Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/254

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'The May Queen' in 1868 he wrote no work of importance, and his life was almost entirely uneventful. A performance of the 'Parisina' overture at the Philharmonic in 1848 led to an unfortunate rupture with Sir Michael (then Mr.) Costa and the society, and the breach with the latter was not healed until 1855, when Bennett was appointed permanent conductor in succession to Richard Wagner. The year 1849 was rendered memorable by the foundation of the Bach Society, in which Bennett took a prominent share. Five years later, at the Hanover Square Rooms (6 April 1854), he conducted the first performance of the Matthew Passion music in England. During these years he was much at Southampton, and also gave concerts in many of the large towns of the kingdom. In July 1853 the directors of the Gewandhaus concerts invited him to conduct during the next season, but English engagements prevented him from accepting this honour. Trips to Derbyshire, Rotterdam, and Brussels (where he wrote an anthem, 'Remember now thy Creator') were almost the only events to break the monotonous round of employment in the years 1853, 1854, and 1855, but in 1856 the chairof music at Cambridge being vacant, Bennett was elected (4 March) to the professorship by a majority of 149 votes. The degree of Mus. Doc. was conferred on him on 30 June, and he was made a life member of St. John's College on 26 Sept. following. He received the degree of M.A. in 1867. The Cambridge appointment, although it opened to Bennett a new field for work, unfortunately did not give him any more time for composition. Though the duties of a university professor of music are not onerous, Bennett was too conscientious to let the office become a mere sinecure in his hands. The regulations as to the bestowal of degrees for music were so lax as to be practically useless, and accordingly the new professor proposed to institute an examination. He also turned his attention to the practical cultivation of music inthe university, and in November conducted a concert of the University Musical Society.As was to be expected, he infused his own admiration for Bach into some of the younger and more enthusiastic amateurs of the day, and it is partly owing to his initiative that the university has gradually made such progress in musical matters. The year 1858 was rendered memorable by the production of one of Bennett's most charming works. He had received a commission from Leeds to write a work for the approaching festival. In April he applied to H. F. Chorley, the musical critic of the 'Athenæum,' for a libretto, and the latter produced the absurd and badly written 'May Queen.' In spite of the disadvantage at which he was placed by the libretto, Bennett in six weeks set it to the beautiful music which is, perhaps, more popular than anything else that he wrote—music which breathes in every line the spirit of pure English melody, as fresh and joyous as the month of May which it celebrates. 'The May Queen' was written in July 1858, when Bennett was staying at the Gilbert Arms, Eastbourne, and was produced at the Leeds Festival in the following September, the principal solo parts being sung by Miss Clara Novello and Messrs. Sims Reeves and Weiss. For the opening of the Exhibition of 1862 he set an ode of Tennyson's. In the same month (May 1862) he wrote the music to Kingsley's 'Ode on the Installation of the Duke of Devonshire as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.' This music was composed in the short space of five days; it was finished on 30 May, and performed at Cambridge on 10 June. The composition of the two odes was followed by that of the overture 'Paradise and the Peri,' one of his most spontaneous inspirations. Towards the close of the year 1862, Bennett suffered an irreparable loss in the death of his wife, which took place at Eastbourne on 17 Oct., after a painful illness. It is said by those who knew him well that he never recovered from the effects of Mrs. Bennett's death, and that henceforward a painful change in him became apparent to his friends. For more than a year he seems to have abandoned composition, and it was not until the summer of 1864 that he produced any new work of importance, when he wrote the symphony in G minor which is so well known to musicians. The minuet in this beautiful work had already appeared in the Cambridge Installation ode, and the finale was entirely conceived during a railway journey between Cambridge and London, It was produced at a Philharmonic concert on 27 June, and at the beginning of the following year was performed under the composer's superintendence at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The composition of the symphony was followed by another long pause, during which he was elected principal of the Academy of Music (22 June 1866), and received the Beethoven gold medal from the Philharmonic Society (7 July 1867). In the summer of the latter year he wrote his oratorio 'The Woman of Samaria,' which was produced at the Birmingham Festival on 27 Aug. Most of this work was written at Eastbourne, but one of the choruses in it was transferred from the incomplete 'Zion'