Carpenter, John Alden (1876-1951)

US composer. He learnt music privately and studied with John Paine while a student at Harvard University, and (briefly) with Edward Elgar in Rome, Italy, in 1906, later at Chicago with Bernhard Ziehn. Although a businessman, he composed much in a varied style. His ballet Skyscrapers (1926) features red traffic lights operated by a keyboard.

Works Ballet The Birthday of the Infanta (after Wilde, 1919), Krazy-Kat (1921), Skyscrapers (1926).

Orchestral symphonies Adventures in a Perambulator (1915) and Sea Drift (after Whitman) for orchestra; concertino for piano and orchestra, violin concerto.

Chamber string quartet (1927), piano quintet.

Vocal Song of Faith for chorus and orchestra; many songs including Gitanjali cycle (Tagore).