Lectures on Musical Life: William Sterndale Bennett (review)

If anything seems to typify contemporary and modern reflections on the career of William Sterndale Bennett (1816-75) it is slightly qualified mixed praise. Early in his career Bennett wowed the circle of Mendelssohn and Schumann with masterful compositions, piano performances, and conducting, hailed in the German press. But his return to England in 1837 saw a gradual decline in compositional productivity due to punishing work commitments as conductor of the Philharmonic Society (1855-66), Professor of Music at Cambridge (1856-75), and Director of the Royal Academy of Music (1866-75). To many this was a great loss to British musical culture. A. O'Leary, for example, laments that it is 'a matter for sad reflection that, after achieving works of such stamp and high reflection as those which were the product of Bennett's early days, his multifarious duties as a teacher, and the professional work thereby cast on him, should have limited the results of his compositions in later life' (Arthur Duke Coleridge, discussion after A. O'Leary, 'Sir William Sterndale Bennett: A Brief Review of his Life and Works', Proceedings of the Musical Association, 8 (1881-2), 143). Frederick Corder, similarly, describes him simply as 'a man who ought to have been a great composer but just missed it' ('W. Sterndale Bennett and his Music', Musical Times, 1 May 1916, p. 233).

Others, however, like H. Heathcote Statham, applaud his genius and individuality, complaining about the 'popular idea that he was a mere imitator of Mendelssohn' (My Thoughts on Music and Musicians (London, 1892), 417). Yet even Statham grumbles about a certain harshness in his music. Indeed, his entry in the first Grove speaks of 'a constant appeal to the logic rather than the mere sensuous hearing of the ear—which gives to his music that rather cold intellectual cast which is repelling to the average listener' (Sterndale Bennett, 'William', A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450-1889) by Eminent Writers, ed. George Grove (London, 1878-89)). In a more recent Grove article, Nicholas Temperley echoes this opinion, claiming that: 'His character-pieces have often a dryness and sometimes a harmonic ruthlessness that please the connoisseur but put off the crowd' ('Bennett, William Sterndale', Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy, <http://www.grovemusic.com>, accessed 19 Apr. 2007).

Nevertheless, opinions about Bennett's character and personality are more uniformly favourable. In the Musical Times centenary articles commemorating his birth Stanford speaks for the generality when describing him as having 'a spotless, noble-minded character' (C.V. Stanford, Musical Quarterly, 2 (Oct. 1916), 657), and indeed it is this character which permeates the previously unpublished lectures transcribed and edited by Nicholas Temperley, assisted by Yung-chung Yang, in the book under review. Temperley's volume reveals a highly restrained Bennett operating at the very hub of British musical culture, with clearly articulated aesthetics and a strong sense of educational purpose, though at the same time eschewing controversy and disdaining imbalanced criticism. As such, his lectures form a very reasoned insight into the general musical knowledge of the period, and are highly worthy of consideration in a volume like this. While admittedly not offering profound historical insights, as Temperley says (p. 6), they nonetheless highlight some of the chief features of the Victorian musical horizon, expressing its concerns in simple, respectful, and broad-minded terms.

Temperley clusters the Lectures sensibly in three parts, 'Lectures at London and Sheffield, 1858-1859', 'Lectures at the London Institution, 1864', and 'Lectures at Cambridge University, 1871'. In addition, he provides a helpful introduction and preliminary notes concerning transcription. The introduction is especially useful as it offers a digest of each set of lectures, along with a brief biography of Bennett and some historical background on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century public lectures on music, locating Bennett in a tradition of public lecturing beginning in the sixteenth century and reaching an early apex at the end...