Jiri Antonin Benda

Jiří Antonín Benda (1722-1795) was Czech composer of early classicism. Younger brother of František Benda. His works of that period are of great compositional importance, due in part to the liberal environment of the court, where the thoughts of French encyclopedists found strong acceptance and greatly influenced Benda. Rousseau's idea of a scenic melodrama stimulated Benda to create this new genre. In his dramatic and instrumental works, he preceded Beethoven in many things and, in the atmosphere of his work, even Romanticism.