Edward Joseph Dent was a British musicologist, translator and academic.
Edward Dent was born in Hunsingore in Yorkshire. His father was John Dent, who was a barrister who had been a Conservative Member of Parliament. Edward Dent was the youngest of seven children, including four sons and three daughters. He was brought up at the family home at Ribston Hall on a large estate between York and Harrogate.
Edward Dent was educated at Eton College where he studied music with C H Lloyd. He then went to King's College, Cambridge University. In 1898 he obtained a third class in part one of the classical tripos. In 1899 he obtained his Mus.B.
He was elected a Fellow of King's College Cambridge in 1902. He began lecturing on the history of music in 1902, and he also taught counterpoint, harmony, and composition. His closest friends were Lawrence Haward and J B Trend, but he began a close friendship with Clive Carey in 1902 which continued until Edward Dent's death. Clive Carey was a 19-year-old organ scholar at Clare College. Edward Dent wrote him over four hundred letters during their friendship.
Another friend was E M Forster who represented him as the character Philip Herriton in Where Angels Fear To Tread. Edward Dent also introduced Ronald Firbank to Rupert Brooke.
Edward Dent was part of a circle of gay men at Cambridge which included A T 'Theo' Bartholomew. In the summer of 1915 they met Gabriel Atkin who was in Cambridge for his officer training. In August that year they also met Siegfried Sassoon who arrived in Cambridge for the same reason. Gabriel Atkin had already left but Edward Dent engaged in some matchmaking and encouraged Siegfried Sassoon and Gabriel Atkin to meet, which they did in November, 1918. This was the start of an affair of several years.
In 1918 Edward Dent moved to London and he became the music critic of the Athenaeum in 1919. In 1926 he returned to Cambridge University as Professor of Music, and he was also elected again as a Fellow of King's College. He was President of the Royal Musical Association from 1928 to 1935. In 1928 he was one of the founders of the International Society for Contemporary Music, and he was its President from its inauguration. He was then made an Honorary Life President in 1938.
He was a director and later governor of Sadler's Wells Opera, and a director of Covent Garden Opera Trust.
He was keen that as many people as possible should enjoy music and opera. His facility with languages allowed him to provide translations of work to make them more accessible to a wider audience.
He retired from his professorship in 1941, and from then on he lived in London.
In 1953 he was one of the first two musicians to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
In 1961 the Royal Musical Association instituted a Dent Medal which is awarded annually to recipients selected for their outstanding contributions to musicology.