[1] Carpenter was born in Park Ridge, Illinois on February 28, 1876 as a son of an American industrialist, and raised in a musical household.

[3] It was there he earned a comfortable living as vice-president of the family business, a shipping supply company, from 1909 to his retirement in 1936.

[1] Carpenter composed three ballets:[1] Krazy Kat: A Jazz Pantomime, based on the Krazy Kat comics, was premiered at the New York Town Hall on 20 January 1922, and was the first work by a concert composer to use the word 'jazz' in its title;[4] possibly his best-known is Skyscrapers (1926),[5] set in New York (it premiered at the Metropolitan Opera), but equally inspired by his native Chicago.

1, in C) was premiered in Norfolk Connecticut in 1917 and revised for the 50th anniversary of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who performed it on October 24, 1940.

In April 1932, Carpenter recorded the spoken narration in his Song of Faith with the Chicago A Cappella Choir, the Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Noble Cain, for Victor.