Klarinet Archive - Posting 000874.txt from 1999/05

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] re: Bennett- Robert Russell
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 17:33:43 -0400

On Tue, 18 May 1999, David Blumberg wrote:

> 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.

I know about both of these, and still we haven't hit the one I was
inquiring about. His name was definitely Harold Bennett, and he was known
as a composer of works for school bands, mostly at the elementary method.
In the 1950's, nearly every school band played from a book of marches
called the "Bennett Band Book #1." Also, I once heard a concert played by
the wind ensemble of the Vandercook College of Music in Chicago on which
some of his compositions were played. I believe the composer was present
on that occasion, which would have been in 1964. I recall a tall, thin
man with a lot of snow white hair. I have always remembered this concert,
because the ensemble was an excellent university-level one, and they were
playing music written for junior high school bands. I commented at the
time that it was something like using a shotgun to kill flies!

There must be at least one other old-time music educator on the list who
can confirm that I didn't just dream all this.

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

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