Richard Rodney Bennett facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Richard Rodney Bennett
Background information
Born	(1936-03-29)29 March 1936 Broadstairs, Kent, England
Died	24 December 2012(2012-12-24) (aged 76) New York City, US
Genres	Classical music film music jazz
Occupation(s)	Composer
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1954–2012

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (born March 29, 1936 – died December 24, 2012) was a very talented English composer. He wrote music for movies, TV shows, and concerts. He was also a jazz pianist and sometimes sang. From 1979 until he passed away in 2012, he lived in New York City.

Early Life and Musical Beginnings

Richard Rodney Bennett was born in Broadstairs, Kent, England. He grew up in Devon during World War II. His family was very musical!

A Musical Family

His mother, Joan Esther, was a pianist. She even trained with a famous composer named Gustav Holst. She also sang in the very first professional show of Holst's famous piece, The Planets.

Richard's father, Rodney Bennett, wrote children's books, poems, and song lyrics. He worked with composer Roger Quilter and wrote new words for old songs.

Learning and Growing

Richard went to Leighton Park School. Later, he studied music at the Royal Academy of Music. His teachers there included Howard Ferguson and Lennox Berkeley. Ferguson thought Richard was incredibly gifted. He believed Richard might be the most talented British composer of his time.

Richard also attended summer music courses in Germany in 1955. There, he learned about a modern music style called serialism. He then spent two years in Paris, studying with a very important serialist composer, Pierre Boulez. Richard always used both his first names because another musician named Richard Bennett was also active.

A Career in Music

Sir Richard Rodney Bennett had a long and busy career. He taught music, wrote many pieces, and performed jazz.

Teaching and Awards

Richard taught at the Royal Academy of Music from 1963 to 1965. He also taught at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, USA, from 1970 to 1971. Later, he was the International Chair of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music from 1994 to 2000.

He received important honors for his work. In 1977, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In 1998, he was knighted, which means he became "Sir Richard Rodney Bennett."

Composing Many Styles

Richard wrote over 200 pieces for concerts. He also created music for 50 films and TV shows. For 50 years, he also wrote and performed jazz songs.

He learned modern music techniques from Pierre Boulez. But Richard later developed his own unique style. As he got older, his music became more traditional and melodic.

Jazz Performances and Collaborations

Richard was a regular jazz pianist. He performed with many famous singers. These included Cleo Laine, Marion Montgomery, and Mary Cleere Haran. Later, he often performed with Claire Martin. They played songs from the "Great American Songbook" (famous old American songs). They performed in well-known places like The Oak Room in New York and Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London.

Art Beyond Music

Besides music, Richard also became known for his collage art. Collages are artworks made by gluing different materials, like paper or photos, onto a surface. He showed his collages in several exhibitions in England. His first exhibition was in London in 2010. He was also a supporter of a charity that brings music and art into hospitals.

Richard is remembered with four photographic portraits at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

His Legacy

Richard Rodney Bennett passed away on December 24, 2012. He is survived by his sister, Meg, who is a poet. They even worked together on some vocal music pieces. His ashes are buried in Green-wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

Richard's Music

Richard Rodney Bennett loved many different kinds of music. He wrote in various styles, including jazz, which he especially enjoyed.

A Mix of Styles

Even though he studied modern music early on, Richard's tastes were wide-ranging. He once said that the different styles of music he wrote were like going on "in different rooms, albeit in the same house." This means he could switch between styles easily.

Later in his career, all his different musical talents were celebrated. For example, in 2011, when he turned 75, many concerts featured all the different types of music he created. At the BBC Proms, his Murder on the Orient Express Suite was played in a film music concert. In the same season, his pieces Dream Dancing and Jazz Calendar were also performed.

Film and Television Music

Richard wrote music for many popular films and TV shows. Some of his famous scores include:

• The Doctor Who story The Aztecs (1964) for TV.
• The movies Billion Dollar Brain (1967).
• Lady Caroline Lamb (1972).
• Equus (1977).

He received Academy Award nominations for his music in Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), and Murder on the Orient Express (1974). He even won a BAFTA award for Murder on the Orient Express.

Other well-known film scores include Enchanted April (1992), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), and The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1998). He also wrote many orchestral works, piano solos, choral pieces, and operas.

Selected Works

Here are some of the many musical pieces Richard Rodney Bennett created:

Instrumental Music

• Sonata for piano (1954)
• Impromptus (for guitar) (1968)
• Viola Concerto (1973)
• Concerto for alto saxophone
• Concerto for Stan Getz (for saxophone, timpani & strings) (1990)
• Dream Sequence for cello and piano (1994)
• Harpsichord Concerto (1980)
• The Four Seasons (1991) for wind instruments
• A Little Suite (based on his song cycles)
• Symphony No. 1 (1965)
• Symphony No. 2 (1968)
• Symphony No. 3 (1987)
• Marimba Concerto (1988)
• Percussion Concerto (1990)
• Trumpet Concerto for trumpet and wind orchestra

Operas

• The Ledge (1961)
• The Midnight Thief (1964)
• The Mines of Sulphur (1965)
• A Penny for a Song (1967)
• All the King's Men (1968)
• Victory (1970)

Ballets

• Jazz Calendar (1968)
• Isadora (1981)

Choral and Vocal Works

• Nonsense (for choir and piano duet) (1984)
• Missa Brevis (1990)
• Sea Change (1983)
• Spells (for soprano singer)
• Five Carols (1967)
• On Christmas Day to My Heart (1998)
• The Garden – A Serenade to Glimmerglass (2006)

Selected Film and TV Scores

Richard Rodney Bennett composed music for many movies and television series. Here is a list of some of them:

• Pickup Alley (1957)
• Indiscreet (1958)
• The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)
• The Mark (1961)
• Billy Liar (1963)
• The Nanny (1965)
• Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)
• Billion Dollar Brain (1967)
• Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)
• Lady Caroline Lamb (1973)
• Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
• Equus (1977)
• Yanks (1979)
• The Return of the Soldier (1982)
• Enchanted April (1991)
• Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
• The Tale of Sweeney Todd (1997) (TV)
• Gormenghast (2000) (TV mini-series)

Images for kids

• 

  Sir Richard Rodney Bennett

See also

In Spanish: Richard Rodney Bennett para niños