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BEN  the Staroste Szaniowsky, who gave him an honourable engagement at Warsaw. From this he was preferred to the service of the king, Augustus II. of Poland, in which he remained till the death of that sovereign. He hoped in Dresden to obtain some new engagement, but remained without any worthy employment of his talent, till in 1732 he was summoned to Rupin by the Prince of Prussia, afterwards Frederick the Great, to take a place among the court musicians. Here the elder Graun was chief of the orchestra, in whose violin-playing he found, if not a model, a constant stimulus to improvement; he now also became acquainted with Quanz, the contrapuntist, with whom he studied composition. He soon gained such distinction in his new situation, as to be easily able to procure engagements in the band for his next and his youngest brother, Johann and Joseph. He is remarkable as having originated a style of violin-playing, which in his day was significantly described as "the singing school," and is still known and honourably mentioned as "the school of Benda;" its peculiarity, which may be traced to his early excellence as a vocalist, consists in drawing from the instrument effects of expression essential to singing, and it attained the dignity of being called a school, not only from his own merited success, but from the popularity which, through his many pupils, it gained throughout Germany. He wrote above a hundred solos for his instrument, and many other pieces, few of which are printed; but his violin studies are still esteemed as valuable exercises. On the death of J. T. Graun in 1771, Benda succeeded to his appointment, which he held until he died, in the serenity of respected age, from the exhaustion of nature. He had two sons, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich, born in 1745, and Carl Hermann Ulric, born in 1748, who were both clever musicians.—G. A. M.  BENDA,, a musician, second brother of the above, was born in 1721, and died in 1795. Upon the accession of Frederick the Great in 1740, the prominent position Franz Benda held among the king's musicians induced all his family to follow him to Berlin, where Georg particularly distinguished himself as a pianist and oboe player; his natural talent for composition also gained him favourable notice, and this led to his engagement in 1748 as kapellmeister at Gotha. Here he found a kind patron in the reigning duke, who, after a while, sent him to study for a time in Italy, where he made the acquaintance of Hasse and Schweitzer. He had already written some sacred music, and some instrumental pieces of merit, and he now produced two Italian operas with success. The burning of the theatre at Weimar, and the consequent migration of the company to Gotha, gave Benda the opportunity to witness the performances of the celebrated actress, Madame Brande, which so impressed him that he turned his thoughts to the combination of music with declamation, and making them mutually illustrate each other; he accordingly wrote in 1774 "Ariane auf Naxos," a monodrama in which the spoken declamation is interspersed and occasionally accompanied with music; it was earlier than the production of this work that Rousseau wrote his Pygmalion, a composition in the same form; but, besides that Benda had not heard of the Frenchman's piece, the great superiority of his own, and its consequent success, entitled him to all the praise of originating in Germany this kind of melodrama. To pass over the occasional effective introduction of accompanied speaking in operas, (such as in the "Freischütz" and "Fidelio,") the music of Mendlessohn to the tragedies of Sophocles may be cited signally, as exemplifying to modern experience the powerfully dramatic effect of this union of the two arts. Benda's "Ariane" was immediately translated into French and Italian, and performed in other countries with the same success as in his own. This induced his writing "Medea," and subsequently "Almansor und Nadine," in the same form, which met with an equally warm reception. Jealousy of Schweitzer, who had come to Gotha with the Weimar company, impelled Benda to resign his office, after a service of twenty-eight years, without a pension. He then went to Hamburg, and afterwards to Vienna, but without any permanent appointment. He returned to Gotha a few years before he died, where the duke and the prince each settled a small annuity upon him. In 1781 he was engaged at Paris to direct the performance of his "Ariane," and it is upon this work, and the other two of the same class, that his distinction as a musician entirely rests: for his several German operas, and his numerous instrumental productions, though esteemed in their day, had no influence on the art, and are now forgotten. His son,, born in 1746, acquired some credit as a theatrical composer.—G. A. M.  BENDA,, a German miscellaneous writer, born at Berlin in 1757; died at Oppeln in 1832. He studied law, and was employed in various magisterial offices, particularly at Landshut and Oppeln. He translated Shakspeare, and the poetical works of Sir Walter Scott.—J. S., G.  BENDAVID,, a Jewish philosopher, born at Berlin, 1762; died 1832; began life as a glass-polisher; and having laid by some small savings, went to study at the university of Göttingen. He first cultivated mathematics with great success; but being attracted by the rising fame of Kant's philosophy, was led to transfer his attention to it, and to devote the rest of his life to its diffusion. On returning to Berlin in 1790, he gave public lectures on the "Critique of Pure Reason." He then went to Vienna, and expounded Kant's system with much success; and when the Austrian government had prohibited him from public teaching, continued to lecture for four years to a select audience in the house of the count de Harrach. Further persecution obliging him to leave Vienna, he returned to Berlin, where he still devoted his labours to the same object, and also assisted in conducting a political journal during the French invasion. His opinions remained purely Kantian to the last. Among his numerous works may be mentioned "Lessons on the Critique of Pure Reason," Vienna, 1795, and Berlin, 1802; and "Lessons on the Critique of Practical Reason," Vienna, 1796.—J. D. E.  * BENDEMANN,, a distinguished German painter, was born at Berlin, 3d December, 1811. After a careful education, he was entered a pupil at the Düsseldorf academy, under W. Schadow, and as early as 1830, exhibited a picture, "Boas and Ruth," which held out the hope of future excellence. Two years later, his "Mourning Jews," after Psalm 137, now in the Cologne museum, at once established his reputation. His celebrity was still heightened by his "Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem," 1837, an historical painting on a large scale, for which a prize medal was awarded him, and which is now in the possession of the king of Prussia. In 1838 he was appointed professor at the academy of Dresden, and there commissioned to decorate the Ständesaal, and the ball-room of the Royal palace, with fresco paintings, which he executed in the highest style of art. Unfortunately, a protracted ophthalmia has checked his activity.—K. E.  BENDER,, baron de, an Austrian general, born, 1713; died, 1798. His father, though a simple mechanic, gave his son an excellent education, and combined all his little resources to secure admission for him as a cadet in an Austrian regiment, and enable him to maintain this position in a suitable manner. His good conduct soon gained him promotion. During the troubles which followed the death of Charles VI. in 1740, Bender took part in the Silesian campaigns, and in the Seven Years' war against the king of Prussia. He had no higher rank than that of captain, when in 1763 he made the acquaintance of a lady of the sovereign house of Isemburg, and notwithstanding the difference of their rank, was united to her in marriage. The count of Isemburg considering his house degraded by such a union, strove to get the marriage annulled, but the Empress Maria Theresa declared that she took Bender under her protection, and with a view to place him more nearly on a level with his high-born spouse, created him a baron of the holy empire, with the rank of major. He was subsequently raised to the rank of lieutenant-general, and appointed governor of the fortress of Luxemburg. The misunderstanding which had arisen between the Generals Beaulieu, Latour, and Corty, led to the elevation of Bender to the rank of commander-in-chief, while, to add greater weight to his authority, he was presented with the baton of field-marshal; and though he had had no share in the victories obtained over the patriots, he had the vanity to quit Luxemburg and make a triumphal entry, first into Namur, and afterwards into Brussels. He subsequently received the honour, equally unmerited, of grand cordon of Maria Theresa. In 1793 he returned to his post at Luxemburg, and the following year, an attack having been made upon the place, he was obliged, after a protracted blockade, to capitulate. Proceeding afterwards to Vienna, he was appointed governor-general of Bohemia—an office which his age and increasing infirmities did not permit him long to exercise.—G. M.  BENDIR,, a French dramatic writer, born at Paris, 1796; late banker, and member of the chamber of deputies before 1848. He was one of those who introduced the romantic drama. Author in conjunction with M. Victor 