Sidney Finkelstein
Sidney Finkelstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sidney Walter Finkelstein July 4, 1909 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | January 14, 1974 (aged 64) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | cultural critic, author |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | City College of New York, New York University |
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
| Genre | Music |
| Subject | Jazz |
| Years active | 1930s-1973 |
| Notable works | Jazz: A People's Music (1948), How Music Expresses Ideas (1952) |
| Website | |
| scua | |
Sidney Finkelstein (1909–1974) was an American cultural critic with wide-ranging interests in literature, music and fine arts, which he analyzed from a Marxist perspective. His area of particular expertise was popular music: its history, and the relationship between music and society. His best-known books include Jazz: A People's Music (1948), How Music Expresses Ideas (1952), and Composer and Nation (1960). Along with Charles Seeger (father of Pete Seeger), 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.