Harry Danks, (1912-2001) was a British violist and principal viola of the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The ...

from 1946 to 1978. He was the founder and director of the London Consort of Viols.

Biography

Harry Danks was born in

Pensnett Pensnett is a village of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands County, England, south-west of Dudley. Pensnett has been a part of Dudley since 1966, when the Brierley Hill Urban District, of which it was a part, was absorbed into ...

near Bridgnorth in Worcestershire, England, on 18 May 1912, the eldest of three sons born to Samuel Henry and Elizabeth Icke. His early music lessons on the violin were given by two uncles and he then sought lessons with the leader of the

City of Birmingham Orchestra The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. It is the resident orchestra at Symphony Hall, Birmingham in Birmingham, which has been its principal performance venue since 1991. Its adminis ...

(CBO), Paul Beard. His early career was playing in silent film and variety theatres. After tuition from Beard, Danks became a pupil of Alfred Cave who arranged for Danks to play for Leslie Heward, the conductor of the CBO, who offered Danks a violin position in the orchestra. Danks became a violist in the orchestra in 1935, and began having lessons with

Lionel Tertis Lionel Tertis, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (29 December 187622 February 1975) was an English viola, violist. He was one of the first viola players to achieve international fame, and a noted teacher. Career Tertis was born ...

. In 1936, Danks married Leonora (Nora) Shrimpton, a pianist he met when they were playing in a cinema orchestra. He had a brief period with the

Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an English orchestra, founded in 1893 and originally based in Bournemouth. With a remit to serve the South and South West of England, the BSO is administratively based in the adjacent town of Poole, s ...

before being offered a position with the

in 1937. He played with the BBCSO until his retirement in September 1978. When war broke out Danks joined the

Royal Regiment of Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

and was stationed in Herefordshire, attaining the rank of Sergeant. He became leader of the Western Command Symphony Orchestra and played the Mendelssohn and Bruch Violin Concertos in Chester Cathedral. Once the war had ended, Danks returned to London in 1946 and was offered the principal viola position with the BBCSO, under Sir

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was a British conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...

. Under Boult and the BBCSO, he performed the Walton Viola Concerto in May 1949 and gave first performances of many viola concertos including those by

Quincy Porter William Quincy Porter (February 7, 1897 – November 12, 1966) was an American composer and teacher of european classical music, classical music. Biography Born in New Haven, Connecticut, he went to Yale University where his teachers included H ...

(1952),

Graham Whettam Graham Whettam (7 September 1927 – 17 August 2007) was an English post-romantic composer. Biography Whettam was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, and studied at St Luke's College, Exeter. Though he never formally studied at a music school and wa ...

(1956),

Boris Blacher Boris Blacher (30 January 1975) was a German composer and librettist. Life Blacher was born when his parents (of German-Estonian and Russian backgrounds) were living within a Russian-speaking community in the Manchurian town of Niuzhuang () (h ...

(1959),

Mario Zafred Mario Zafred (2 March 1922 Trieste – 22 May 1987 Rome) was an Italian composer, music critic, and opera director. He also served as the president of various Italian music conservatories including the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Biogra ...

(1961),

Gordon Jacob Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE (5 July 18958 June 1984) was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about ...

(revised version 1977),

Hilding Rosenberg Hilding Constantin Rosenberg (June 21, 1892 – May 18, 1985)Lyne Peter H. Rosenberg, Hilding (Constantin). In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera''. Macmillan, London & New York, 1997. was a Swedish composer and conductor. He is commonly re ...

and

Hans Henkemans Hans Henkemans (The Hague, 23 December 1913 – Nieuwegein, 29 December 1995) was a Dutch pianist, teacher, composer of classical music and psychiatrist. Henkemans was one of the most important Dutch composers of his time. From 1926 to 1931 he st ...

. He gave many first performances including the Sonata da Chiesa for viola and organ by Frank Martin in May 1954 at

All Souls Church All Souls Church, All Soul's Chapel, and variations, may refer to: United Kingdom *Church of All Souls, Bolton *All Souls' Church, Halifax *All Souls Church, Hastings *All Souls' Church, Blackman Lane *All Souls Church, Langham Place *All Souls Ch ...

in Langham Place with the organist James Lockhart. Also in 1954 he premiered the Sonata for Viola and Piano by John Prideaux-Brune with Robert Collett. In 1964 he was amongst the instrumental ensemble who gave the first performance of Peter Maxwell Davies's ''Shakespeare Music''. At a concert in the

Wigmore Hall The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall at 36 Wigmore Street, in west London. It was designed by Thomas Edward Collcutt and opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall; it is considered to have particularly good building acoustics, acoustics. It specialis ...

on 1 January 1977, to commemorate Lionel Tertis's centenary, Danks, along with other members of the viola section of the BBCSO gave first performances of three works:

Edmund Rubbra Edmund Rubbra (; 23 May 190114 February 1986) was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak o ...

's ''Meditation on a Byzantine Hymn'' for two violas; John Wray's ''Suite for 6 Violas'' and

's ''Suite for 8 Violas''. He gave the first broadcast performances of many other works, including Giorgio Frederico Ghedini's ''Pezzo Concertante'' for two violins, (Paul Beard and Thomas Peatfield), viola and orchestra in 1950. The work was conducted by

Igor Markevitch Igor Borisovich Markevitch (, ''Igor Borisovich Markevich'', , ''Ihor Borysovych Markevych''; 27 July 1912 – 7 March 1983) was a Russian composer and conductor who studied and worked in Paris and became a naturalized Italian and French citi ...

; the Duet Rhapsody for Soprano and Viola by Kenneth Harding (1953), Pamela Petts was the soprano soloist; Also in 1953,

Benjamin Dale Benjamin James Dale (17 July 188530 July 1943) was an English composer and academic who had a long association with the Royal Academy of Music. Dale showed compositional talent from an early age and went on to write a small but notable corpus of ...

's Introduction and Andante for Six Violas, performed by: Danks, Zingra Bunbury, Stanley Wotton, Kenneth Harding, Sheila Spencer and Joan Wolstencroft; In September 1955, Sonata for Viola and Piano by Horace Somerville; In December 1955, ''

The Death of Tintagiles ''The Death of Tintagiles'' () is an 1894 play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. It was Maeterlinck's last play for marionettes. Maeterlinck dedicated the play to Aurélien Lugné-Poe, a theatre director who had supported several of hi ...

'' for orchestra and viola d'Amore by

Charles Martin Loeffler Charles Martin Tornov Loeffler (January 30, 1861 – May 19, 1935) was a German-born American violinist and composer. Family background Charles Martin Loeffler was born Martin Karl Löffler on January 30, 1861, in Schöneberg near Berlin to par ...

; the Prelude, Aria and Finale for viola d'Amore and chamber orchestra by

Leighton Lucas Leighton Lucas (5 January 1903 – 1 November 1982) was an English composer and conductor. His career was wide-ranging: he was associated with the revival of interest in 20th century English ballet, arranged music for dance bands, conducted chall ...

in 1956 and Four Pieces for solo viola by Frank Stiles (1984). He was a soloist at several BBC Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. In July 1947 he performed

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...

's ''

Don Quixote , the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...

'' with the cellist

Zara Nelsova Zara Nelsova (December 23, 1918October 10, 2002) was a prominent cellist. Biography Nelsova was born as Sara Katznelson in Winnipeg, Canada, to parents of Jewish-Russian descent. Nelsova first performed at the age of five in Winnipeg. She eventua ...

. He performed the same work in July of the following year with the cellist

Paul Tortelier Paul Tortelier (21 March 1914 – 18 December 1990) was a French cellist and composer. After an outstanding student career at the Conservatoire de Paris he played in orchestras in France and the US before the Second World War. After the war he bec ...

. In August 1949 he performed

Hector Berlioz Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold en Italie, Harold in Italy'' ...

's '' Harold in Italy'', Op 16, with the BBC under the conductor

Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...

. Again, under Sargent and the BBCSO, he performed

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams ( ; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

' ''Flos Campi'' in January 1950. In August 1958 at the

Royal Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London, England. It has a seating capacity of 5,272. Since the hall's opening by Queen Victoria in 1871, the world's leading artists from many performance genres ...

he performed ''Don Quixote'' by Richard Strauss with the cellist

Pierre Fournier Pierre Léon Marie Fournier (24 June 19068 January 1986) was a French cellist who was called the "aristocrat of cellists" on account of his elegant musicianship and majestic sound. Biography Pierre Fournier was born in Paris, the son of a F ...

. In August 1959 he performed the same work with the cellist

Erling Blöndal Bengtsson Erling Blöndal Bengtsson (8 March 1932 – 6 June 2013) was a Danish cellist. Born in Copenhagen, Bengtsson gave his first public performance there in 1936, when he was four years old. He was admitted at the age of sixteen to the Curtis Institut ...

. He performed ''Don Quixote'' once again in September 1962 with the cellist

János Starker János Starker (; ; July 5, 1924 – April 28, 2013) was a Hungarian-American cellist. From 1958 until his death, he taught at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he held the title of Distinguished Professor. Starker is conside ...

, with a further performance at the 1964 Proms with

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enl ...

which was recorded and released on the BBC Legends Label.BBC Programme Index: https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/ As well as his orchestral and consort playing, he played throughout England in a number of ensembles such as the London Octet, The London Harpsichord Ensemble, The Herbert Downes Quartet, The Amati String Quartet, The Laurance Turner String Quartet and The Armada Orchestra. He was the founder (in 1948) and director of the London Consort of Viols which played and broadcast regularly from 1949 to 1965. He published two editions of his book, The Viola D'Amore, in 1976 and an enlarged edition in 1979. He was Professor of Viola at the Guildhall School of music from 1978 to 1981. Danks's daughter Ysobel was a violinist in the BBCSO and was married to the cellist Alexander Kok. Danks's son Eugene was also a violinist and conductor, once conducting Danks in a performance of '' Harold in Italy''. Two years after the death of Lionel Tertis, Danks was asked by Lionel Tertis's widow, Lillian Tertis to form a committee to organize a competition and festival in Tertis's memory. The Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition has taken place every three years at the Port Erin Arts Centre on the Isle of Man since its inception in 1980. Harry Danks sat on the judging panel of the competition in 1980, 1988 and 1991. Danks played on a viola made by

Amati Amati (, ) is the last name of a family of Italian violin makers who lived at Cremona from about 1538 to 1740. Their importance is considered equal to those of the Bergonzi, Guarneri, and Stradivari families. Today, violins created by Nico ...

of Cremona in 1615, known as the 'Stauffer'. He also played on a 1750 Eberle viola d’Amore once owned by Louis van Waefelghem. Harry Danks died on 26 April 2001. After his death, his daughter Ysobel gave to the violist John White (a pupil of Danks), a large collection of music which had belonged to Lionel Tertis. In a piano score of the Walton Viola Concerto is an inscription : 'To Harry Danks, a most sincere player of the viola to whom I wish all success. Lionel Tertis 1 March 1937'.https://www.britishviolasociety.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/The-Lionel-Tertis-John-White-Archive.pdf

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danks, Harry 1912 births 2001 deaths English classical violists 20th-century British violists Players of the BBC Symphony Orchestra Musicians from Worcestershire