Arthur Benjamin

Arthur Benjamin (b Sydney, 18 Sept 1893; d London, 10 April 1960). Australian-English composer and pianist.

After general education at Brisbane Grammar School he entered the RCM at 18, studying composition there with Stanford; a common admiration for Brahms eased his path with that teacher. Benjamin remained at the RCM until the outbreak of war in 1914, when he joined the infantry, later transferring to the air force. After the war he was for a short time a piano teacher at the Sydney Conservatorium, but his need for European musical life brought him back to London in 1921. His first published work, a string quartet, appeared in 1924 and won a Carnegie Award, and in 1926 Benjamin joined the staff of the RCM. An early enthusiasm for the music of Gershwin stimulated his Piano Concertino (1926), which he declared to have been influenced by the Rhapsody in Blue, although it is difficult to find this influence in the innocent sounds of Benjamin's Concertino, which bears a greater resemblance to salon music or to the music of the French music halls before the introduction of jazz. The composer himself played the solo part at the first performance in England, conducted by Wood. Benjamin was a very good pianist, although not perhaps a virtuoso, and his playing affected both his style of composition and his musical career. He also gave the first performances of Howells's Piano Concerto no.1 (1913) and Lambert's Piano Concerto (1931).

More long-lasting and fruitful than the influence of Gershwin was that of Latin American music, which Benjamin heard during his travels as an adjudicator and examiner for the Associated Board. He wrote works in Latin-American dance rhythms throughout his life, and indeed one of his best known pieces is the Jamaican Rumba (1938), originally for two pianos and later orchestrated. It made his name known throughout the world, and many would have been astonished to learn that he was a ‘serious’ composer and a professor at the RCM. The ‘light’ element remained an important feature in his music until his last years. With the exception of several works his music is jovial in mood and uncomplicated in technique; a touch of neo-classicism in the Violin Concerto (1932) merely reflects the compatibility of the manner with Benjamin's essential cheerfulness. His first opera, The Devil Take Her, displays his light touch and sense of humour. The longest and most serious of his completed operas is The Tale of Two Cities. This was revived (1995) in excerpts for a BBC radio broadcast. None of his dramatic pieces has held the stage. Benjamin's orchestral music has fared better: the two concertante piano works have a certain life, and the second (1949) ends with a rugged and dramatic Passacaglia, an indication of the more profound direction that his music was taking in his last years. The Romantic Fantasy for violin, viola and orchestra is an ardent and wholly successful work, indebted to both Delius and Bax. His only symphony (1944–5) was performed at the 1948 Cheltenham Festival. It is dark and powerful, tragic in expression, and its mood seems in keeping with the time at which it was written. Much the same mood is shared by the Viola Sonata and the Ballade for strings. There were two further operas: Mañana, the first opera commissioned for BBC television, and Tartuffe, of which Benjamin completed the short score but orchestrated only a few pages.

His piano pupils included Britten. As a teacher, pianist and composer Benjamin was an accomplished professional, as was recognized by the Worshipful Company of Musicians which awarded him the Cobbett Medal in 1956. Film music was eminently fitted to his talents, and he contributed some successful examples, including scores for An Ideal Husband and for a documentary about the ascent of Everest.