Ross Lee Finney

Ross Lee Finney (December 23, 1906 – February 4, 1997) was an American composer who taught for many years at the University of Michigan.

Life and career Born in Wells, Minnesota, Finney received his early training at Carleton College and the University of Minnesota and also studied with Nadia Boulanger, Edward Burlingame Hill, Alban Berg (from 1931 to 1932) and Roger Sessions (in 1935). In 1928 he spent a year at Harvard University and then joined the faculty at Smith College, where he founded the Smith College Archives and conducted the Northampton Chamber Orchestra. In 1935, his setting of poems by Archibald MacLeish won the Connecticut Valley Prize, and in 1937, his First String Quartet received a Pulitzer Scholarship Award. A Guggenheim Fellowship funded travel in Europe in 1937. During World War II, Finney served in the Office of Strategic Services, and received a Purple Heart and a Certificate of Merit. 3, 4 ) "The Nun's Priest's Tale" (for solo voices, chorus and chamber orchestra) (1965)(Commissioned by the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth College) Chamber music Eight string quartets (the 7th from 1955) Three violin sonatas (1934 in C minor number two in C published around 1953) Six piano sonatas Sonatas for viola (at least two, no. 1 published around 1937, no. 2 around 1971) Piano trio in E minor (about 1930) Piano quartet (1948) 2 Piano quintets (second written 1961) "Three Studies in Fours," for four percussionists, 48 percussion instruments (1965) (Commissioned by the U.S. Consul at Poznan) String quintet (published 1966) Quartet for oboe, violoncello, percussion and piano (1979) Song cycles "A Cycle of Songs to Poems by Archibald MacLeish" "Chamber music", to words by James Joyce "Poor Richard," to words by Benjamin Franklin "Three 17th Century Lyrics," to words by Henry Vaughan, William Shakespeare and John Milton "Three Love Songs," to words by John Donne "Still are New Worlds," to words by Johannes Kepler, William Harvey, Christopher Marlowe, John Donne, John Milton, Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle, Henry More, Mark Akenside, and Jean-Pierre Camus (1963) (Commissioned by the University Musical Society for the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Hill Auditorium. Other "Spherical Madrigals" (1947) "Christmastime Sonata" (mid-1940s) "Pilgrim Psalms" (mid-1940s) "Organ Fantasies" (5) "24 Inventions" (for piano) "Variations on a Theme by Alban Berg" (for piano)(1952)

Books 1947 - The Game of Harmony. New York: Harcourt, Brace. 1958 - Analysis and the Creative Process. Claremont, California: Scripps College. 1991 - Thinking about Music: The Collected Writings of Ross Lee Finney. Frederic Goossen, ed. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 1992 - Profile of a Lifetime: A Musical Autobiography. New York: C.F. Peters.