This Bohemian composer and violin virtuoso was the eldest of five musical children of Jan Jiři [Johann Georg] Benda (1686–1757) and Dorota Brixi, including the composers Georg (Jiři) Benda and Johann (Jan) Benda. In 1720 he ran away from his position in the choir at St. Nicolas’s in Prague, where he studied vocal music as well as in Dresden, where he sang in the court chapel choir and began study of violin and viola. In 1723 he returned to Prague, where he was a chorister and seminary student; later he shortly held positions as a violinist in Viena and Warshaw in the Saxon elector’s Polish royal orchestra. He received employment in the Prussian crown prince (later king Frederick II)‘s court orchestra in 1733, starting as first violinist, while in his first years also singing daily concert arias in his beautiful tenor voice, and was promoted to bandmaster in 1771 at the death of Johann Gottlieb Graun, a position he held until his own death. In Berlin he had close contact with C.P.E. Bach, Johan Joachim Quantz, Carl Heinrich Graun and Johann Gottlieb Graun, who all worked at some time for the Prussian court. Franz was famous for his cantabile playing; copies of his violin works contain embellished melodic lines that perhaps represent the way he played them until gout ruined his dexterity circa 1750. He remained a significant pedagogue, teaching not only his younger brothers and sons but also a wide circuit of musicians, so the Benda family’s house in Postdam became a meeting place for his students and other followers; his series of 101 etudes represented a prominent contemporary violin school and remained in use troughout the 19th century.

This contribution is based on booklet written anonymously for the “Benda musicians” recording and by Zdenka Pilkova for the F. Benda Violian sonatas, both mentioned in the Music section, N. Slonimsky’s “The Concise Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians”, New York, NY, Schirmer Books, 8th edition, 1994 and the HOASM link below.