The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Finck, Henry Theophilus

FINCK, fink, Henry Theophilus, American musical critic: b. Bethel, Mo., 22 Sept. 1854. He was graduated at Harvard in 1876; and from 1878 to 1881 studied physiological psychology at Berlin, Heidelberg and Vienna. In 1876 he attended the Bayreuth Festival, of which he wrote accounts for newspapers and magazines. In 1881 he became musical critic of the New York Evening Post, and entered upon his long propaganda for Wagner's music, becoming the leading American advocate of that composer's theories. His works include &lsquo;Wagner and His Works&rsquo;; &lsquo;Romantic Love and Personal Beauty&rsquo; (1887); &lsquo;The Pacific Coast Scenic Tour&rsquo; (1890); &lsquo;Chopin, and Other Musical Essays&rsquo;; &lsquo;Lotos Time in Japan&rsquo; (1895); &lsquo;Spain and Morocco&rsquo;; &lsquo;Paderewski&rsquo;; &lsquo;Primitive Love&rsquo; (1899); &lsquo;Songs and Song Writers&rsquo; (1900); &lsquo;Eduard Grieg&rsquo; (1905); &lsquo;Massenet and His Operas&rsquo; (1910); &lsquo;Henry Strauss; The Man and His Works&rsquo; (1917), etc.