The premature death of David Bates, FAAR 1975, on 6 November came to all of us at the Academy who had known him during his short stay here as a deep personal shock.  We admired him for his total absorption in and dedication to his work.  We liked him for his obvious sincerity and sweetness to everyone he met.  In retrospect, considering the enormous pain he must have been bearing constantly, I can think of no one who possessed greater courage or self control.

His death is a profound loss to the musical world as well.  His professional interests and activities spanned an enormous range: from composing for - and designing and building - sophisticated electronic sound synthesizers to spending a year as Composer in Residence to a school system. He was equally at home for a large orchestra or small chamber ensemble or making an electronic tape.  He chose materials proper to the medium for which each piece was written, and handled these materials with a supreme sense of style for each occasion.

His last compositions, such as the Fantasy in Two Parts for Piano and Orchestra, which will be performed on 21 December at this year's Academy orchestral concert, by Radio Italiana and his [Piano] Sonata to be performed by Ena Bronstein on 16 December at the Academy, showed an amalgamation of all his interests into a highly individual style.  Very diverse materials are welded into a coherent line by the sheer force of his personality and high sophistication of his technique.

 These last works have the quality of all genuine and lasting music, that subtle distance that hits one not so much at first, but at second glance.  He had stopped writing the music of his own time, with all its petty shocks and novelties, and was participating in that music for all times, based in the deepest and most unique human experience.  He and his music will continue to haunt me.”

John Eaton, Composer in Residence, American Academy in Rome, 1974