The Banjo is classified as a plucked lute chordophone which is thought to have derived from the Portuguese bandore (Odell). I may also have come from the West African “bang” which is a lute formed from a stalk of papyrus (Odell). The modern Banjo is fitted with five steel wire strings over a fretted neck and tambourine like head (Odell). The fifth string of the banjo is called the “thumb string” and is shorter than the other strings (Odell). It is often tuned g’-c-g-b-d’ which is called C tuning or g’-d-g-b-d’ (G tuning) and often finger-picked which arose in 1855 (Odell). On the back the head there may or may not be a “resonator” which reflects sound outwards (Odell). Banjos without a resonator are considered “open-backed” banjos (Odell). …show more content…
Until the early twentieth century banjos were strung with gut strings which these or nylon strings still use by “minstrel” and “classic” banjoist (Odell).
In 1860 James Buckley advocated for raised frets which were then only popularized in 1880s (Odell). Tuning at this point was now in the modern C tuning however music was written in “A notation” which was resolve until 1909 (Odell). The modern banjo was formed in the nineteenth century as a “commercial adaptation of an instrument used by enslaved West Africans” (Odell). “It was popularized in the 19th century by ‘minstrels’ and, later, by jazz bands. In late 19th-century USA, and also in Britain, the banjo became a popular parlour instrument, and ‘classic’ concert styles were also developed by soloists” (Montagu). Today the most common use for the banjo is in south-eastern traditional music and in bluegrass (Montagu). Several instrument came out of the banjo included in the cello and piccolo banjos, banjeurines, and “ladies” and “pony” banjo. Several other banjos include the plectrum banjo (banjo with only four strings), tenor banjo (shorter version of the plectrum) (Odell). The tenor banjo was created to be used in jazz and dance orchestras and later adapted for Irish and English traditional music
(Odell). Being that the banjo derived from West African slaves in the 1800s, there is no record of any white person playing banjo before then (Odell). The main driver in white people playing the banjo was the growth of blackface performances in circuses. The first real mass production of the banjo came in the 1840s (Odell). Then it was around 1860 when the banjo was used in traditional white southern music (Odell). “. The black tradition remained fairly strong in the rural South through the 1930s, but by the 1990s few black players remained. Until the latter decades of the 20th century, interplay between the black and white traditions was common” (Odell). Today the banjo is still used in genres like bluegrass and folk. It has a history almost as old as the United States itself and has possessed some interesting aspects relating to racial tension in America.
It is believed that the Irish brought to the region the fiddle and the pipes. It is believed that the first stringed instrument, the dulcimer was brought by the Germans, Norwegians, Swedish and French. The dulcimer became known as the 1“Hog Fiddle” or “Music Box”.
The Native American flute is the third oldest known musical instrument in the world, with bone flutes dating back over 60,000 years. The first instrument found were drums, then varies whistle were made. Over time, the instrument evolved with many different materials and shapes. And these difference and changes reflect the culture of that time. Virtually, flutes were used all types of hardwoods and softwoods in history.
The next logical step in this evolutionary chain was as sure as a spoiled child’s demands. Now that I have what I want I want more of it. Thus came the psaltery (diagram 2). The psaltery was a great leap fourth from the monochord. It was a small trapezoid shaped box with many strings stretched over it. However unlike the monochord the psaltery did not have movable bridges to change the pitch while playing and furthermore these bridges were much more like the bridges of modern string instruments. The psaltery was played by picking the strings (which were obviously tuned to different pitches) with the fingers or with a pick. This was an extremely popular instrument in the Middle Ages but as the music got more complicated and simple accompaniment wasn’t enough it was soon swallowed by progress.
Although folk music played a big role in most of these artists’ performances, folk links back to the blues, and is similar...
Wyman, F. S. "An Acoustical Study of Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Chamber Design." Dissertation Abstracts International Section A: Humanities & Social Sciences 33. (1972): 1775. Music Index. Web. 13 April. 2014.
trumpet or flute. It was the right hand corner that filled in the material during the rhythmic
Humans from the coast of West Africa arrived to the New World as slaves. Stripped of everything familiar, they brought with them their traditional ways of using music to record historic events, expressions, and to accompany rituals. While toiling in the tobacco fields of Virginia, slaves were not permitted to speak to each other. So, they resorted to their African tradition. They sang!
A sample overview of the history of bluegrass music follows. It should be brief but comprehensive, as it may also be the introduction of the music to teachers as a study guide before or after an in school presentation or they may include this information in a history of social studies discussion if a program presentation is not possible.
The guitar is hard to trace back beyond the Renaissance period but it is known the guitar has roots in Spain. The first known guitar was small with four sets of strings; each set called a course. Later a fifth course was added. At the end of the Baroque period, single strings replaced the double strings and a sixth was added. Since then, the guitar was changed little until Manuel Torres worked with the design and body. First, he increased the overall size. Making the body bigger and the neck longer added more notes
That brings us to the last segment of our concert, the Modern Era. Traditoinal musical instruments in the modern period have not changed nearly as much as they have in the 18th and 19th centuries. There have been gradual iterations of musical instruments within the 1900’s, such as updates to the violin family. There were many new instruments created in the Modern Era, all of which focused around electricity. This evening’s selections do not include any such selections with electronic instruments; however, there are arrangements available for the electric instruments such as the organ, keyboard or syntehsizer, or electric guitar.
The beginnings of the European guitar are unknown. It is impossible to establish the history of guitar before the Renaissance, but similar plucked-string instruments existed such as the long neck lute. The lute had a waisted sound box alike the guitar and survived from third to sixth century. During renaissance and medieval periods, a wide range of plucked stringed instruments can be found. The instruments include the citole, cittern, vihuela, mandore, gittern, the lute and its
“How Musical is Man?” was published in 1974. This book was written by John Blacking, a musician turned social anthropologist. His goal in writing this ethnography, and several other papers during this same time period, was to compare the experience of music-making that takes place within different cultures and societies throughout the world. In this book, he discusses and describes the musicology of the Venda people in South Africa. Though he does go to Africa to research and learn about the Venda people and their music, he specifically states that his book is “not a scholarly study of human musicality” (ix), but rather it is a summary (written from his point of view), which is both expressive and entertaining, of several different issues and ideas that he has seemingly been contemplating for some time.
The new era in plectral instruments began in Iberia, Spain in the mid 15th century with the creation of the vihuela (Bellow). The vihuela was practically a flat backed lute with six paired strings, which were most commonly plucked at the same time. Since there was no machined production at the time, many vihuelas were unique to whoever built them, the number of sound ports, shape, or neck varied. However, a majority of them had the same build and concept of a modern guitar. These were the one of the first instrument to feature...
An African music element named, ostinato, has been prevalent amongst Northern and Western African nations, and continues to be expressed in multiple musical genres across the world, such as jazz and rock.
The west African traditional music brought to America with the slaves combined with the slide for guitar playing created a haunting sound that increased the popularity of the guitar. A prerequiset of the slide was an American version of the West African bow called the jitterbug. This was used by negro slaves in the early 1900's in what would be an early version of blues. When