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See also: English musical composer, the son of Robert See also: Bennett, an organist, was See also: born at Sheffield on the 13th of See also: April 1816
.
Having lost his See also: father at an early age, he was brought up at Cambridge by his grandfather, from whom he received his first musical See also: education
.
He entered the choir of See also: King's
See also: College See also: chapel in 1824
.
In 1826 he entered the Royal See also: Academy of See also: Music, and remained a pupil of that institution for the next ten years, studying pianoforte under W
.
H
.
See also: Holmes and Cipriani See also: Potter, and composition under Lucas and Dr See also: Crotch
.
It was during this See also: time that he wrote several of his most appreciated See also: works, in which may be traced influences of the contemporary See also: movement of music in See also: Germany, which country he frequently visited during the years 1836–1842
.
At one of the Rhenish musical festivals in See also: Dusseldorf he made the See also: personal acquaintance of Mendelssohn, and soon afterwards renewed it at See also: Leipzig, where the talented See also: young Englishman was welcomed by the leading musicians of the rising generation
.
At one of the celebrated Gewandhaus concerts he played his third pianoforte concerto, which was received enthusiastically
.
An enthusiastic account of the event was written by Robert Schumann, who pronounced Bennett to be the most " musikalisch " of all Englishmen, and " an See also: angel of a musician " (copying See also: Gregory's See also: pun on See also: Angli and See also: Angell)
.
But it was Mendelssohn's influence that dominated Bennett's mode of utterance
.
A See also: good example of this may be studied in Bennett's Capriccio in D minor
.
His See also: great success on the continent established his position on his return to See also: England
.
In 1834 he was elected organist of St See also: Anne's chapel (now See also: church),
See also: Wandsworth
.
In this See also: year he composed his See also: Overture to Parisina, and his Concerto in C minor, modelled on Mozart
.
An unpublished concerto in F minor, and the overture to the Naiads, impressed the See also: firm of Broadwood so favourably in 1836 that they offered the composer a year in Leipzig, where the Naiads overture was performed at a Gewandhaus concert on the 13th of See also: February 1837
.
Bennett visited Leipzig a second time in 184o–1841, when he composed his Caprice in E for pianoforte and orchestra and his overture The See also: Wood See also: Nymphs
.
He settled in See also: London, devoting himself chiefly to See also: practical teaching
.
In 1844 he married Mary Anne, daughter of Captain See also: James Wood, R.N
.
He was made musical professor at Cambridge in 1856, the year in which he was engaged as permanent conductor of the Philharmonic Society
.
This latter
See also: post he held until 1866, when he became See also: principal of the Royal Academy of Music
.
Owing to his professional duties his latter years were not fertile, and what he then wrote was scarcely equal to the productions of his youth
.
The principal charm of Bennett's compositions (not to mention his absolute mastery of the musical See also: form) consists in the tenderness of their conception, rising occasionally to sweetest lyrical intensity
.
Except the See also: opera, Bennett tried his See also: hand at almost all the different forms of vocal and instrumental writing
.
As his best works in various branches of See also: art, we may mention, for pianoforte See also: solo, and with accompaniment of the orchestra, his three sketches, The Lake, The See also: Mill-stream and The Fountain, and his 3rd pianoforte concerto; for the orchestra, his
See also: Symphony in G minor, and his overture The Naiads; and for voices, his cantata The May See also: Queen, written for the See also: Leeds Festival in 1858
.
For the See also: jubilee of the Philharmonic Society he wrote the overture See also: Paradise and the See also: Peri in 1862
.
He also wrote a sacred cantata, The Woman of See also: Samaria, first per-formed at the See also: Birmingham Musical Festival in 1867
.
In 187o the university of See also: Oxford conferred upon him the honorary degree of D.C.L
.
A year later he was knighted, and in 1872 he received a public testimonial before a large See also: audience at St James's See also: Hall, the moneysubSGtjbedbeing devoted to the foundation of a scholarship
at the Royal Academy of Music
.
Shortly before his
See also: death he produced a See also: sonata called the Maid of See also: Orleans, an elaborate piece of
See also: programme-music based on Schiller's tragedy
.
He died at his See also: house in St See also: John's Wood, London, on the 15th of February 1875
.
See the
See also: Life, by his son (1908)
.
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