Harald Banter

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Harald Banter (born Gerd von Wysocki on March 16, 1930 in Berlin ) is a German composer, arranger, music producer and band leader.

Live and act

Gerd von Wysocki was one of two sons of the artistic director of the Lindström-ODEON record company Georg von Wysocki and Edith von Wysocki, née Frank, who was Jewish. The marriage was divorced in 1936, the sons grew up with their father, who married a second time. Edith Frank married Victor Domkiewicz around 1940, the two and their eight-month-old daughter were deported to Auschwitz on February 26, 1943 and murdered.

In 1947 he became a composition student of Johannes Pranschke and Georg Haentzschel and after training as a sound engineer at the Berliner Rundfunk, he became music editor at the later Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln ( WDR ) in 1950 and founded the Harald Banter Ensemble in November 1952, which is why he adopted the artist name. The WDR Media Band , which included musicians such as Heinz Hötter and Friedel Berlipp , emerged in 1962 from the small big band that came together on a project basis . The band, which focuses on jazz, dance music and chamber music, was an integral part of public events organized by the WDR. In addition, there were weekly music programs with this ensemble. In 1956 he played the first jazz concert in Cologne's Gürzenich (with Albert Mangelsdorff , Wolfgang Sauer and his own ensemble, among others ). In the same year he performed the twelve-tone composition Twelve by Eleven by Gunther Schuller together with the Modern Jazz Quartet at the Stuttgart Light Music Week . For the ballet Marathona di danza (1957) 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. His most famous melody is Alfred's theme from the television series A Heart and a Soul , which he composed in 1973 in musette style, but which was not mentioned in the credits.

In 1960 he was entrusted with the management of a jazz class at the Duisburg Conservatory. The media band also made recordings for television.

During this time he was also with the Media Band on the dance course broadcasts Permit you? and dance party with the Fern couple . In 1974 Banter took over the management of the entertaining music division at WDR. From 1982 to 1995 he realized performances and recordings of lost operas and operettas, for example by Kurt Weill , Jacques Offenbach and Franz von Suppè, as a producer for the Cologne Radio Orchestra . In addition, he led the ensemble four plus six for twelve years , with which he recorded jazz in his own arrangements.

Particularly noteworthy among his compositions are his concertante jazz dream mirror, the ballet Diana Sorpresa , the fairy tale picture suite, the piece Muse from Soundland , the symphonic overture Prolog 2000 , amores (love strategies) for speaker, choir and jazz orchestra based on texts by Ovid , the rhapsodic concerto for cello and orchestra Phaedra , Die Reise as a work for mixed choir and orchestra (based on texts by Baudelaire ) and the opera The Blue Bird .

His sister is the essayist, theater and prose writer Gisela von Wysocki . His daughter Cordula von Wysocki is editor-in-chief of the daily Kölnische Rundschau .

Prizes and awards

In 1992 he received the Silver Leaf of the Dramatiker Union , in 1993 the "Medal for Services to German Music" from the German Composers' Association , and in 1994 the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia awarded him the title of Honorary Professor. Since 1996 he has been an honorary member of GEMA , whose supervisory board he was on for more than 30 years. Harald Banter has been Chairman of the Advisory Board since the German Composers' Archive was founded in the European Center for the Arts in Hellerau in 2005.

Publications (selection)

  • Tone episodes. A life with right and wrong grades. ConBrio, Regensburg 2002, ISBN 3932581571 .
  • Chord lexicon. 1,400 harmony symbols at a glance (= Edition Schott. Volume 6994). Schott, Mainz.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Günther von Wysocki: Edith Domkiewicz (née Frank) , at Stolpersteine ​​Berlin
  2. ↑ "Jazz socially acceptable!" Was the headline of the press in 1956 after the concert and compared the performance with that of Benny Goodman in New York's Carnegie Hall . see. Harald Banter tone episodes. A life with right and wrong grades , p. 84
  3. ↑ Banter Ton episodes. A life with right and wrong grades , p. 96ff.
  4. ↑ Banter Ton episodes. A life with right and wrong grades , pp. 89f
  5. ↑ TV nostalgia: One heart and one soul
  6. ↑ In 1965/66 Peter Thomas recorded the title Melissa from the Durbridge multi-part series of the same name, originally with the Media Band. The theme was heard as background music in the WDR three-part series and was played in the film by an Odeon single.
  7. ↑ Banter Ton episodes. A life with right and wrong grades , p. 123ff.
  8. ↑ Banter Ton episodes. A life with right and wrong grades , p. 137ff
  9. ↑ See his autobiography Ton-Follow and article Georg von Wysocki
  10. ↑ http://www.kompistenarchiv.de/satzung-und-beirat/
personal data
SURNAME Banter, Harald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wysocki, Gerd von (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer, arranger, music producer and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin