[1] His DPhil was awarded by the University of Oxford in 1979 for his thesis "Solo song in England from 1900 to 1940: Critical studies of the late flowering of a romantic genre".
[5] Banfield's comprehensive, two volume study of early twentieth century English song, first published in 1985, is notable for its incorporation of both literary and musical scholarship alongside a performance perspective.
[8] He organized a revival of Granville Bantock's hour-long orchestral song cycle Sappho at Birmingham in 1996.
[9] His work also includes in-depth studies of the American musical theatre composers Jerome Kern and Stephen Sondheim.
While at Birmingham he orchestrated from the existing piano scores Sondheim's first (and then unperformed) musical Saturday Night, holding a study day presentation of excerpts in 1994, advising the Bridewell Theatre's world premiere in 1997, and staging a full production at the University in 1998.