Joseph Deems Taylor (December 22, 1885 – July 3, 1966) was an American composer, radio commentator, music critic and author.Nat Benchley, co-editor ofThe Lost Algonquin Roundtable, referred to him as "the dean of American music."^[1] He was elected a member of theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1934.^[2]

Deems Taylor
Taylor in 1950
Born	Joseph Deems Taylor (1885-12-22)December 22, 1885 New York City, U.S.
Died	July 3, 1966(1966-07-03) (aged 80) New York City, U.S.
Resting place	Kensico Cemetery
Occupation	Music critic
Spouses	Jane Anderson ​ ​ (m. 1910;div. 1918)​ Mary Kennedy ​ ​ (m. 1921;div. 1934)​ Lucille Watson-Little ​ ​ (m. 1945;div. 1954)​
Children	Joan Kennedy Taylor

Deems Taylor was born in New York City to JoJo and Katherine Taylor.^[3] He attended Ethical Culture Elementary School, followed byNew York University.^[4]

Taylor married three times. His first wife wasJane Anderson. They were married in 1910, but divorced in 1918.^[5] In 1921, he married Mary Kennedy, who was an actress and a writer.^[6] They had a daughter,Joan Kennedy Taylor, in 1926,^[7] and divorced in 1934. He was involved romantically with sopranoColette D'Arville after his divorce.^[8] Taylor married a third and last time in 1945, to costume designer Lucille Watson-Little. They were divorced eight years later.^[9]

Taylor died on July 3, 1966, ofleukemia at the age of 80. He is interred atKensico Cemetery inValhalla, New York.^{[citation needed]}

Taylor initially planned to become anarchitect;^[10] however, despite minimal musical training he soon took to music composition. The result was a series of works for orchestra and/or voices. In 1916 he wrote thecantataThe Chambered Nautilus, followed byThrough the Looking-Glass (for orchestra) in 1918, earning him public praise and recognition. He acquired several students, including composerMary Watson Weaver.^[11]

In 1919, Taylor gave a series of lectures on music history in Denver, Colorado.^[12] In 1921 Taylor secured a job as music critic for theNew York World, a post he held when approached by theMetropolitan Opera to suggest a composer to write a new opera. He put forth his own name, and was accepted, the result beingThe King's Henchman, with thelibretto byEdna St. Vincent Millay.Peter Ibbetson followed in 1929. ThePhiladelphia Opera Company performed the world premiere of his third operaRamuntcho, an adaptation ofPierre Loti's1897 novel of the same name, at theAcademy of Music on February 10, 1942, withDorothy Sarnoff as Gracieuse and William Hess as Ramuntcho.^[13][14]

Taylor's compositions were met with great initial enthusiasm. The number of Metropolitan Opera performances forThe King’s Henchman andPeter Ibbetson is greater than any opera of any other American composer,^[15] and he had as many large-scale works published as any of his American-born contemporaries. Taylor's music is often witty, always deftly formed, well-timed, and entertaining. The basic style of even his later works is academically post-Romantic, resisting any influence of progressive trends except perhaps in orchestration. This conservatism, lacking sharp individual profile or sense of deep conviction, may help to explain the initial enthusiastic acceptance of Taylor's work but may also explain the fact that his music was virtually forgotten soon afterward.^[16]

Taylor was a promoter of classical music throughout his life. His journalism career included posts as music critic for theNew York World beginning in 1921, and editor ofMusical America from 1927 to 1929.

Taylor also worked extensively in broadcasting, as well as intermission commentator for theNew York Philharmonic. He appeared inWalt Disney's 1940 filmFantasia as the film'sMaster of Ceremonies, and was instrumental in selecting the musical pieces that were used in the film, including the then-controversialSacre du Printemps. In the long-unseen roadshow version ofFantasia, issued on DVD in 2000 and re-released on the 2010Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 Blu-ray release, all of Taylor's voice-over work was re-recorded by veteran voice artistCorey Burton. The complete film was originally 124 minutes long, due almost entirely to the fact that Taylor's commentaries were more detailed in the roadshow version. But, the original audio elements for these longer commentaries had deteriorated to the point that they could no longer be used, so Corey Burton was selected to re-record all of the dialogue for consistency. The general release version ofFantasia, running 120 minutes, is the version most audiences are familiar with. In that version, Taylor's commentaries were severely abridged (bar the introduction to Toccata and Fugue in D Minor).^[17]

That same year, he served the same role as Master of Ceremonies for the classical portion of a "Carousel of American Music", a famous concert series held inSan Francisco on September 24. The concert hadIrving Berlin,George M. Cohan,Jerome Kern,Hoagy Carmichael,WC Handy,Johnny Mercer, and many more of America's top songwriting talents performing their own compositions. (The original release was titled "Cavalcade of American Music" and includes a performance of Taylor's own work "Circus Day".) The recording was added to theNational Recording Registry in 2016.^{[citation needed]}

He provided the commentary of the technical story behind the recording of actual cannon fire andcarillon for the famous 1954Mercury Records album, byAntal Dorati and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, ofTchaikovsky's1812 Overture – still one of the most highly regarded recordings of that piece, and the best-selling classical LP of the 1950s.^{[citation needed]} Taylor also recorded commentary for other Mercury recordings:Benjamin Britten'sThe Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, the 1958 stereophonic re-make of the1812 Overture andFrederick Fennell's ground-breaking two-album "The Civil War," which featured original music played on period instruments and sound-montages, narrated by Taylor, of period weaponry and music.

In 1949, Taylor's program,Deems Taylor Concerts, was on more than 100 radio stations.^[18] He was also a frequent guest on the radio quiz programInformation Please.

Taylor's work as a broadcaster, critic, and commentator ultimately overshadowed his work as a composer.^[16] He hosted and narrated several television music series and documentaries.^{[citation needed]} In the early 1950s, he was also a repeat panelist on theNBCgame showWho Said That? and he was a repeat panelist onWhat's My Line?

Taylor was also a friend of theAlgonquin Round Table, a group of writers, actors and critics that met almost daily from 1919 to 1929 at Manhattan'sAlgonquin Hotel. He briefly datedDorothy Parker. In the 1994 filmMrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Taylor was portrayed by the actorJames LeGros.^{[citation needed]} Taylor's other personal friendships ranged from composersGeorge Gershwin,Vincent Youmans andJerome Kern to novelistsF. Scott Fitzgerald andAyn Rand.^[19]

Taylor wrote for many popular journals, includingVanity Fair and theNew Yorker. He also wrote for the daily press. In 2007, his writings were compiled into a book by James Pegolotti under the nameDeems Taylor: Selected Writings and published by Routledge. Pegolotti also wroteDeems Taylor: A Biography in 2003, an acclaimed account of the composer's life.

In 1943, Taylor published a book calledA Pictorial History of the Movies, which was, to date, one of the very few books on the history of cinema.Martin Scorsese mentions the book at the beginning ofA Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies, which was part of theCentury of Cinema series in 1995.

Taylor was the third president ofASCAP, and held the post for six years. The ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards were established in 1967 to honor his memory. The Deems Taylor Award "recognizes books, articles, broadcasts and websites on the subject of music selected for their excellence."^[20]

Other compositions

• Lucrece, Suite for Strings
• Casanova, Ballet music
• Circus Day – Eight Pictures from Memory, orchestral suite
• Processional for Chorus and Orchestra

• Pegolotti, James A (2003).Deems Taylor: A Biography. Boston: Northeastern University Press.ISBN 1-55553-587-9.
• Stevenson, Robert (2001). "Taylor, (Joseph) Deems". InStanley Sadie;John Tyrrell (eds.).The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second ed.). London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Howard, John Tasker (1927).Studies of Contemporary American Composers: Deems Taylor. J. Fischer.ISBN 978-0-266-81350-7.

• Brody, Elaine (1977). "The King's Henchman: Fifty Years Later".Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association.34 (2):319–322.
• Levy, Newman (June 6, 1925). "Versatility personified". Profiles.The New Yorker. Vol. 1, no. 16. pp. 9–10.
• Marshall, Jennifer (1979). "The American Opera Libretto in the 20th Century".Miscellanea Musicologica: Adelaide Studies in Musicology.10 (131–157).
• Mehrens, Christopher Emile (1998).The Critical and Musical Work of Deems Taylor in Light of Contemporary Cultural Patterns (PhD thesis). Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.ISBN 0-591-99576-X.
• Tawa, Nicholas E. (1994).Mainstream Music of Early Twentieth-century America: The Composers, Their Times, and Their Works. Contributions to the Study of Music and Dance. Vol. 28. Westport, CT: Greenwood.ISBN 0-313-28563-2.

• Algonquin Round Table online history
• "Jurgen – Symphonic Poem and Ballet" (composed by Deems Taylor),James Branch Cabell: Literary Life and Legacy, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries
• Deems Taylor at usopera.com