John Bennet

More than likely a contemporary of John Dunstable, Benet was an English composer of approximately 21 works which still survive. A number of the works are linked by common themes as well as the structure of a mass in the ordinary. The present numbering of the pieces does not sequentially fall into the pattern of a mass. Benet's music contained one of the earliest arrangements employing the word "chorus" and the chornology of his works demonstrates a certain development: from an almost mundane similarity of melodic style to lucid harmonies and rhythms appropriate to Dunstable's style. ~ Keith Johnson