Jon W. Finson
Jon W. Finson
Professor and Adjunct Professor of American Studies
- Office: 211 Hill Hall
- Email: jfinson@email.unc.edu
- Phone: 919-962-5015
Jon W. Finson (Professor and Adjunct Professor of American Studies) received a Bachelor of Music (with honors) from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1973, a Master of Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1975, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1980 with a dissertation on compositional process in the symphonic works of Robert Schumann. Since then he has taught, lectured, and published widely across the United States and Europe in many areas of nineteenth-century German music and in the history of American popular song. Most recently his research has turned to interactions between image and music in American cinema. He teaches undergraduate courses in the American Studies Curriculum as well as graduate and undergraduate courses in the Music Department.
Books
The Sound of the Image: Interactions between Music and Visual Representation in Classic American Films. Rochester: The University of Rochester Press, in progress.
Robert Schumann: The Book of Songs. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Nineteenth-Century Music: The Western Classical Tradition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2002.
The Voices That Are Gone: Themes in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994 (revised paperback edition, 1997).
Robert Schumann and the Study of Orchestral Composition: The Genesis of the First Symphony. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
Mendelssohn and Schumann: Essays on Their Music and Its Context. Ed. with R. Larry Todd. Durham: Duke University Press, 1984. Published with a subvention from the American Musicological Society.
Editions
Erste Symphonie, Op. 38. In Robert Schumann: Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke. Series I, vol. 1. Mainz: Schott, in progress.
Robert Schumann. Symphonie Nr. 4 d-moll op. 120. Fassung von 1841. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2003. Winner of a Best Music Edition Award for 2003, presented March 31, 2004 by the Association of German Music Publishers at the Frankfurt Music Exhibition.
Edward Harrigan and David Braham: Collected Songs. 2 parts. Volume 7 in Music of the United States of America. Madison, WI: A-R Editions for the American Musicological Society, 1997.
Articles
“Schumann, Anti-Semitism and the Drei Gesänge aus Lord Byron’s Hebräischen Gesängen, Op. 95.” In Robert Schumann: Persönlichkeit, Werk und Wirkung. Ed. by Helmut Loos. Leipzig: Gudrun Schröder Verlag, 2011, 126–35.
“At the Interstice between ‘Popular’ and ‘Classical’: Schumann’s Poems of Queen Mary Stuart and European Sentimentality at Midcentury.” In Rethinking Schumann. Ed. by Roe-Min Kok and Laura Tunbridge. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, 69-87.
"Sinfonien," Schumann Handbuch. Ed. Ulrich Tadday. Stuttgart: Metzler Verlag, 2006, 334-360.
"Romanzen und Balladen für eine Singstimme und Klavier, Heft I, Op. 45; Romanzen und Balladen für eine Singstimme und Klavier, Heft II, Op. 49," Robert Schumann: Interpretationen seiner Werke. Ed. Helmut Loos. Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 2006, 1: 293–98.
"Symphonie Nr. 1 B-Dur ("Frühlingssymphonie") Op. 38," Robert Schumann: Interpretationen seiner Werke. Ed. Helmut Loos. Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 2006, 1: 191-203.
"Les mélodies nationalistes de Schumann: Sechs Gedichte aus dem Liederbuch eines Malers von Reinick, op. 36," Ostinato rigore 22 (2004): 91-106.
"Between Lied and Ballade: Schumann's Op. 40 and the Tradition of Genre," Schumanniana nova: Festschrift Gerd Nauhaus zum 60.Geburtstag. Ed. Bernhard R. Appel et al. Sinzig: Studio Verlag, 2002, 250–65.
"Stephen Foster," The Oxford Companion to United States History. Ed. Paul S. Boyer, et al. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
"Die langsame Einleitung zu Schumanns Zweiter Symphonie Op. 61, und die Frage der Allusion," Robert Schumann: Philologische, analytische, sozial- und rezeptionsgeschichtliche Aspekte. Ed. Wolf Frobenius, et al. Vol. 8 in Saarbrücker Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, Neue Folge. Saarbrücken: Saarbrücker Druckerei und Verlag, 1998, 106–15.
"The Intentional Tourist: Romantic Irony in the Eichendorff Liederkreis of Robert Schumann," Schumann and His World. Ed. R. Larry Todd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994, 156–70.
"The Romantic Savage: American Indians in the Parlor," Journal of Musicological Research 13 (1993): 207–32.
"Schumann's Mature Style and the 'Album of Songs for the Young,'" Journal of Musicology 8 (1990): 228–51.
"The Reception of Gustav Mahler's Wunderhorn Lieder," Journal of Musicology 5 (1987): 91-116.
"The Sketches for the Fourth Movement of Schumann's Second Symphony, Op. 61," Journal of the American Musicological Society 39 (1986): 143–68.
"Musicology and the Rise of the Independent Orchestra," The Orchestra: Origins and Transformations. Ed. Joan Peyser. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1986, 435–53.
"Performing Practice in the Late Nineteenth Century, with Special Reference to the Music of Johannes Brahms," Musical Quarterly 70 (1984): 457–75.
"Schumann and Shakespeare," Mendelssohn and Schumann: Essays on Their Music and Its Context (see Books above), 125–36.
"Schumann, Popularity, and the Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op. 52," Musical Quarterly 69 (1983): 1-26.
"The Sketches for Robert Schumann's C-minor Symphony," Journal of Musicology 1 (1982): 395-418.
"Music and Medium: Two Versions of Manilow's ‘Could It Be Magic,'" Musical Quarterly 65 (1979): 265–80.
"The Violone in Bach's Brandenburg Concerti," Galpin Society Journal 29 (1976): 105–11.
Translations
"Preface" by Otto Biba. Requiem by Ferdinand Schubert. In Musica Sacra des 19. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 3. Altötting: Musikverlag Alfred Coppenrath, 1978, 3.
"Preface" by Otto Biba. Magnificat, D. 486, by Franz Schubert. In Musica Sacra des 19. Jahrhunderts. Vol. 1. Altötting: Musikverlag Alfred Coppenrath, 1977, 3.
Reviews
"Irving Berlin. Songs from the Melting Pot: the Formative Years, 1907-1914. By Charles Hamm," Notes 54 (1998): 119–20.
"Allen Forte. The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era, 1924-1950," Current Musicology 60/61 (1998): 104-110.
"Richard Crawford, The American Musical Landscape ," Journal of the American Musicological Society 68 (1995): 305–11.
"Robert Schumanns Weg zur Symphonie. By Akio Mayeda," Notes 50 (1994): 138–41.
"Schumann: Fantasie, Op. 17. By Nicholas Marston," Music & Letters 75 (1994): 283–4.
"Mendelssohn Studies. Ed. by R. Larry Todd," Music & Letters 75 (1994): 96–8.
"Monomotivik, Sequenz und Sonatenform im Werk Robert Schumanns. By Markus Waldura," Notes 49 (1993): 1446–7.
"Brahms Studies: Analytical and Historical Perspectives, ed. George S. Bozarth." and "Brahms and His World, ed. Walter Frisch," Journal of the Royal Musical Association 117 (1992): 152–7.
"Robert Schumann, Tagebücher," Journal of Musicology 2 (1983): 459–62.
"Music of the Nineteenth Century" in "The New Grove: A Review," Musical Quarterly 68 (1982): 245–53.
Papers
“Flaunting Boundaries: Reflexivity and Transgressive Juxtaposition in the Music of Gay Cinema and Video,” Cambridge University, May, 2007.
"Glance and Word: Of Distichs, Poets, and the Literary Source for Schumann's 'Nur ein lächelnder Blick'," National Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Los Angeles, November 2-5, 2006
"Schumann's Poems of Queen Mary Stuart and European Sentimentality at Mid Century," conference on Robert Schumann: New Paths, 1850-1856, McGill University, Montreal, September 22-24, 2006
"Schumann's 'Dresden Style,' the Sechs Gedichte, op. 90, and the Analysis of his Late Songs," Biennial Conference on Nineteenth-Century Music, Manchester, England, July 4-7, 2006
"The Late Songs of Robert Schumann: An Approach to Analysis," The Longy School of Music, Boston, MA, March 11, 2005; also a graduate seminar at The Peabody Conservatory, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, October 19, 2005
"Flaunting Boundaries: Reflexivity and Transgressive Juxtaposition in the Music of Gay Cinema and Video," keynote address to the Southeast Chapter of the American Musicological Society, Charlotte, NC, September 2004
"Symphonische Landschaft: Pastorale Untertöne bei Robert Schumann," European Music Festival, Stuttgart, September 2004
"'To Our Sincere Regret': New Documents on the Publication of Robert Schumann's D-minor Symphony," National Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Columbus, November 2002
"Between Lied and Ballade: Schumann's Op. 40 and the Tradition of Genre," Longy School of Music, Cambridge, MA, March 2002
"Schumann's Orchestration," for "Schumann Revealed," Lincoln Center Festival '99, New York, July 1999
"The Composer as Icon: Exploring the Myth of Beethoven," Chinese University of Hong Kong, April 1998
"Allusion and the Slow Introduction to Schumann's Second Symphony, Op. 61," National Meeting of the American Musicological Society, New York, November 1995
"Die langsame Einleitung zu Schumanns Zweiter Symphonie Op. 61, und die Frage der Anspielung," Musikwissenschaftliches Institut der Universität des Saarlandes, April 1995
"The Accidental Tourist: Irony in Robert Schumann's Liederkreis, Op. 39," University of California at Santa Barbara, November 1990
"Robert Schumann's Mature Style and the Album of Songs for the Young, Op. 79," University of Chicago, November l988; University of Wisconsin, April 1990
"'Don't Give de Name a Bad Place': Representations of Western European Ethnicity in Nineteenth-Century American Popular Song," Colloquium at the Newberry Library, November 1988
"The Rural, the Primitive, and the Carnivalesque in Nineteenth-Century Minstrelsy," ACM Newberry Seminar in the Humanities, Chicago, September l988
"Criticism and Practice: The Relationship Between Robert Schumann's Reviews and His First Symphony, Op. 38," Colloquium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, March 1987
"The Sketches for the Fourth Movement of Robert Schumann's Second Symphony, Op. 61," National Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Vancouver, November 1985
"Archival Recordings and the Performing Practice of Late Nineteenth-Century Musicians," Commemoration of Brahms's 150th Birthday, National Museum of American History, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., March 1983
"A New Source for Schumann's First Symphony, Op. 38," National Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Boston, November 1981
"Klimt and Mahler: Historicism and Secession in Vienna at the Turn of the Century," National Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Minneapolis, October 1978
"Recordings as Documents: Commercial Lateral-Cut Discs, 1925-29," National Meeting of the American Musicological Society, Los Angeles, November 1975
Recent Classes
Undergraduate: Fin-de-siècle Vienna, Great Works of Western Music, The Orchestra, Beethoven, American Film Music
Graduate Seminars: The Narrative in Nineteenth-Century Music, American Popular Song in the Nineteenth Century, American Film Music, Schubert's Lieder and the Social Circles of Vienna, Brahms and Viennese Culture in the Late Nineteenth Century