Banister, Henry Charles

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Banister, Henry Charles

Banister, Henry Charles, English musk theorist, teacher, and composer; b. London, June 13, 1831; d. Streatham, near London, Nov. 20, 1897. He studied music with his father, a cellist; then with Cipriani Potter at the Royal Academy of Music, where he twice gained the King’s scholarship (1846 and 1848). He was appointed asst. prof. (1853) of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, and also taught harmony at Guildhall School (from 1880) and at the Royal Normal Coll. for the Blind (from 1881). He publ. Textbook of Music (London, 1872), Some Musical Ethics and Analogies (1884), Lectures on Musical Analysis (1887), Musical Art and Study (1888), George Alexander Macfarren (1892), Helpful Papers for Harmony Students (1895), The Harmonising of Melodies (1897), and The Art of Modulating (1901). A collection of his lectures, Interludes, ed. by Macpherson, appeared in 1898. Banister composed four syms. and five overtures, chamber music, cantatas, piano pieces, and songs.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire