Harald Banter (real name: Gerd von Wysocki) was born on March 16, 1930 in Berlin, the son of the artistic director of the Odeon Lindström record company, Georg von Wysocki. After training as a sound engineer at the Berlin radio station, he became music editor at Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln (WDR) in 1950, where he founded the Harald Banter Ensemble in 1951, which later became the WDR Media Band. In 1956 he played the first jazz concert with Albert Mangelsdorff in the Gürzenich in Cologne. Together with the Modern Jazz Quartet he performed the twelve-tone composition Twelve by Eleven by Gunther Schuller. For the ballet Marathona di danza by Hans Werner Henze for symphony orchestra and jazz band, Banter wrote the jazz parts in collaboration with Henze. As a composer, arranger and conductor he also worked with Hermann Scherchen and Bernd Alois Zimmermann during these years. Banter wrote numerous film scores for television.
About the music
Particularly worthy of mention among his compositions are his concert jazz Dream Mirror, the ballet Diana Sorpresa, the Fairy Tale Picture Suite, the piece Muse from Soundland, the symphonic overture Prolog 2000, Amores (Love Elegies) based on texts by Ovid, the rhapsodic concerto for cello and orchestra Phaedra, The Journey as a work for mixed choir and orchestra (based on texts by Baudelaire) and the opera The Blue Bird, as well as the choral cycles Heidebilder, Die Sterne, Elemente des Seins and others.
Photo credits
privat
This website uses cookies to ensure the best experience possible. More information...
