Wilfred Ellington Bendall

[Robin]

I have been interested in Wilfred Bendall for ages but have only ever found a single photograph of him, and that not very clear. Does anyone know of any photographic sources? Anyone know anything about him other than his time as Sullivan's secretary or his professorship at the Guildhall? Anyone have any leads to autograph manuscripts of either his stage works or cantatas etc?

Thanks!
Robin

[Jimfin]

Not much use, but I notice that he continued the work of making the piano accompaniments to Savoy operas under Edward German: "A Princess of Kensington" has his name on the title page, though "Fallen Fairies" doesn't. So he presumably did that work not only as Sullivan's secretary. He had already started on "The Emerald Isle" before Sullivan died, so I guess he was quite useful to German carrying on that work.

[Robin]

Yes, WB also did the vocal scores of Edward German's Tom Jones and Merrie England. I know that Bendall had retired from the Guildhall in 1905; perhaps the difficulties that EG was experiencing with WS Gilbert over Fallen Fairies (1909?) made him wary of accepting the work?

[albion]

There is some material in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, including a scrapbook of Wilfred Bendall's career kept by his nephew, Arnold Bendall. Besides press cuttings, it contains an unsigned typescript biography.

The full score of Bendall's unfinished Symphony in C minor (1900) is in the Music Department of the State Library in Berlin (D-B/ Mus.ms. 1380). The first three movements (Allegro moderato; Andante; Scherzo) are present, but a finale is lacking.

[eschiss1]

The orchestral parts to his cantata The Lady of Shalott can be found in a few places courtesy of the Tams-Witmark library series (and the vocal score is also at some libraries). That seems to be good fortune comparatively.

[albion]

The orchestral parts for the ballet suite version of Song Dances (1899) are in the British Library - h.1508.h.(2.)

[styfflyttelkitteh]

Hello! There is a photograph of Bendall in the Arthur Lawrence biography of Sullivan. He's one of a group with Sullivan. The photo was taken at Leeds during October 1898. Bendall was, during the same year, at least in part, responsible for the orchestration of the revised edition of Sullivan's The Martyr of Antioch, prepared for the Carl Rosa Opera Company.