Don Banks: Divertimento (1951) - Rondo: Allegro Con Brio

Abstract

"Pastorale: Andante Rondo: Allegro con brio Don Banks (1923-1980), trained as both a jazz musician and as a composer of concert music, helped set standards of professionalism among Australian composers during his years as a freelance composer based in London and, after his final return to live and work in Australia in 1973, as composer, teacher and administrator in this country. He became chairman of the Music Board of the Australia Council and took charge of composition teaching successively at the Canberra School of Music and the New South Wales (now Sydney) Conservatorium. Above all, he remained a musician's musician, noted for his clarity of technique and his thorough understanding of compositional craft. In his Divertimento for flute and string trio, composed in 1951 and among the earliest works in his catalogue, he writes elegantly for flute and the standard string trio (violin, viola, cello). The Pastorale title of the first movement is matched, in traditional fashion, with the 6/8 metre long associated in western music with a pastoral style (see Purcell, Monteverdi, Handel, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Mozart, among many others). Reflecting Banks's exploration of serial technique at the time he wrote the piece, the use of chromaticism manages to suggest a certain degree of freedom and spontaneity while being at all times carefully controlled. The looped, twining line of the flute part begins by being almost indolently graceful but later takes on a degree of urgency before returning to its initial mood. In the fast Rondo of the second movement, the flute's solo status is asserted from the very first phrase. While the strings have plenty of lively and interesting things to do, the flute meets technical challenges comparable with those of a concerto soloist." -- Roger Coveil