Joseph Bennett

Joseph Bennett (29 November 1831 – 12 June 1911) was an English music critic and librettist. After an early career as a schoolmaster and organist, he was engaged as a music critic by The Sunday Times in 1865. Within five years he was appointed chief music critic of The Daily Telegraph, a post he held from 1870 to 1906. Among Bennett's other work was writing or adapting libretti for cantatas and other large-scale orchestral and choral works by British composers such as Arthur Sullivan, Frederic Cowen and Alexander Mackenzie. Life and career Early years Bennett was born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. He attended the local church, and became a member of its choir, and joined a local musical society in whose orchestra he played the viola. When he reached the age of 18, his friends encouraged him to become a minister in the Congregational church, but after long consideration he decided that he could not accept all the doctrines of the church. He embarked instead on a career as a teacher, and studied for a year at a training college in London in 1853.