Deems Taylor: Selected Writings

Deems Taylor (1885-1966) was well known in America during the first half of the 20th centruy as a composer, music critic, author, and radio personality. His opera, The King's Henchmen (1927), with libretto by Edna St. Vincent Millay, was the first opera ever commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera. As intermission commentator for the Sunday broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic (1936-1943), his voice and insightful commentary, always with a sense of humor, were heard by millions. His fame was so great as a music commentator that animator Walt Disney chose him as the onscreen host for the 1940 movie classic Fantasia . Deems Taylor: Selected Writings brings into full view a forgotten important music reviewer and social commentator of the first of the first half of the twentieth century.