " war games". The general objective is to negate or thwart the advantage gained by the enemy during attack, while the specific objectives typically see ...

'' as a member of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Music School. In 1964, ''The Weekly Crusader'' noted the HUAC findings and commented:

...on October 2, 1920,
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
informed the conspirators that they must re-work "the culture created by the whole development of mankind..." He told these young communists that "only by re-working this culture, is it possible to build proletarian (communist) culture..." Music, of course, is misused as a part of this communist "cultural" war against mankind. In a book published by the communist publishing house,
International Publishers International Publishers is a book publishing company based in New York City, specializing in Marxism, Marxist works of economics, political science, and history. Company history Establishment International Publishers Company, Inc., was founded ...
, during 1952, and entitled ''How Music Expresses Ideas'', the author Sidney Finkelstein used the above quote by Lenin in relation to music.

Personal life and death

While friends did not know whether Finkelstein had a family of his own, two of his closest friends were

Phillip Bonosky Phillip Bonosky (March 7, 1916 – March 2, 2013) was an American novelist, journalist, and labor activist. A lifelong Communist, he wrote the coming-of-age novel '' Burning Valley'' and worked as cultural editor and Moscow correspondent for the ' ...

and

Herbert Aptheker Herbert Aptheker (July 31, 1915 – March 17, 2003) was an American Marxist historian and political activist. He wrote more than 50 books, mostly in the fields of African-American history and general U.S. history, most notably, ''American Negro ...

. In his 1922 novel ''

Babbitt Babbitt may refer to: Fiction * ''Babbitt'' (novel), a 1922 novel by Sinclair Lewis ** ''Babbitt'' (1924 film), a 1924 silent film based on the novel ** ''Babbitt'' (1934 film), a 1934 film based on the novel *Babbit, the family name of the titl ...

'',

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which wa ...

included a character named "Sidney Finkelstein" (a ladies' ready-to-wear buyer for Parcher & Stein's department store) — no relation. Sidney Finkelstein died age 64 on January 14, 1974, in Brooklyn, New York. Finkelstein had two brothers who survived him.

Works

Finkelstein wrote nearly a dozen books and scores of articles. ;Books * ''Art and Society'' (1947) * ''Jazz, A People's Music'' (1948) ** ''Jazz, A People's Music'' (1975) ** ''Jazz, A People's Music'' (2018) * ''Jazz'' (1951) * ''How Music Expresses Ideas'' (1952) ** ''How Music Expresses Ideas'' (1952? Australia) ** ''How Music Expresses Ideas'' (1952 UK) ** ''How Music Expresses Ideas'' (1970) * ''Realism in Art'' (1954) * ''

Charles White Charles or Charlie White (or occasionally Whyte) may refer to: Artists and authors * Charles White (artist) (1918–1979), African-American painter, printmaker, muralist * Charles White (writer) (1845–1922), Australian journalist and author * C ...

: Ein Künstler Amerikas'' (1955) * ''Composer and Nation: The Folk Heritage of Music'' (1960) * ''Existentialism and Alienation in American Literature'' (1965) * ''Sense and Nonsense of McLuhan'' (1968) * ''The Young Picasso'' (1969) * ''Who Needs Shakespeare?'' (1973) ;Contributions * ''James Fenimore Cooper: Short Stories from His Novels'' (1970) ;Articles * "The Folk Song is Back to Stay," ''Worker Magazine'' (6 March 1949) * "Answering Attack on Marxism – New York City," ''

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, attempts were ...

'' (14 October 1949) * "Charles White's Humanist Art," ''Masses & Mainstream'' (1953) * "How Art Began," ''Masses & Mainstream'' (1954) * "Notes on Contemporary Music," ''

Political Affairs ''Political Affairs Magazine'' was a monthly Marxist publication, originally published in print and later online only. It aimed to provide an analysis of events from a working class point of view. The magazine was a publication of the Communist ...

'' (1957)

Legacy

Finkelstein remains an ongoing expert source on jazz. In 2015, the ''New York Times'' cited him in an article on

William Dieterle William Dieterle (July 15, 1893 – December 9, 1972) was a German-born actor and film director who emigrated to the United States in 1930 to leave a worsening political situation. He worked in Hollywood primarily as a director for much of his ...

. In 2018, ''Culture Matters'' wrote an appreciation of him, which summarized by saying, "Analyses of jazz and society will therefore run aground if they fail to consult Jazz: A People’s Music." Finkelstein's analysis of

Charles White (artist) Charles Wilbert White, Jr. (April 2, 1918 – October 3, 1979) was an American artist known for his chronicling of African American related subjects in paintings, drawings, lithographs, and murals. White's lifelong commitment to chronicling the ...

has continued to receive citations up to 2020. The

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

houses Finkelstein's papers, which include correspondence with publisher Angus Cameron, artist

Rockwell Kent Rockwell Kent (June 21, 1882 – March 13, 1971) was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager. Biography Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York. Kent was of English descent. He lived much of ...

, writer

John Howard Lawson John Howard Lawson (September 25, 1894 – August 11, 1977) was an American writer, specializing in plays and screenplays. After starting with plays for theaters in New York City, he worked in Hollywood on writing for films. He was the first pres ...

, educator

Howard Selsam Howard Selsam (born Howard Brillinger Selsam; 28 June 1903 – 7 September 1970) was an American Marxist philosopher. Background Howard Brillinger Selsam was born on 28 June 1903 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His parents were John T. Selsam, a ...

, and music composer

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassi ...

References

External links

University of Massachusetts Amherst - Sidney Finkelstein Papers

Library of Congress catalog

Communism and Jazz (Side B)

Photo

Eddie Chambers
Sidney Finkelstein on Charles White {{DEFAULTSORT:Finkelstein, Sidney American music critics 20th-century American historians 1909 births 1974 deaths Writers from New York City Historians from New York (state)