Ian Bent

Ian David Bent (born 1 January 1938) is a British-born music scholar. He is now professor emeritus, after retiring from Full Professor of Music, at Columbia University and Honorary Professor in the History of Music Theory at the University of Cambridge.

He took the BA (1961), MusB (1962), and PhD (1969) all from the University of Cambridge before serving as a lecturer at King's College, London in 1965, a professor at the University of Nottingham in 1975, and Columbia University in 1986. His earliest research dealt with the early history of the English Chapel Royal, but later he turned to the history of theory and analysis, and is now a historian of music theory.

Published works Analysis (Macmillan, 1987; translated into Italian and French). Music Analysis in the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols (CUP, 1994 & 2004). and (edited) Music Theory in the Age of Romanticism (CUP, 1996).