Four Centuries of Great Music July 27, 2025 Early American Composers

Today on Four Centuries of Great Music we are talking about and listening to the work of early “American” composers who were composing in the United States around the time of the founding of this country:   Alexander Reinagle,  Benjamin Carr, James Hewitt. Raynor Taylor


Alexander Robert Reinagle was born in Portsmouth England on April 23, 1756 into a musical family.  He began his musical studies with his father, a professional musician and continued the in Edinburgh, Scotland with Raynor Taylor.  In 1764 he met Mozart in London.   His first compositions were written for piano in Edinburgh included variations on Scottish tunes later became popular in America.  At the age of 30 he moved to the newly formed United States in 1786 and took up residency in Philadelphia.  He composed a lot of music for theater, most of which was destroyed when the Chestnut Hill theater burned down in the 1820s. He wrote a series of short works ideal for teaching of the piano, began teaching piano and publishing music in Philadelphia.  He is most famous for a series of patriotic overtures and for his 4 piano sonatas known as the Philadelphia sonatas.   Reinagle died in Baltimore on September 21, 1809.

We begin today’s episode with Alexander Reinagle’s Overture in D major marked Allegro, Andante, Allegro, Presto

Alexander Reinagle:  Overture in D major

Patrick Gallois conducting the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyvaskyla
18th Century American Overtures
Naxos

Piano Sonata #2 in E major 
In three movements marked Allegro, Adagio and Allegro
Jeanne Behrend, piano
American Music for the Piano: Louis Moreau Gottschalk and Alexander Reinagle
Global Village Music


James Hewitt was born in Dartmoor, England on June 4, 1770.  Little is known about his musical training, but records show he moved to New York City in September of 1792 and became active in the musical life of New York City conducting a theater orchestra and composing and arranging music for local ballad operas and musical events. He also gave lessons and sold musical instruments and publications in his "musical repository”.  He began participating in the musical activities of Boston as early as 1805, and moved there in 1811, pursuing the same activities as he had done in New York. For the rest of his life he traveled between the two cities.  His compositions include overtures, piano music and theater music. He died in Boston on August 2, 1827 following an failed surgical operation.  Along with his music he left a rich legacy of music in his four children who became prominent musicians: his son John Hill Hewitt was an important composer, his daughter Sophia Henrietta Emma Hewitt was a well known concert pianist, his son James Lang Hewitt, was a composer and music publisher and another son George Washington Hewitt taught and composed music.
One of his most well-known works today is The Battle of Trenton, a keyboard sonata written in 1797 and dedicated to George Washington.  This sonata contains numerous short sections with descriptive titles, such as "The Army in Motion," "Attack—Cannons—Bomb," "Flight of the Hessians," "Trumpets of Victory," and so forth, including one section using the tune "Yankee Doodle.”  The Battle of Trenton still preserved a smoldering crash and rumble reminiscent of the early works of Ludwig van Beethoven.  The piece has been arranged for band and that is what I will be playing here.  
James Hewitt:  The Battle of Trenton
United States Navy Band
American Classics for President's Day
Altissimo Records

James Hewitt also wrote a great deal of other piano music as well including a series of piano sonatas.  His Op. 5 No. 1 is a good example.  It is in 4 movements
I.  Allegro Spirito
II.  Rondo, Allegretto
III.  Allegro, moderato
IV.  Rondo con varia "Plough Boy"

Kirsten Johnson
James Hewitt: Complete Works for Piano
Centaur Records


Benjamin Carr an American composer, singer, teacher, and music publisher was born in London England on September 12, 1768.  He studied organ with Charles Wesley and composition with Samuel Arnold.  He first came to the United States to Philadelphia with a theater company in 1793 and then returning with the same theater company to New York City the next year.  He continued to live in New York City until 1797 before moving to Philadelphia.  In Philadelphia, he moved to the center of the music industry as a publisher, conductor and composer.  He is best known for his piano music, art songs and overtures.  In 1820 he was one of the principal founders of the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia,  and The New Grove Dictionary of American Music notes that he is known as the "Father of Philadelphia Music”.  He died in Philadelphia on May 24, 1831.
Let’s listen to his Federal Overture
Patrick Gallois conducting the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyvaskyla
18th Century American Overtures
Naxos


Let’s continue with Raynor Taylor.  Raynor Taylor was born in Soho, in Westminster, London, England, between August and November 1747. As a boy he sang in the choir at the Chapel Royal for many years, notably singing at the funeral of George Frideric Handel in 1759. He studied organ, singing, and music composition with Samuel Arnold in London as a teenager, who was also Benjamin Carr composition teacher.  At the age of eighteen became the organist at Chelmsford. In 1765 he was appointed the resident composer and musical director for the Sadler's Wells Theatre and the Marylebone Gardens, serving in both positions for more than 25 years.

In 1792 Taylor immigrated to the United States, partially due to the encouragement of his pupil Alexander Reinagle. He initially settled in Baltimore where he taught music and gave musical extravaganzas which came dangerously near being music hall skits.   Taylor then moved to Philadelphia in 1795.

Taylor became one of the major figures in the musical life of Philadelphia during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. He was one of the most sought after music teachers in the city and was active both as a performer and composer in the church and the theatre. He moved in the most important musical circles in Philadelphia, counting among his close friends Benjamin Carr and his former pupil Alexander Reinagle. With Benjamin Carr, he was one of the founding members of the Musical Fund Society in 1820. As a performer he was particularly admired for his organ improvisations as well as for his renditions of comic theatre songs. He died in Philadelphia on August 1, 1825.

He also is noteworthy for having the first sheet music published under US copyright, "The Kentucky Volunteer" in 1794, his friend Benjamin Carr as the publisher.

Taylor's extant instrumental works are chiefly pedagogical piano pieces. Of greater interest are his church anthems, glees and particularly the theatrical songs which show a gift for setting comic texts. His one complete extant American theatrical score, The Aethiop, based on William Dimond's oriental drama The Aethiop, or Child of the Desert, has vocal and instrumental parts of great vitality.   The scholar, Victor Fell Yellin, wrote about Raynor Taylor's theatrical work, "His overture to The Aethiop is perhaps the finest theatrical overture that has survived from the Federal period."

Here is a performance of Raynor Taylor opera “The Ethiop or Child of the Desert”

John Baldon & The Federal Music Society Opera Company
The Indian Princess/The Ethiop
Anthology of Recorded Music

Let’s return to the piano music of Alexander Reinagle and his piano sonata No. 1 in D Major  which is in two movements   marked Allegro on brio and Allegro
Sylvia Glickman, piano
Alexander Reinagle: Four Sonatas
Baroque Records

We will close today’s episode of Four Centuries of Great Music featuring the work of early “American” composers who were composing in the United States around the time of the founding of this country with James Hewitt”s Piano Sonata Op. 5 No. 3 which is in two movements  marked Allegro and Rondo Malbrouk

Kirsten Johnson
James Hewitt: Complete Works for Piano
Centaur Records