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there remains only one work dating from this period (the unpublished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 selftaught 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 shortterm 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.
WORKS
WRITINGS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
SUSAN BRADSHAW
Bennett, Sir Richard Rodney
WORKS
stage
The 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
orchestral
Hn 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 brass
Morning 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
vocal
With 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
chamber
Str 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 instrument
Variations, 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 duo

Theme 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 scores
directors names in parentheses

Interpol (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 Rodney

WRITINGS
with 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 Rodney

BIBLIOGRAPHY
N. 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