Deems Taylor — Key Ideas to Explore

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In Category - Composers

Authors: Howard, John Tasker, 1890-1964 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2023 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Composers -- United States -- Biography; Taylor, Deems, 1885-1966 Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 13,733

Reading time 60 min

Text sections 16

The catalog record for Deems Taylor — Key Ideas to Explore provides practical reading context through 13,733 words, 1 hr estimated reading time, and 16 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 20.8 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Composers -- United States -- Biography,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #70244

This editorial note examines how John Tasker Howard's 1927 biography of composer Deems Taylor uses its opening, middle, and later excerpts to guide a first reading, focusing on the author's rhetorical strategy of proving and disproving stereotypes, the detailed analysis of Taylor's works like Jurgen, and the interplay between biography and musical criticism.

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Text length15 pts
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File: pg70244

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e in composition, instrumentation, and other subjects, designed to prepare one for the career of composer. His sole researches along these lines were self-made. As a composer he is self-instructed, and it is the opinion of reliable critics that he made an extremely good job of it. His studies in musical history were sufficiently profound to equip him to give a series of lectures on this subject in 1919 in Denver, Colo.

It was at this time that he formed a close friendship with Percy Rector Stephens, the New York vocal instructor and then conductor of the Schumann Club. Stephens had confidence in the Taylor talent and lost no opportunity to promote the young man’s progress. The purpose of the Schumann Club, it will be recalled, was to deliver programs for women’s vocal ensemble that would follow as closely as possible the canons dictating the structure of artist recital programs. To achieve this laudable enterprise it was necessary to adapt the music and render translated texts of an entire library for the club. Mr. Taylor undertook the task with enthusiasm and the product of his labors was among his first essays in musical-literary effort to court serious critical attention.

The prize contest for composers, of which we have so many now-a-days and which are so frequently condemned for their failures to produce a National school of outstanding creative genius, seems, nevertheless to find its associations in the biographies of the current class of American composers. It was through this means, by winning the first place in the National Federation of Music Clubs competition in 1913, with his orchestral composition _The Siren Song_, that Taylor attracted his first recognition as a serious writer in the larger forms. Within three years he had added to his output, in addition to numerous songs with piano accompaniment, _Two Studies in Rhythm_ for piano (Op. 5, Nos. 1 and 2); _The Chambered Nautilus_ (Op. 7), a cantata for mixed chorus and orchestra based on the poem of Oliver Wendell Holmes; _The Highwayman_ (Op. 8), a cantata for women’s voices and orchestra, to the poem of Alfred Noyes; and a song cycle, _The City of Joy_, to the poem by Charles Hanson Towne. In _The Highwayman_, written especially for the MacDowell Festival in Peterboro, N. H., in 1914, Taylor gave his first evidence of that trait that was subsequently accepted as one of his native characteristics, namely his ability to sense public taste. No student of his record can escape consideration of this conspicuous talent in his craft. _The Highwayman_ soon found its place among the most popular works in this form in our current music literature and the name and fame of Deems Taylor grew accordingly. He had raised himself immeasurably from the file of dilettante composers, and discriminating critics began to look to him for works of lasting importance.

In this respect they were not to be disappointed. Early in 1917 there came from his pen an orchestral work, which, through sheer interest and merit forced itself into the repertoires of all of our leading symphony organizations: _Through the Looking Glass_. The first performance in New York proved an event of signal interest in the news of the day and critics agreed that Taylor had fully lived up to the promise which his earlier efforts had offered. Within a few months orchestras in Paris and London had adopted the work, and thus he won his first recognition among the few American writers who have had performances abroad. The personal letters which Taylor received from several of the greatest contemporary musicians both here and abroad, on the strength of this music, may not be published; they show, however, that he was now accepted by them as one of them. His standing was secure.

Interrupting the output of works in the larger forms the record shows numerous songs, many of which were taken up with avidity by our leading concert singers and which will be discussed later from a different angle.

_The Portrait of a Lady_, a rhapsody for strings, wind and the piano, was the next of his more ambitious essays to win popular approval.

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John Tasker Howard opens his study of Deems Taylor with a bold rhetorical gambit: a series of claims about what Taylor has “proved” and “disproved” for American composers. Rather than beginning with biographical facts, Howard immediately positions Taylor as a figure who shattered stereotypes—that composers must be impractical, effeminate, or neglected. This opening establishes a thesis-driven structure that shapes the entire work.

The excerpts reveal a book that moves from this broad argument to detailed musical analysis, particularly of Taylor’s orchestral works Jurgen and The King’s Henchman. Howard includes Taylor’s own program notes, offering a rare glimpse into the composer’s intentions. The later sections, however, are not included in the excerpts, leaving the reader to wonder how Howard concludes his argument.

A Thesis-Driven Opening

The first chapter of Howard’s study is less a conventional biography than a manifesto. He writes that Taylor “has proved that well-directed musical talent, plus those qualities generally prescribed by exploiters of success-methods, will find its way to fame.” The repetition of “He has proved” creates a rhythmic insistence, and the list culminates in what Taylor “disproved”: the image of composers as “æsthetic, pale-skinned, long-haired and rather effeminate individuals.” This opening is not neutral; it is a deliberate argument about the viability of a composing career in America.

For a first-time reader, this framing is crucial. Howard is not merely chronicling a life but making a case for Taylor’s significance as a cultural pioneer. The opening sets expectations that the book will be as much about the state of American music as about Taylor himself.

Musical Analysis and the Composer’s Voice

In the middle sections, Howard shifts to close analysis of Taylor’s scores. He describes The King’s Henchman with phrases like “the music radiates moonlight and romance” and provides musical notation for key themes. More revealing is his treatment of Jurgen, where he quotes Taylor’s own extensive program note. Taylor explains that the work is “concerned much more with the man Jurgen than with his deeds,” and he identifies four themes representing Jurgen, Koshchei, Mother Sereda, and a love theme.

By including the composer’s words, Howard allows Taylor to speak for himself, giving the reader direct access to his creative thinking. This technique enriches the biography with primary source material, though the excerpts do not show whether Howard offers his own critical evaluation of the music.

Reception and Critical Context

Howard does not shy away from the mixed reception of Taylor’s works. He notes that Jurgen’s 1925 performance “was met with mixed emotions on the part of the press reviewers,” and he quotes two critics: Mr. Chotzinoff, who was “laudatory with reservations,” and Mr. Henderson, who felt the score was “too long.” Henderson’s review is quoted at length, praising the score’s “splendid verve” and “brilliant thematic conception” while suggesting it might be better suited to private reading than public performance.

This inclusion of contemporary criticism grounds the biography in its historical moment. It shows that Howard is not simply a hagiographer; he acknowledges that Taylor’s work provoked debate. For the reader, these excerpts provide a sense of how Taylor was received in his own time, though the full extent of Howard’s analysis of that reception is not available.

What the Excerpts Leave Unanswered

The excerpts break off before the later chapters, so the reader cannot know how Howard concludes his study. Does he return to the opening thesis about Taylor’s proving and disproving? Does he offer a final assessment of Taylor’s legacy? The absence of the ending is a limitation, but it also invites speculation. Based on the structure so far, it is likely that Howard circles back to his initial claims, perhaps arguing that Taylor’s career exemplifies the possibilities for American composers.

Additionally, the excerpts include only brief mentions of Taylor’s personal life—he is described as “a mild-mannered person, of medium height.” The biography may contain more personal details, but the excerpts focus on professional achievement and musical analysis. Readers should be aware that the full book likely balances these elements.

Howard’s study is best approached as a document of its era: a 1927 portrait that combines advocacy, musical criticism, and biography. The excerpts show a writer who is confident in his subject’s importance and willing to let the composer’s own words and the reactions of critics shape the narrative. For a first reading, pay attention to how Howard’s opening claims color the subsequent analysis, and consider what the missing later sections might add to the portrait of Taylor as a pathbreaker in American music.

Reading Deems Taylor, I kept noticing how that old biography built its case slowly, turning stereotypes over like stones in a quiet creek. It gave me the same calm ache I got from the Life of Mozart — Key Ideas to Explore, where judgment and tenderness tangle so gently. I found myself re-reading a single passage on Jurgen, just to sit with the feeling a while longer.