William Sterndale Bennett’s preludes & lessons Op. 33: a practical study and a critical edition

Abstract

William Sterndale Bennett (1816 –75), made a significant contribution to music education in Britain during the Victorian age. His special interest in pedagogy, particularly teaching the pianoforte led him to compose a set of Preludes & Lessons for the female pupils at Queen’s College, London. The set was well received until the end of the nineteenth century, but has since fallen out of the public eye – like so many of Bennett’s works. The aim of this project is to clarify the use of Op. 33 by showing how the pieces treat important aspects of performance practice. Another aim is to bring back the set of Op. 33 to the present after a period of neglect by providing a critical edition of the pieces. A historical background is provided in order to demonstrate Bennett’s place in the field of pianoforte teaching at the time. This section deals with his career as an educator and his experience at Queen’s College, and includes a preface on teaching pianoforte in the Victorian age. The historical background is followed by a close study of Op. 33 to demonstrate their treatment of the major aspects of performance practice. All these elements are placed in chapter I, which is in the first volume of this project. Chapter II concentrates on the publication of the work in prepare for creating the edition. The publication history of Op. 33, its publishers and the textual problems in the set, are considered. Moreover, the problematic cases of Mendelssohn’s manuscripts and Chopin’s first editions are discussed and adopted as models for the preparation of the edition which forms the outcome of this project. This chapter also lies in the first volume. The second volume includes Chapter III, which considers a critical edition of Op. 33. It starts with a short introduction which provides major principles to be followed in the edition, then deals with the edition sources and their evaluation. This is followed by the musical text and the critical commentary.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for David Owen Norris: orcid.org/0000-0001-6047-3529

Catalogue record

Export record