Benjamin Carr

Born in London, he was the son of Joseph Carr and older brother of Thomas Carr. He was also the nephew of his namesake Benjamin Carr (1731–80), who ran an instrument-making and repair shop in London for over 20 years. He studied organ with Charles Wesley and composition with Samuel Arnold. 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. • Illustration — Carr published the very first sheet music covered by copyright under the new United States Constitution, The Kentucky Volunteer. 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". In 1794 he began publishing "a new song every Monday". The initial offering, The Kentucky Volunteer, is noteworthy as the first song copyrighted under the new US Constitution. This song was composed by Carr's friend and fellow English immigrant, Raynor Taylor. This particular "each Monday" series, however, only lasted 5 weeks. Carr 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". 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 own 61 art songs in two serial anthologies, the Musical Journal for the Piano Forte (1800–04) and Carr’s Musical Miscellany in Occasional Numbers (1812–25). Also among his songs are several sets of ballads, including Six Ballads from The Lady of the Lake op.7, published in the same year (1810) as the poem by Sir Walter Scott on which they are based; the set contains the Hymn to the Virgin ("Ave Maria"), which is especially notable for its harp-like arpeggiated accompaniment. Carr’s most popular song was “The Little Sailor Boy” (1798). He was perhaps the first American composer to set a Shakespeare text to music, and his 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).