Gibson's historiographic chapter uncovers much new information about black banjo and fiddle players, and dance, in Kentucky, and their influence on white musicians, from the 1780s. Gura, Philip F.
The definitive history of the banjo, focusing on the instrument's development in the 1800s. Katonah Museum of Art (2003).
Another man who learned to play from African-Americans, probably in the 1820s, was Joel Walker Sweeney, a minstrel performer from Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
1785–1795, of an enslaved person playing a banjo-like instrument (The Old Plantation) shows a four-string instrument with its fourth (thumb) string shorter than the others. ===Minstrel era, 1830s–1870s=== In the antebellum South, many enslaved blacks played the banjo and taught their enslavers how to play it.
Although Robert McAlpin Williamson is the first documented white banjoist, in the 1830s Sweeney became the first white performer to play the banjo on stage.
New music spurred the creation of "evolutionary variations" of the banjo, from the five-string model current since the 1830s to newer four-string plectrum and tenor banjos. The instruments became ornately decorated in the 1920s to be visually dynamic to a theater audience.
Sweeney participated in this transition by encouraging drum maker William Boucher of Baltimore to make banjos commercially for him to sell. According to Arthur Woodward in 1949, Sweeney replaced the gourd with a sound box made of wood and covered with skin, and added a short fifth string about 1831.
Banjos were introduced in Britain by Sweeney's group, the American Virginia Minstrels, in the 1840s, and became very popular in music halls. The instrument grew in popularity during the 1840s after Sweeney began his traveling minstrel show.
By the end of the 1840s the instrument had expanded from Caribbean possession to take root in places across America and across the Atlantic in England.
There were more teachers teaching banjo basics in the 1850s than there had been in the 1840s.
It was estimated in 1866 that there were probably 10,000 banjos in New York City, up from only a handful in 1844.
He opened a shop in London in 1846, and sold seven-string banjos which he marketed as "zither" banjos from his 1869 patent.
The enthusiasm for the instrument was labeled a "banjo craze" or "banjo mania." By the 1850s, aspiring banjo players had options to help them learn their instrument.
There were more teachers teaching banjo basics in the 1850s than there had been in the 1840s.
A popular movement of aspiring banjoists began as early as 1861.
Converse's New and Complete Method for the Banjo with or without a Master, published in 1865. To play in guitar style, players use the thumb and two or three fingers on their right hand to pick the notes.
It was estimated in 1866 that there were probably 10,000 banjos in New York City, up from only a handful in 1844.
These books taught the "stroke style" or "banjo style", similar to modern "frailing" or "clawhammer" styles. By 1868, music for the banjo was available printed in a magazine, when J.
He opened a shop in London in 1846, and sold seven-string banjos which he marketed as "zither" banjos from his 1869 patent.
Alternatively known as "finger style", the new way of playing the banjo displaced the stroke method, until by 1870 it was the dominant style.
They were often made by builders who used guitar tuners that came in banks of three, so five-stringed instruments had a redundant tuner; these banjos could be somewhat easily converted over to a six-string banjo. American Alfred Davis Cammeyer (1862–1949), a young violinist turned concert banjo player, devised the six-string zither banjo around 1880.
Examples include the banjo mandolin (first patented in 1882) and the banjo ukulele, most famously played by the English comedian George Formby.
Huntley made an effort to "elevate" the instrument or make it more "artistic," by "bringing it to a more sophisticated level of technique and repertoire based on European standards." Huntley may have been the first white performer to successfully make the transition from performing in blackface to being himself on stage, noted by the Boston Herald in November 1884.
Samuel Swaim Stewart summarized the style in 1888, saying, The banjo, although popular, carried low-class associations from its role in blackface minstrel shows, medicine shows, tent shows, and variety shows or vaudeville.
An 1888 newspaper said, "All the maidens and a good many of the women also strum the instrument, banjo classes abound on every side and banjo recitals are among the newest diversions of fashion...Youths and elderly men too have caught the fever...the star strummers among men are in demand at the smartest parties and have the choosing of the society of the most charming girls." Some of those entertainers, such as Alfred A.
British opera diva Adelina Patti advised Cammeyer that the zither banjo might be popular with English audiences as it had been invented there, and Cammeyer went to London in 1888.
This new banjo was at first tuned d'Gdf♯a, though by the 1890s, this had been transposed up to g'cgbd'.
Petite variations on the five-string banjo have been available since the 1890s.
The instrument was modern now, a bright new thing, with polished metal sides. ===Ragtime era (1895–1919) and Jazz Age era (1910s–1930s)=== In the early 1900s, new banjos began to spread, four-string models, played with a plectrum rather than with the minstrel-banjo clawhammer stroke or the classic-banjo fingerpicking style.
It became a popular instrument after about 1910.
New music spurred the creation of "evolutionary variations" of the banjo, from the five-string model current since the 1830s to newer four-string plectrum and tenor banjos. The instruments became ornately decorated in the 1920s to be visually dynamic to a theater audience.
With development of the archtop and electric guitar, the tenor banjo largely disappeared from jazz and popular music, though keeping its place in traditional "Dixieland" jazz. Some 1920s Irish banjo players picked out the melodies of jigs, reels, and hornpipes on tenor banjos, decorating the tunes with snappy triplet ornaments.
He went on to develop new instruments, produce records, and appear in movies. Frank Lawes (1894–1970), of the United Kingdom, developed a unique fingerstyle technique on the four-string plectrum instrument, and was a prolific composer of four-string banjo music, much of which is still performed and recorded today. Harry Reser (1896–1965), plectrum and tenor banjo, was regarded by some as the best tenor banjoist of the 1920s.
His 1948 method book How to Play the Five-String Banjo has been credited by thousands of banjoists, including prominent professionals, with sparking their interest in the instrument.
1985) Other important four-string performers were Mike Pingitore, who played tenor for the Paul Whiteman Orchestra through 1948, and Roy Smeck, early radio and recording pioneer, author of many instructional books, and whose influential performances on many fretted instruments earned him the nickname "Wizard of the Strings", during his active years (1922–1950).
Sweeney participated in this transition by encouraging drum maker William Boucher of Baltimore to make banjos commercially for him to sell. According to Arthur Woodward in 1949, Sweeney replaced the gourd with a sound box made of wood and covered with skin, and added a short fifth string about 1831.
All of these styles are typically played with fingerpicks. The first five-string, electric, solid-body banjo was developed by Charles Wilburn (Buck) Trent, Harold "Shot" Jackson, and David Jackson in 1960. The five-string banjo has been used in classical music since before the turn of the 20th century.
Use of the tenor banjo in Irish music has increased greatly since the folk revival of the 1960s. ===Six-string banjos=== The six-banjo began as a British innovation by William Temlett, one of England's earliest banjo makers.
However, modern scholar Gene Bluestein pointed out in 1964 that Sweeney may not have originated either the 5th string or sound box.
Winner of the Simkins Prize of the Southern Historical Association, 1979.
D 1983-2170-1 De Smaele G.
University of Illinois Press, 2003.
He has won the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass in 2010.
1988) plays banjo (among other instruments) for the British folk rock group Mumford and Sons, a band that won the 2013 Grammy Award for "Best Album of the Year". == See also == Akonting Banjo (samba) Banjo ukulele Benju Bulbul tarang Cuatro (instrument) Double-neck guitjo Stringed instrument tunings ==References== == Further reading == === Banjo history === Conway, Cecelia (1995).
"Banjo Attitudes." Paris: L'Harmattan, 2015. De Smaele G.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016. Epstein, Dena (1977).
Both audio and video are provided. "The Physics of Banjos – A Conversation with David Politzer", Ideas Roadshow, 2016 String instruments Banjo family instruments African-American music Bluegrass music Folk music instruments American musical instruments Celtic musical instruments Irish musical instruments
He has been nominated for eight Grammy Nominations and has been awarded one with his band, The Punch Brothers, in 2018. Clifford Essex, (b.
"Black Banjo, Fiddle and Dance in Kentucky and the Amalgamation of African American and Anglo-American Folk Music." Banjo Roots and Branches(Winans, 2018).
University of Illinois Press, 2018.
University of Illionois Press, 2018.
"A Five-String Banjo Sourcebook." Paris: L'Harmattan, 2019. Dubois, Laurent (2016).
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