Voluntary No. 2 in B Minor

John Bennett (c. 1735 – London, September 1784) was an English organist and composer.

Details of Bennett's life are limited, but it is known that he died in September 1784, after serving as organist at St. Dionis Backchuch Fenchurch in London, for over thirty years. He had been a pupil of Johann Christoph Pepusch.

As the typical versatile eighteenth-century English musician, he played the organ and the viola, taught the harpsichord, and performed at Drury Lane Theatre as a singer in the chorus and as a dancer. According to Thomas Mortimer's The Universal Director (1763), he lived at Queen-square Bloomsbury, and succeeded Charles Burney as organist at St. Dionis-Backchurch, Fenchurch Street (demolished in 1878), in 1752.

An interesting aside for organists is the information provided in the church minutes for July 27, 1749: ". . . that the Salary of Organist be Thirty pounds p. Ann and that he be annually chose. . . .That the person who shall be chosen Organist shall attend in Person twice on every Sunday and on other usual Festivals, and to have no Deputy but in case of sickness."

Henry William Beechey suggested that in 1760 Bennett must have been suffering financial difficulty as he applied for a second organist’s post (with permission from St. Dionis) which he was unsuccessful in gaining. It was common in that period for organists to serve more than one church simultaneously.

The Ten Voluntaries for the Organ or Harpsichord are his only works known to this day; they were published by the composer in 1758, and printed a number of times since.

The "Voluntary in B Minor" includes an expressive, diapason prelude, as well as an extended dialogue between the "Swell" and the "Vox Humana", which is "simulated by the Solo Cor Anglais coupled to the Choir Lieblich.

The score is attached below, as well as a painting of St. Dionis-Backchurch, Fenchurch Street.

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