John Alden Carpenter (February 28, 1876 – April 26, 1951) was an American composer. Carpenter's compositional style was considered to be mainly "mildly modernistic and impressionistic"; many of his works strive to encompass the spirit of America, including the patriotic The Home Road and several other jazz-inspired works. He was among the first classical composers to incorporate elements of jazz and ragtime in their pieces.

Biography

Carpenter was born in Park Ridge, Illinois on February 28, 1876 as a son of an American industrialist, and raised in a musical household. He was educated at Harvard University, later returning to the United States to study under Bernhard Ziehn in Chicago through 1912. possibly his best-known is Skyscrapers (1926), set in New York (it premiered at the Metropolitan Opera), but equally inspired by his native Chicago.

One of his most famous works was 1914's impressionistic orchestral suite Adventures in a Perambulator. It was recorded in stereo in 1956 by Howard Hanson and the Eastman-Rochester Orchestra for Mercury Records, which initially released it on LP; Philips later reissued the recording on CD. In 1932, Carpenter completed Song of Faith for the George Washington bicentennial. His first symphony (Symphony No. 1, in C) was premiered in Norfolk Connecticut in 1917 and revised for the 50th anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who performed it on October 24, 1940. He also wrote many piano pieces and songs, including the song cycle Gitanjali, with poems by Rabindranath Tagore.

Honors

Carpenter was the recipient of many honors during his lifetime:

  • He was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity
  • He was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor in 1921
  • He was awarded the Gold Medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1947 After his wife's death in 1931, he married Ellen Borden.

References

  • John Alden Carpenter letters to Remsen Bird at the Newberry Library
  • John Alden Carpenter Papers at the Newberry Library
  • Mina Hager Papers at the Newberry Library