Educated
Eton and Cambridge Univ., where he was taught by Stanford and Charles Wood.
Taught mus. at Cambridge Univ. 1902-18, and was involved in prod. of Die Zauberflöte
in his trans. in 1911, when this opera was virtually unknown in Brit. Prof.
of mus., Cambridge Univ. 1926-41. Active in many Eng. operatic ventures and
esp. as translator of libs. for, among others, Beethoven, Berlioz, Busoni,
Gluck, Handel, Tchaikovsky, Verdi, and Wagner. His trans. of 4 Mozart operas
contributed largely to their re- evaluation in Eng. In 1919 he helped found
Brit. Mus. Soc. (disbanded 1933) and in 1922 organized a fest. of contemporary
chamber mus. in Salzburg from which developed the International Society for Contemporary Music. Dent became first pres., 1923-37. Pres., Int. Musicological Soc. 1931-49, RMA 1928-35. Ed. The Beggar's Opera, 1944. Contrib. to many encyclopaedias and dictionaries, critic, and author of books Alessandro Scarlatti (1905), Mozart's Operas (1913, rev. 1947 and 1955), Ferruccio Busoni (1933), and Handel (1934).