Bennett, Sir Richard Rodney(b Broadstairs, 29 March 1936). English composer and pianist. He was educated at Leighton Park School and at the RAM, where he studied with Ferguson and, briefly, Lennox Berkeley. The son of a well-known writer of childrens books and a one-time pupil of Holst, his family background seemed set to nurture the talents of a budding musician. But such favourable circumstances cannot alone account for the fact that he started to write music almost before he could read, nor for the continued fulfilment of an early promise that enabled him to complete his third string quartet by the time he was 18 and, a year later, his first documentary film score.Gifted with an acutely sensitive ear and consumed by an insatiable musical curiosity, Bennetts self-education was predictively catholic, ranging from the early 20th-century English music he first knew as a child, to the show tunes he took down from recordings heard in his teens, to the newest of the new European composers he discovered through listening to the weekly late-night programmes broadcast from German radio stations in the years immediately following World War II. By the end of his first year as a scholarship student at the RAM he was a fully fledged European himself, spending part of his summer holidays at the Darmstadt summer courses, both before and after the award of a scholarship from the French Government enabled him to spend two years in Paris (19579) as a student of Boulez.Having by then made an extremely auspicious professional dbut as a composer of music for feature films (Interpol and A Face in the Night both date from 1956, The Safecracker, Indiscreet and The Man Inside from the years of his Paris studentship), it is the more remarkable that he was able so wholeheartedly to immerse himself in the most up-to-date of the avant-garde techniques fresh from the workshop of Boulez and others of the Darmstadt persuasion. While there remains only one work dating from this period (the unpublished Cycle II for Paul Jacobs) of which Bennett himself is justifiably proud, and although he was thereafter to set aside these European influences, the Paris years were undoubtedly formative ones. Returning to London in 1959, his career in film music continued apace (20 of his 50 or so film scores date from the following 10 years); this intense activity not only provided him with a good living, but brought an almost embarrassing acclaim for work he has always regarded as incidental to his primary job as a composer of concert music. From this point on he learnt more and more to compartmentalize his various musical talents.While Bennett could well have opted for the temptingly fashionable internationalism of the 1950s, his successful foray into avant-garde techniques was in the end to last no more than the couple of years he spent in Paris. It was nevertheless the enriching effect of this experience that enabled him to pick up the stylistic threads of his teenage Sonata for piano in a series of works in which the essentially melodic basis of the 12-note row was expanded to include ideas on harmonic proliferation learnt from Boulez. Almost a decade on Five Studies for piano show a distinctly more personal approach to serialism and to the evolution of a musical vocabulary that was to serve his expressive needs for the next twenty years or so. Composed in 1961, the one-act chamber opera, The Ledge, was followed in quick succession by The Mines of Sulphur, A Penny for a Song and Victory, all completed within a decade which also included a couple of stage pieces for children, two of his three symphonies, the Piano Concerto, Epithalamion, and 30 or more smaller but no less important vocal and instrumental works. This astonishing prolificity was sustained through the 1970s, with eight of his 17 concertos, Spells for voices and orchestra, and the important chamber music series of Commedias and Scenas all dating from this period.It was in 1981 that the keyboard ballet Noctuary set out to explore the harmonic relationships between the strictly tonal world of the Scott Joplin piece it takes as its starting point and the strictly serial one of Bennetts own music. Although this was undoubtedly a landmark piece, it was After Syrinx I that seems to have provided the spur for a more permanent loosening of harmonic controls, with the tonality of Debussys Syrinx seamlessly blended with what Bennett has called a more-or-less serial texture. This then paved the way for pieces whose harmony reflects freely-composed themes and, conversely, for chord sequences to yield corresponding melodic images. Once his newly atonal harmony had freed itself from the unspoken need to avoid pitch repetition, his neo-serial writing began to readmit previously excluded elements (such as octaves and tonal chords) and to reflect an evermore flexible use of proto-serial techniques. In line with the notion of an evolving harmony specific to each succeeding work, much of his 1980s chamber music stems from quotation, used either as an integral strand in the musical development (Noctuary, Reflections on a theme of William Walton) or as a starting point (the two pieces based on a madrigal by Monteverdi, and the five on Debussys Syrinx).No composer of his generation has done more to develop the stylistic middle ground of 20th-century music. Amiably persuasive rather than confrontational, his work attracts performers at every level whether for his virtuoso concertos, his sensitive and eminently singable vocal music, or his outstanding chamber music. As an agile if largely self-taught pianist, Bennett has always been involved with performance of one kind or another; as a student, both in London (where he gave the UK premire of Boulezs Sonata no.1 for piano) and in Paris, his ability to decipher new music could well have led to a successful career as composer/pianist in this field alone. But by 1959, winds of stylistic change were already beginning to cloud the carefully constructed certainties of the European avant-garde, and it was in any case obvious that significant choices would have to be made. Just as he had quickly discarded the sophisticated pre-compositional devices so eagerly absorbed in Paris, his piano playing adapted easily to a broader and generally more mainstream 20th-century repertory. A particular liking for ensemble playing of all kinds soon earned him a reputation as a sought-after accompanist as well as a valued collaborator in each of the several duo-partnerships he has enjoyed throughout his life whether with other pianists (beginning with Cornelius Cardew, a fellow student at the RAM in the early 1950s, with whom he gave the English premire of Boulezs Structures I) or with the succession of distinguished wind players who have in turn been the inspiration for much of his chamber music and, in several instances, his concertos.Meanwhile, a fascination with quite other kinds of music had drawn him inexorably to investigate the jazz scene of 1950s London, as if in preparation for what was to become something of a parallel outlet for a more loose-limbed style of keyboard playing and, latterly, singing. His jazz partnerships have been as various and as distinguished as his chamber music ones, although in the 1990s he developed a solo cabaret-style show with himself as singer/pianist that has enjoyed considerable success around the world. But, in composition as in performance, he has always insisted on a clear separation between these two fields of endeavour and, the extraordinary range of his film music apart, his concert music yields little evidence of stylistic seepage (beyond the obvious instance of the purposefully crossover Concerto for Stan Getz).Bennett is a fine if sometimes reluctant teacher who, following a spell at the RAM (19635), determined not to accept any further long-term commitment; he is stimulated by summer schools and enjoys short-term residencies, particularly if they also involve coaching performers, like the one at Peabody Institute, Baltimore (197071). He was invited to accept the international chair of composition at the RAM from 1994 to 1997, an appointment that was immediately renewed for a further three years. He was a member of the general council of the Performing Rights Society (19756) and was elected vice-president of the RCM in 1983; he received the Arnold Bax Society Prize in 1964 and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Award for composer of the year 1965; film music honours include a BAFTA Award for Murder on the Orient Express (1975) as well as an Ivor Novello Award and an Academy Award nomination (both 1976) for the same score. He was made a CBE in 1977 and knighted in 1999.WORKSWRITINGSBIBLIOGRAPHYSUSAN BRADSHAWBennett, Sir Richard RodneyWORKSstageThe Ledge (1, A. Mitchell), 1961; London, Sadlers Wells, 12 Sept 1961 (Croydon, 1975)

The Midnight Thief (childrens operetta), 1963

Jazz Calendar (ballet), chbr ens, 19634

The Mines of Sulphur (3, B. Cross), 1963; London, Sadlers Wells, 24 Feb 1965, vs (London, 1965)

A Penny for a Song (2, C. Graham, after J. Whiting), 1966; London, Sadlers Wells, 31 Oct 1967, vs (London, 1967)

All the Kings Men (childrens op, 1, Cross), 1968; Coventry, Technical College, 28 March 1969 (London, 1969)

Victory (3, Cross, after J. Conrad), 19689; London, CG, 13 April 1970, vs (London, 1970)

Isadora (ballet, 2, choreog. K. MacMillan), 1980; London, CG, 30 April 1981

Noctuary (ballet, 1, unperf.), 1981

orchestralHn Conc., 1956; 5 Pieces, 1956; Music for an Occasion, 1959; Journal, 1960; Suite franaise, 1961; Nocturnes, chbr orch, 19623; Farnham Festival Ov., 1964; Aubade, 1964; Sym. no.1, 1965; Suite, 1966 [arr. from movts of The Aviary and The Insect World], small orch; Sym. no.2, 1967; Pf Conc., 1968; Ob Conc., ob, str, 196970; Gui Conc., gui, chbr orch, 1970; Party Piece, pf, small orch, 1971; Va Conc., va, chbr orch, 1973; Conc. for Orch, 1973; Vn Conc., 1975; Zodiac, 19756; Serenade, small orch, 1976; Actaeon, hn, orch, 1977; Music for Str, 1977; Db Conc., db, chbr orch, 1978; Sonnets to Orpheus, vc, orch, 19789; Hpd Conc., 1980; Anniversaries, 1982; Fredas Fandango, 1982; Memento, fl, str, 1983; Sinfonietta, 1984; Moving into Aquarius, 1984, collab. T. Musgrave; Sym. no.3, 1987; Cl Conc., cl, str, 1987; Mar Conc., mar, chbr orch, 1988; Sax Conc., a sax, str, 1988; Diversions, 1989; Perc Conc., perc, chbr orch, 1990; Conc. for Stan Getz, t sax, timp, str, 1990; Celebration, 1991; Variations on a Nursery Tune, 1992; Bn Conc., bn, str, 1994; Partita, 1995

wind and brassMorning Music, sym. wind ens, 1986; Conc. for 10 Brass Players, 4 tpt, 3 trbn, b trbn, t ba, 1988; Flowers of the Forest, brass band, 1989; The Four Seasons, wind ens, 1991; Conc., tpt, wind orch, 1993

vocalWith orch/ens: The Approaches of Sleep (T. Browne), S, A, T, B, chbr ens, 195960; London Pastoral (W. Wordsworth, J. Lydgate, L. Binyon), T, chbr orch, 1962; Epithalamion (R. Herrick), chorus, orch, 1966; Soliloquy (J. Mitchell), lv, jazz ens, 1966; Jazz Pastoral (Herrick), 1v, jazz ens, 1969; The Bermudas (A. Marvell), chorus, school orch, 1971; Sonnet Sequence (W. Shakespeare), T, str orch, 1974; Spells (K. Raine), S, chorus, orch, 19745; 5 Sonnets of Louise Lab, S, chbr ens, 1984; Lovesongs (e.e. cummings), T, orch, 1984; Ophelia (A. Rimbaud), Ct, ondes martenot, hp, str, 1987

With 13 insts/tape: Lament (C. Tichborne), T, gui, 1960; This Worldes Joie (anon.), S, pf, 1960; Tom OBedlams Song, T, vc, 1961; Childe Rolande to the Dark Tower Came (R. Browning), spkr, pf, 1961; One Evening (W.H. Auden), T, gui, 1964; The Aviary (J. Clare, A. Tennyson, P.B. Shelley, S.T. Coleridge), unison vv/lv, pf, 1965; The Insect World (Clare, W. Oldys, Marvell), unison vv/lv, pf, 1965; The Music That Her Echo Is (J. Dyer, anon., J. Campion), T, pf, 1967; Crazy Jane (W.B. Yeats), S, cl, vc, pf, 19689; A Garland for Marjorie Fleming (Fleming), S, pf, 1969; Tenebrae (T. Nashe, H. King, anon., Tichbourne, Donne), Bar, pf, 1971

Nightpiece (C.P. Baudelaire), S, tape, 1972; Times Whiter Series (J. Dryden, F. Martens, E. Sitwell, E. Bolton), Ct, lute, 1974; The Little Ghost who Died For Love (Sitwell), S, pf, 1976; Just Friends in Print, v, pf, 1979 [songs by Bennett and others]; Vocalese (J. Hansen), S, pf, 1981; Letters to Lindbergh (M. Hall), female vv, pf duet, 1982; Nonsense (M. Peake), SATB, pf duet, 1979, rev. 1984; this is the garden (e.e. cummings), high v, pf, 1984; And Death Shall Have No Dominion (D. Thomas), TTBB, hn, 1986; Dream-Songs (W. de la Mare), S/unison high vv, pf, 1986; A History of the Th Dansant (M.R. Peacocke), Mez, pf, 1994

Unacc.: 3 Songs (J.G. Villa), T, 1955; The Tillaquils (L. Riding), SATB, 1955; Ricercar, unacc., 1956; 2 Madrigals (B. Jonson, anon.), SATB, 1961; 3 Elegies (J. Webster), SSAATTBB, 1962; Nowell, Nowell, Tidings, True (anon.), SATB, arr. 1962; Madrigal And Can The Physician (anon.), SATB, 1962; 2 Lullabies (trad. Lat., James, John and Robert Wedderburn), SSA, 1963; Verses (Donne), SATB, 1965; 5 Carols (anon.), SATB, 1967; 2 Carols (Herrick, anon.), solo vv, SATB, 1968; 4 Devotions (Donne), SATB, 1971; The House of Sleepe (Ovid trans. A. Golding, J. Gower), 6 male vv, 1971; Puer Nobis (A. Meynell), SATB, 1980; Sea-Change (Shakespeare, Marvell, E. Spenser), SATB, tubular bells ad lib, 1983; Lullay mine liking (anon.), SATB, opt. soli, 1984; Nowell (de la Mare), SATB, 1986; Missa brevis, SATB, 1990; Lullaby Baby (J. Phillip), SATB, 1986; Sermons and Devotions (Donne), 2 Ct, T, 2 Bar, B, 1992; Calico Pie (E. Lear), SATB, 1994

chamberStr Qt no.1, 1951; Str Qt no.2, 1953; Str Qt no.3, 1953; Studies for 5 Players, fl, ob, cl, a sax, perc, 1957; Calendar, chbr ens, 1960; Fanfare, 2 tpt, hn, trbn, tuba, 1962; Str Qt no.4, 1964; Trio, fl, ob, cl, 1965; A Canon for Stravinsky, vn, va, vc, 1967; Qnt, fl, ob, cl, hn, bn, 1968; Commedia I, fl, b cl, a sax, tpt, vc, perc, 1972; Commedia II, fl, vc, pf, 1972; Commedia III, fl + pic, ob + eng hn, cl, hn, tpt, 2 perc, pf + cel, vn, vc, 1973; Commedia IV, hn, 2 tpt, trbn, tuba, 1973; Ob Qt, 19745; Travel Notes 1, str qt, 1975; Travel Notes 2, fl, ob, cl, bn, 1976; Metamorphoses, 4 vn, 2 va, 2 vc, 1980; Music for Str Qt, 1981; Conc. for Wind Qnt, fl + pic, ob, cl, hn, bn, 1983; Sounds and Sweet Aires, fl, ob, pf, 1985; Sonata after Syrinx, fl, va, hp, 1985; Reflections on a Theme of William Walton, 6 vn, 2 va, 2 vc, db, 1985; Dream Dancing, chbr ens, 1986; Lamento dArianna, str qt, 1986; Sonata, wind qnt, pf, 1986; Tender is the Night, suite, ondes martenot, str qt, 1986 [arr. of 1985 BBC TV incid. music]; Arethusa, ob, vn, va, vc, 1989; A Book of Hours, chbr ens, 1991; Cl Qnt, 1992; Sax Qt, s, a, t, bar sax, 1994

solo instrumentVariations, ob, 1953; Sonata, pf, 1954; Sonatine, fl, 1954; 4 Improvisations, vn, 1955; Sonata no.1, vn, 1955; Cycle IIX, pf, 19568; Stanzas, org, 1960; Fantasy, pf, 1962; 5 Studies, pf, 19624; Diversions, pf, 1964; Sonata no.2, vn, 1965; Impromptu, gui, 1968; Impromptu, fl, 1969; Alba, org, 1971; Scena I, pf, 1973; Scena II, vc, 1973; Telegram, pf, 1976; Eustace and Hilda, pf, 1977 [arr. of theme from BBC TV incid music]; Scena III, cl, 1977; 6 Tunes for the Instruction of Singing Birds, fl, 1981; Impromptu on the Name of Haydn, pf, 1981; Noctuary, pf, 1981 [ballet score]; Sonatina, cl, 1981; Sonata, gui, 1983; After Syrinx II, mar, 1984; Tango After Syrinx, pf, 1985; Tender is the Night, pf, 1985 [arr. of BBC TV incid music]; 3 Romantic Pieces, pf, 1988; Partridge Pie, pf, 1990; Arabesque, ob, 1992; Excursions, pf, 1993; Impromptu on a Theme of Henri Dutilleux, pf, 1994; Rondel, va, 1997

instrumental duoTheme and Variations, vn, va, 1952; Study, tpt, pf, 1957; Music for 2 Pfs, 19578; Winter Music, fl, pf, 1960; Sonata, ob, pf, 1961; Conversations, 2 fl, 1964; Crosstalk, 2 basset hn/2 cl, 1966; Capriccio, pf duet, 1968; 4 Piece Suite, 2 pf, 1974; Kandinsky Variations, 2 pf, 1977; Sonata, hn, pf, 1978; Sonata, vn, pf, 1978; Up Bow, Down Bow, bk 1, vn, pf, 1979; Up Bow, Down Bow, bk 2, va, pf, 1979; After Syrinx I, ob, pf, 1982; Summer Music, fl, pf, 1982; Serenade II, ondes martenot, pf, 1984; Duo concertante, cl, pf, 1985; Romances, hn, pf, 1985; Sonata, s sax, pf, 1986; After Ariadne, va, pf, 1986; Suite for Skip and Sadie, pf duet, 1986; Capriccio, vc, pf, 1990; Over the Hills and Far Away, pf duet, 1991; Sonata, vc, pf, 1991; Sonata, bn, pf, 1991; 3 Sondheim Waltzes, arr. a sax, pf, 1992; 3 Piece Suite, a sax, pf, 1996

film scoresdirectors names in parenthesesInterpol (J. Gilling), 1956; A Face in the Night, 1956; The Safecracker (R. Milland), 1957; The Devils Disciple (G. Hamilton), 1958; Indiscreet (S. Donen), 1958; The Man Inside (Gilling), 1958; The Angry Hills (R. Aldrich), 1959; Blind Date (J. Losey), 1959; The Man Who Could Cheat Death, 1959; The Mark (G. Green), 1961; The Devil Never Sleeps (L. McCarly), 1961; Only Two Can Play (S. Gilliat), 1961; The Wrong Arm of the Law (C. Owen), 1962; Heavens Above (J. Bowlting), 1963; Billy Liar (J. Schlesinger), 1963; One Way Pendulum (P. Yates), 1964; The Engineers, 1965; The Nanny (S. Holt), 1965; European Tapestry, 1965; A Penny for Your Thoughts, 1966; The Witches (C. Frankel), 1966; Far from the Madding Crowd (Schlesinger), 1967; Billion Dollar Brain (K. Russell), 1967; Secret Ceremony (Losey), 1968; The Buttercup Chain (R.E. Miller), 1970; Figures in a Landscape (Losey), 1970; Nicholas and Alexandra (F. Schaffner), 1971; Lady Caroline Lamb (R. Bolt), 1972; Voices (K. Billington), 1973; Murder on the Orient Express (S. Lumet), 1974; Permission to Kill (Frankel), 1975; Sherlock Holmes in New York, 1976; Equus (Lumet), 1977; Lmprcateur, 1977; The Brinks Job (W. Friedkin), 1978; Yanks (Schlesinger), 1979; The Return of the Soldier (A. Bridges), 1982; Murder with Mirrors (D. Lowry), 1985; Enchanted April (M. Newell), 1992; Four Weddings and a Funeral (Newell), 1994; Swann (A. Benson Gyles), 1996; Sweeney Todd (A. Benson Gyles), 1997

Music for TV, radio and the theatre

Principal publishers: Novello, Universal

Bennett, Sir Richard RodneyWRITINGSwith S. Bradshaw: In Search of Boulez, Music and Musicians, xi (19623), no.5, pp.1013; no.12, pp.1418, 50 with S. Bradshaw: Boulez on Music Today (London, 1971) [trans. of P. Boulez: Penser la musique aujourdhui, Paris, 1964] with S. Bradshaw: Anthony Payne and his Paean, Tempo, no.100 (1972), 4044 Irwin Bazelon, Contemporary Composers, ed. B. Morton and P. Collins (London and Chicago, 1992), 612 Bennett, Sir Richard RodneyBIBLIOGRAPHYN. Maw: Richard Rodney Bennett, MT, ciii (1962), 957 N. Goodwin: The Mines of Sulphur, Opera, xvi (1965), 858 [interview] S. Bradshaw: Victory, MT, cxi (1970), 37072 [interview] P. Griffiths: Bennetts Comedies, MT, cxv (1974), 64950 S. Bradshaw: Richard Rodney Bennett: the Last Decade, MT, xxxiii (1982), 60911 S. Bradshaw: Bennetts Versatility, MT, cxxv (1984), 3814 S. Craggs: Richard Rodney Bennett: a Bio-Bibliography (New York and London, 1990) S. Bradshaw: Richard Rodney Bennett, Contemporary Composers, ed. B. Morton and P. Collins (London and Chicago, 1992), 723