Complete Encyclopaedia of Music/B/Benda, Franz

Benda, Franz, or FRANCIS, musician to Frederic II. of Prussia, and founder of a German school of violinists, was born in Bohemia, in 1709. He was appointed a singing boy to the Church of St. Nicholas, at Prague, in 1718 ; and from thence he went to Dresden, where he was engaged at the Chapel Royal. About the same time he applied himself to the study of the violin, and had no other resource to save himself from poverty (having quitted the king's chapel) than to engage with a company of street musicians, among whom there happened to be a blind Jew, named Lobel, an excellent violinist, and who became Benda's master and model. Fatigued with his wandering life, Benda, then eighteen years of age, returned to Prague, and soon afterwards went to Vienna, where he received lessons from one of the first masters of the place. There he remained two years, when he proceeded to Warsaw, and procured the situation of chapel-master. The prince royal of Prussia, afterwards Frederic II., took Benda into his service in 1732, on the recommendation of Quanz. Finally, in 1772, he succeeded Graun, as concert master to the king. He died at Potsdam, in 1786. Dr. Burney says, that Benda's manner of playing was neither that of Tartini, nor Semis, nor Veracini, nor any other great master, but peculiarly his own. He published " Studies for the Violin," "Progressive Exercises," and other instrumental works ; especially "Eight Solos for the Violin," which are extremely admired for their good taste and truly cantabile style.