Klarinet Archive - Posting 000871.txt from 1999/05

From: "Jim O'Briant" <jobriant@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] re: Bennett- Robert Russell
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 17:33:40 -0400

On Tue, 18 May 1999, Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu wrote:

> > > The flutist's name was Harold Bennet and his theory was that the
> > > manufacturing process disturbed the molecules of the wood from their
> > > natural state when the wood was part of a tree.

Ed Lacy replied:

> > Was there also another person named Harold Bennet who was involved in
the
> > musical world about the same time? When I was a beginning high school
> > teacher in the late 1950's and 60's, I remember that there was a
composer
> > of pieces, especially marches, for school bands, whose name was Bennet
or
> > Bennett. I seem to recall that his first name was Harold. Are there two
> > of them, or is the flutist also the band composer?

Then Dan added:
> I don't think that the NY Harold Bennet is the same one as you are
> speaking of as writing music for school bands but it could be. The
> Harold Bennet I was speaking of was first flute at the Met, and
> also was a very busy repairman, one of the most sought after in
> NY. My contacts with him were purely business when he would do
> my horns so I never knew what his activities were outside of
> repair and playing at the Met. He was a terrific flutist.
> Bottom line, Ed, is that I can't answer your question.

David Blumberg added:

> It was Robert Russell Bennett that you're thinking of. He wrote the
"Suite
> of old American Dances" a Classic in the Band Literature. There was
> also a Richard Rodney Bennett who wrote music.

To further clarify (or confuse) the situation --

There was indeed a lot of band music with the name of the composer given as
"Harold Bennett," including what is probably the best easy march ever
written -- "Military Escort." This "Harold Bennett" was the best-known of
several pseudonyms used by Henry Fillmore. "Will Huff" was another such
pseudonym -- there were eight or nine in all. Fillmore published under
several names for financial reasons. Band directors wouldn't program four
or five pieces by the same composer on one concert, but they might very
well program one or two by Henry Fillmore, a couple by Harold Bennett, and
maybe one by Will Huff. Thus, by writing under several names, Fillmore
enabled his publishing house (later bought out by Carl Fischer) to sell
more music.

Richard Rodney Bennett was, I believe, Robert Russell Bennett's son, and of
course neither was related to Harold Bennett, who was a figment of Henry
Fillmore's imagination......

Jim O'Briant
Bayside Music Press
Gilroy, CA

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