Leeds Festival, and in 1862 the "Paradise and
the Peri" overture, written for the Philharmonic Society. In 1867 his
oratorio, or, as he modestly terms it, "sacred cantata," "The Woman of
Samaria," was produced with great success at the Birmingham Festival. In
1870 he was honored with a degree by the University of Oxford, and a year
later received the empty distinction of knighthood. His last public
appearance was at a festival in Brighton in 1874, where he conducted his
"Woman of Samaria." He died Feb. 1, 1875, and was buried in Westminster
Abbey with distinguished honors. His musical ability was as widely
recognized in Germany as in England,--indeed his profound musical
scholarship and mastery of problems in composition were more appreciated
there. Mr. Statham, in an admirable sketch, pronounces him a born
pianist, and says that his wonderful knowledge of the capabilities of the
piano, and his love for it, developed into favoritism in some of his
concerted music. A friend of the composer, recalling some reminiscences
of him in "Fraser," says that his music is full of beauty and expression,
displays a remarkable fancy, a keen love of Nature, and at times true
religious devotion, but that it does not contain a single note of
passion. His only sacred music is the short oratorio, "The Woman of
Samaria," and four anthems: "Now, my God, let, I beseech Thee," "Remember
now thy Creator," "O that I knew," and "The Fool hath said in his Heart."
It has been well said of him: "In his whole career he never condescended
to write a single note for popular effect, nor can a bar of his music be
quoted which in style and aim does not belong to what is highest in
musical art."

The Woman of Samaria.

"The Woman of Samaria," a short, one-part oratorio, styled by its
composer a "sacred cantata," was first produced at the Birmingham
Festival, Aug. 27, 1867; though one of his biographers affirms that as
early as 1843 he was shown a chorus for six voices, treated antiphonally,
which Bennett himself informed him was to be introduced in an oratorio he
was then contemplating, and that this chorus, if not identical with
"Therefore they shall come," in "The Woman of Samaria," is at least the
foundation of it.

The work is written for four solo voices, chorus, and orchestra. The
soprano takes the part of the Woman of Samaria, the other parts being
impersonal. The music for the contralto is mainly declamatory. Tha