Arthur Finley Nevin

Arthur Finley Nevin (April 27, 1871 – July 10, 1943) was an American composer, conductor, teacher and musicologist. Along with Charles Wakefield Cadman, Blair Fairchild, Charles Sanford Skilton, and Arthur Farwell, among others, he was one of the leading Indianist composers of the early twentieth century.

Biography Born in Edgeworth, Pennsylvania, Nevin was the younger brother of composer Ethelbert Nevin, and a cousin of George Balch Nevin and his son, Gordon, both of whom were also composers. Completing his work there, in 1893 he traveled to Europe, there receiving instruction in piano from Karl Klindworth and Ernst Jedliczka, and studying composition with Otis Boise and Engelbert Humperdinck. In 1903 and 1904, he spent the summers living with the Blackfeet tribe in Montana, using the opportunity to study their music and folklore. He soon became recognized as an expert on Indian culture, and his interest in the Blackfeet led to the composition of an opera, Poia, on the subject of their Scarface legend.

His great-grandchildren are Frances and Mark Quinlan of the band Hop Along.

Music Nevin is best known for his three-act opera Poia, based on the Blackfeet legend describing the origin of the Sun Dance. The opera was commissioned in 1903 by Walter McClintock. In June of that year, Nevin and McClintock traveled to the Blackfeet Indian Reservation where Nevin listened to "hundreds of songs, dirges, and ceremonial hymns" and transcribed the musical notes of the ones that most interested him. Nevin's other output includes a number of other dramatic works, some pieces for chorus, and some chamber music, as well as four works for orchestra.

Recordings Little of Nevin's music has been committed to disc. Donna Amato recorded his Toccatella and piano suite From Edgeworth Hills (1903) for Altarus Records.

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