Gilbert Banester was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 composer. Possibly a native of London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, he was Master of the Children of the Chapel Royal beginning in 1478. His works are found in a number of Tudor manuscript collections of church music, including the Pepys Manuscript

Pepys Manuscript

The Pepys Manuscript is a late fifteenth-century English choirbook. Along with the Ritson Manuscript it is much less elaborate than the Eton, Lambeth and Caius Choirbooks, it contains shorter and simpler pieces which appear to have been written for smaller and less able choirs. The book received...

; there is also an antiphon

Antiphon

An antiphon in Christian music and ritual, is a "responsory" by a choir or congregation, usually in Gregorian chant, to a psalm or other text in a religious service or musical work....

 by his hand in the Eton Choirbook

Eton Choirbook

The Eton Choirbook is a richly illuminated manuscript collection of English sacred music composed during the late fifteenth century. It was one of very few collections of Latin liturgical music to survive the Reformation, and originally contained music by 24 different composers; however, many of...

. Stylistically the work is similar to those of William Horwood

William Horwood (composer)

William Horwood was an English polyphonic vocal composer in the late-medieval period . In 1470, he was a singer at Lincoln Cathedral, in 1476, he was a vicar choral at Lincoln, and from 1477 until 1484, he was the Cathedral choirmaster...

 in the same book, but is unusual in that it is written to a prose

Prose

Prose is the most typical form of written language, applying ordinary grammatical structure and natural flow of speech rather than rhythmic structure...

 text. Two poems have been ascribed to Banester, the Miracle of St Thomas of 1467 and a translation of Boccaccio, dating to 1450, that is the first known in the English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

.

Little else is known of Banester's life; he is recorded as the "king's servant" in 1471. In addition, it is known that Edward IV

Edward IV of England

Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...

 provided him with corrodies

Corrody

A corrody is an allowance of food and clothing from an abbey, monastery, or other religious house. While rarely practiced in the modern era, corrodies were common in the Middle Ages. They were routinely awarded to the servants and staff of royalty, but could also be purchased with donations of...

for two Abbeys, and he was made a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1475. In 1478 he became master of the choristers. He died in 1487.

Reference

• Banester at hoasm.org