Don Banks

Donald Oscar Banks (25 October 1923 – 5 September 1980) was an Australian composer of concert, jazz, and commercial music.

Not to be confused with Don Bank.
Don Banks
Born
Donald Oscar Banks

25 October 1923
Australia
Died5 September 1990 (aged 66)
McMahons Point, New South Wales, Australia
OccupationMusic composer

Life and career

Jazz was Banks' earliest and strongest musical influence. He studied composition privately with Matyas Seiber, who was himself much interested in jazz, from 1950-1952. He became a friend and associate of Gunther Schuller and was much involved with Tubby Hayes, writing several compositions for him.

In the 1950s Banks was the secretary to Edward Clark, head of the London Contemporary Music Centre.[1] He was chairman of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM) in 1967-68, and held several other posts in London whilst living in Purley, Surrey.

He returned to Australia in 1972, as Head of Composition and Electronic Music Studies at the Canberra School of Music. He remained there till 1977, then had a series of educational positions. In 1978 he was appointed Head of the School of Composition Studies at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music.[2]

Banks's best-known works include Nexus, his major 'Third Stream' composition, the Sonata da Camera for flute, clarinet, bass clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, viola, and cello (1961 - dedicated to Matyas Seiber); a Horn Concerto (1965); a Trio for horn, violin, and piano (1962); and a Violin Concerto (1968).

He died at his home in the Sydney suburb of McMahons Point, after an eight-year battle with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.[3] He left a widow, Valerie, and a son, Simon. The Don Banks Music Award, funded by the Australia Council for the Arts, is named after him

Compositions

Orchestral works
  • Assemblies (1966)
  • Four Pieces for Orchestra (1953)
  • Horn Concerto (1965)
  • Intersections for Orchestra and Electronics (1969)
  • Prospects (1973)
  • Trilogy (1979)
  • Violin Concerto (1968)

Third Stream/Crossover works
  • Equations I (1963) for Jazz and Chamber players
  • Meeting Place (1970) for Jazz ensemble, Symphony orchestra and Synthesizer
  • Equations II for Jazz and Chamber players
  • Nexus (1971) for Jazz quintet and Symphony orchestra

Filmography

Banks is credited for composing music in the following films:[4][5]

References
General
  • Larson, Randall D. (1996), "Don Banks", Music from the House of Hammer: Music in the Hammer Horror Films, 1950-1980 (Volume 47 of The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series), Scarecrow Press, pp. 51–57, ISBN 9781461669845
Specific
  1. Graham Hair, Musical Ideas, Musical Sounds: A Collection of Essays
  2. Randall D. Larson, Music from the House of Hammer: Music in the Hammer Horror Films, 1950-1980. Retrieved 25 April 2016
  3. Larry Sitsky, "Banks, Donald Oscar (1923–1980)", Australian Dictionary of Biography 13 (1940–1980, A–De), edited by John Ritchie and Christopher Cunneen (Carlton, Vic.: Melbourne University Press, 1993).
  4. Michael R. Pitts, Columbia Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1928-1982, p. 256
  5. Randall D. Larson (1996a), "Music Credits by Title", Music from the House of Hammer: Music in the Hammer Horror Films, 1950-1980 (Volume 47 of The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series), Scarecrow Press, pp. 169–176, ISBN 9781461669845

Further reading
  • Banks, Don (1970). "Converging Streams". Musical Times 111, no. 1528 (June): 596–99.
  • Barkl, Michael. (1997). "Don Banks". The Oxford Companion to Australian Music, edited by Warren Bebbington. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
  • Covell, Roger (1967). Australia’s Music: Themes for a New Society. Melbourne: Sun Books.
  • David Huckvale (2008), "Australian Menace: Don Banks and Malcolm Williamson", Hammer Film Scores and the Musical Avant-Garde, McFarland, pp. 133–153, ISBN 9780786451661
  • Randall D. Larson (1996b), "Don Banks Biographical Essay", Soundtrack Magazine, 15 (58)
  • Mann, William (1968). "The Music of Don Banks". Musical Times 109, no. 1506 (August): 719–21.
  • Sitsky, Larry (2011). Australian Chamber Music with Piano. Canberra: ANU E Press. ISBN 978-1921862403 (pbk); ISBN 9781921862410 (ebook).
  • Pressing, Jeff, John Whiteoak, and Roger T. Dean (2002). "Banks, Don(ald Oscar)". The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, second edition, edited by Barry Dean Kernfeld, 3 vols. London: Macmillan Publishers. ISBN 9780333691892.
  • Toop, Richard (2001). "Banks, Don(ald Oscar)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
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