New tutor?

[Carl Anderton]

In Alden's Illustrated Family Miscellany of September 1864 I found a reference to

 

"Christy's Minstrels' Complete Banjo Tutor (used by Thal-berg, the Eminent Pianist), containing numerous Gamuts, Lessons, &tc., Full Instructions for Learning the Banjo, and 50 Songs, Jigs, Reels, &tc."

 

I haven't found any other reference to this (heretofore unknown?) tutor.  Sure would be nice to find out more.  This is apparently an English publication.

[Ian Bell]

I poked around online and only found two references. I was really surprised to see it listed in the bibliography in the liner notes of Pete Seeger's old "How to Play The Banjo" lp from the early 60s. It was it with a selection of other tutors including Howe's and Dobsons. (I guess Pete had access to better libraries than most of us) The other was in an 1886 ad for a bookseller in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.

[Carl Anderton]

Well, those aren't the two references I found so we're making some incremental progress.  Maybe Greg or Jim will see this--as accredited academia's they have access to a wider set of online web research materials.

[Greg Adams]

Hello all,

 

I've got some good news for everyone. Richard Greene, a DC-area librarian at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum (and a person I am fortunate to have gotten to know in recent years), presented me with a photocopy of Christy’s Minstrels’ Complete Banjo Tutor With or Without a Master, Containing 50 Songs & Melodies that was certified by S. Thalberg. Richard is a very meticulous independent researcher and compiler of 18th and 19th century sheet music, music books, directories, and songbooks. He is also a violinist who specializes in 18th and 19th century social/dance music. Following his leads, he was able to track down a copy of this tutor. He deserves credit for tracking this book down. I let him know about this thread and he suggested that I share with you the assessment of this book that I originally wrote for Richard, Bob Winans, and Eli Kaufman shortly after I received it. I will bring my copy  to AEBG IV for people to look at.

 

Regarding the Tutor, specifically, it was published in London and does not include a copyright or publication date. Even the date of the imprint is not certain, but Richard also found the page Carl identified, from Alden’s Illustrated Family Miscellany from September 1864. Also, a “Christy's Instructor” is listed under the Banjo Instruction Books Section (page 60) of the 1859 “Catalogue of Music and Music Books Published and for sale by John F. Ellis, 306 Pennsylvania Avenue, between Ninth and Tenth Streets, Washington, D.C.” Even with this limited information, to me, I am greatly intrigued in more deeply exploring a comparison between the U.S. and U.K. instruction books (as well as instruction materials from other countries where the banjo was introduced in the 19th century). On a related note, if you have read Winans' and Kaufman's 1994 article about the American-English banjo connection, check it out: Winans, Robert B. and Elias J. Kaufman. Minstrel and Classic Banjo: American and English Connections American Music 12, no. 1 (Spring, 1994): 1-30.

 

What follows is my preliminary analysis of this document when I got a copy from Richard. The book has several fascinating components as far as  layout, content, and technique are concerned. First, the opening 11 pages appear to be identical to the opening content of the Phil Rice 1858 book. The page layouts are different from Rice where this new imprint has content shifted from one page to the next (and + signs are used to signify the thumb as opposed to the X), but it is not until page 11 where things really begin to deviate from the Rice book. On the “Tenth Lesson” Rattlesnake Jig, or Hoop De Dooden Doo, the lyrics are not included and the Christy book is left with 6 fewer pages of instruction than the Rice book.

 

From a content perspective, the Christy book includes many Rice-like banjo arrangements to specific pieces that, to my knowledge, do not necessarily exist anywhere else. These include such tunes as Angelina Baker, Annie Lisle, By-and-Bye, Camptown Races, Dixey’s Land (with a version of Emmett’s original symphonic turn-around), Doley Jones, Gentle Annie, I’ll Throw Myself Away, I’m Off to Charlestown, Jamie’s on the Stormy Sea, Joanna Snow, Laughing Chorus, Lillian Lee, Minnie Bell, Nancy Till, Nelly Was a Lady, North Carolina Rose, Now I love a Sukey Dearly, Oh Fare thee well my own love, Ring Ring de banjo, Rosalie the Prairie Flower (which shows up twice in the original book, possibly due to an error in the original imprint), So Early in the Morning, Some Folks, Stolen Kisses are the Sweetest, That’s So (which is different from Rice’s “That’s so and you’d better believe it”), The Cotter’s Farewell, The Indian Warrior’s Grave, We are Coming Sister Mary (which is almost completely missing from the book, possibly due to an error in the original imprint), We’ll have a little dance to-night boys, While I my banjo play, and Willie’s on the dark blue sea.

 

Several tunes that show up in Buckley’s 1860 book, which are essentially guitar-style arrangements, also show up in the Christy’s book, only this time they are treated with RICE-LIKE banjo arrangements. Several important examples include Dixey’s Land, Kiss Me Quick and Go, and I’d Choose to be a Daisy. Similarly, in contrast to Briggs’ often piano-like textures that accompany all of the vocal pieces, the Christy book includes a Rice-like arrangement for Lulu is Our Darling Pride.

 

From a structural perspective, while I make the comment that many of the previously unseen content is “Rice-like” in their arrangements, I am making this statement loosely as I do not believe that these new arrangements necessarily slavishly emulate the essential elements that defines Rice’s book. For example, the ubiquitous dactylic (or, “bum-ditty”, long-short-short) rhythms found in Rice all occur between two or more notes. This is not the case in the Christy book where, in an attempt to parallel the melody in the vocal pieces, the dactylic rhythms will frequently occur on a single note (e.g., Dixey’s Land on page 20, mm 1, etc.). It is content like this that suggests to me the real author of the new content had a strong familiarity with the banjo, but incorporated a consistently applied, yet generally ambiguous new series of figures to the arrangements (possibly inspired by other instruments like the piano [see my comments below]).

 

Many of the vocal pieces are also without fingerings. However, based on the key (A, E, D, or G), the fifth string (D or E) appears to regularly lend itself to the arrangements in a very banjo-istic way that makes many of the pieces intuitive to the acculturated stroke style player. Looking specifically at the vocal pieces, I believe multiple studies are waiting to happen looking at, for example, the textural and structural relationships between the banjo and piano music. This is especially the case when looking, yet again, at Dixey’s Land, where the author states, “Published, with Words and Pianoforte Accompaniments, full Music size, in No. 1484 of the Musical Bouquet, Price 3d.”

 

Many other similarities and differences can be explored between this recent find and what we already know. The bottom line for me is that this book adds much-needed perspective to the commercial applications of the banjo as an increasingly significant instrument of 19th century popular music and culture. As a player, the content, instruction, and arrangements of the Christy book validate certain structural approaches I have been exploring, and that many of us have been exploring, in arranging non-banjo tutor pieces. I believe  that some of our intuitions appear to be consistent with several of the overarching figures found throughout its pages.

 

I realize this assessment is not as useful without the actual tutor in view. As I mentioned above, I'll bring my copy with me to AEBG. 

 

Best regards,

Greg

[Tim Twiss]

Thanks for this information Greg. So what is the breakdown of instrumental vs. vocal w/ accompaniment? (how many of each).  It's function is largely as a songbook, mostly vocal tunes with words and arranged parts below?

[Greg Adams]

The book consists of about 24 banjo instrumentals vs. 31 vocal pieces with banjo accompaniment.

 

Tim Twiss said:

Thanks for this information Greg. So what is the breakdown of instrumental vs. vocal w/ accompaniment? (how many of each).  It's function is largely as a songbook, mostly vocal tunes with words and arranged parts below?