Carpenter studied at Harvard University under the conservative, German-influenced composer John Knowles Paine (Paine, John Knowles) but then joined his father's shipping supply firm, of which he was vice president (1909–36). In 1906 he studied music with Sir Edward Elgar (Elgar, Sir Edward). After 1936 he concentrated solely on composition. Although he was a basically conservative composer influenced by early 20th-century French music, he incorporated jazz rhythms into his Concertino for Piano and Orchestra (1917) and into his ballets Krazy Kat (1922) and Skyscrapers (1926); the last was later made into a symphonic piece. His humorous orchestral suite Adventures in a Perambulator (1914) also won considerable popularity.