BENNET, JOHN

born c. 1575, ; fl. 1599-1614 English composer known chiefly for his madrigals, which ranged from light and festive in character to serious and even solemn. Almost nothing is known about Bennet's life, but there is some evidence that he may have come from the border of Lancashire and Cheshire. Bennet occasionally borrowed madrigal texts from existing collections and reset them to original tunes; he is not known to have borrowed tunes. One of Bennet's sources of such texts was Thomas Morley, to whose Triumphs of Oriana Bennet contributed the well-known madrigal "All creatures now are merry-minded." In addition to two volumes of madrigals, he composed a serious piece, for viol accompaniment, to celebrate Queen Elizabeth I and a verse anthem "for the King's inauguration," O God of Gods.