Benjamin Carr was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 composer, singer, teacher, and music publisher. Born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, he studied organ with Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley

Charles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...

 and composition with Samuel Arnold

Samuel Arnold (composer)

Samuel Arnold was an English composer and organist.Arnold was born in London , and began writing music for the theatre in about 1764. A few years later he became director of music at the Marylebone Gardens, for which much of his popular music was written...

. In 1793 he traveled to Philadelphia with a stage company, and a year later went with the same company to New York, where he stayed until 1797. Later that year he moved to Philadelphia, where he became a prominent member of the city’s musical life. He was "decidedly the most important and prolific music publisher in America during the 1790s (as well as one of its most distinguished composers), conducting, in addition to his Philadelphia business, a New York branch from 1794 to 1797, when it was acquired by James Hewitt

James Hewitt

James Hewitt is a former British household cavalry officer in the British Army. He had an affair with Diana, Princess of Wales for five years, receiving extensive media coverage after revealing details of the affair.-Early life:...

" (Wolfe, 1980, p. 43).

He was well-known as a teacher of keyboard and singing, and he served as organist and choirmaster at St Augustine's Catholic Church (1801–31) and at St Peter's Episcopal Church (1816–31). In 1820 he was one of the principal founders of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia, and he is known as the "Father of Philadelphia Music" (Smith, 1986, p. 360). Mrs. French, who had achieved a degree of fame as a singer, was one of his students.

Carr's best known orchestral work was the Federal Overture (1794), composed for theatrical audiences. He published many of his own art songs, and was perhaps the first American composer to set a Shakespeare text to music, and his setting of Scott's Hymn to the Virgin (1810) is generally considered one of the finest early American songs.

His piano music includes shorter sonatas, rondos and variation forms; much of it was written for pedagogical purposes, although a few works are more technically advanced. He also wrote several important pedagogical works, including the Lessons and Exercises in Vocal Music (c.1811) and The Analytical Instructor for the Piano Forte (1826).

Benjamin Carr was one of the founding members of The Musical Fund Society

The Musical Fund Society

The Musical Fund Society is one of the oldest musical societies in the United States founded in February 1820 by Benjamin Carr, Raynor Taylor, George Schetky and Benjamin Cross, and the painter Thomas Sully...

Compositions

printed works published in Philadelphia unless otherwise stated

Works for the stage

• Philander and Silvia, or Love Crown'd at Last (pastoral opera), London, Sadler's Wells, 16 Oct 1792
• The Caledonian Frolic (ballet), Philadelphia, New, 26 Feb 1794
• Irish Lili (ballet), Philadelphia, New, 9 July 1794
• Macbeth (incidental music), New York, 14 Jan 1795
• Poor Jack (ballet), New York, 7 April 1795
• The Archers (opera, W. Dunlap), New York, John Street, 18 April 1796

Arrangements of English operas with additional music by Carr

• S. Arnold: The Children in the Wood, Philadelphia, 24 Nov 1794
• C. Dibdin: The Deserter, New York, 19 May 1795
• Linn: Bourneville Castle, New York, 16 Jan 1797 [music by Arne]
• Holcroft: The Spanish Barber, 1800
• Misc. opera arias and incidental music

Songs and misc. vocal works

• Four Ballads (W. Shakespeare, J.E. Harwood) (1794)
• Three Ballads, op.2 (1799)
• Six Ballads from … The Lady of the Lake (W. Scott), op.7 (1810)
• Lessons and Exercises in Vocal Music, op.8 (Baltimore, ?1811)
• Four Ballads from … Rokeby (Scott), op.10 (Baltimore, 1813)
• The History of England, op.11 (Baltimore, ?1814)
• Musical Bagatelles, op.13 (c1820)
• Six Canzonets, op.14 (1824)
• numerous single songs

Instrumental works

• Federal Overture, piano (1794)
• Six sonatas, piano (1796)
• Dead March and Monody for General Washington, piano and vocal score (Baltimore, 1799/1800)
• Three divertimentos, in Musical Journal for the Piano Forte, i (1800)
• Voluntary, organ (?1801)
• The Siege of Tripoli: Historical Naval Sonata, piano, op.4 (1804)
• Applicazione adolcita, piano, op.6 (1809)
• Six Progressive Sonatinas, piano, violin/flute ad lib, op.9 (Baltimore, ?1812)
• The Analytical Instructor, piano, op.15 (1826)
• further single works, including marches, waltzes, variations, etc.

Collections and editions

• Musical Journal for the Piano Forte (1800–04) [piano music and songs]
• Masses, Vespers, Litanies, Hymns, Psalms, Anthems & Motets (1805)
• Carr's Musical Miscellany
• Occasional Numbers (1812–25) [pf music and songs]
• A Collection of Chants and Tunes for the Episcopal Churches of Philadelphia (1816)
• The Chorister (1820)
• Lyricks (1825)
• Le clavecin (1825)
• Sacred Airs, in Six Numbers (1830)

External links

• Penn Library Keffer Collection of Sheet Music University of Pennsylvania article about Benjamin Carr