Re: Civil War Banjo Research
This is probably a mistaken view--sales of tutors in the ante-bellum period do not seem to reflect widespread use of them. Banjo players then and now have tended more towards "ear" or "simple" methods than formalized music tutors.
Problem is--they're all we've got. There is no other source of period stroke-style banjo music.
I wouldn't despair, though. Taken as a whole (Briggs, Howe, Rice, Buckley and 2 by Converse) there's no reason to disbelieve that they don't reflect the popular playing style in use at the time--as presented by the leading lights of the time. Apply yourself diligently, and you'll discover a "banjo language" that was in use at the time. You won't be a master--I know I'm not by a long shot-- but us "hacks" have there place, especially in a non-professional impression, which is amply supported by the photographic record George referred to.
Confederate banjoists aren't that hard to find. A few: Mike Mitchell was the banjoist in the "Prisoner Minstrels" at Point Lookout, Md. (New York Clipper,, Dec. 19 1863). Franks Converse's Banjo Reminiscences series tells of Mississippian Charles Mattison, who played banjo while a Sgt. in the 9th Miss. Infantry. Samuel Moorman Gregory was Sweeney's Infantry contemporary in the Army of Northern Virginia. "Flannery and Mayhew" played a banjo and bones duet in a Confederate soldiers show of the 3rd Alabama Volunteers in Norfolk, Va. in Sept. 1861, as recalled in the New York Clipper, Nov. 21, 1874.
Originally posted by OldKingCrow
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Problem is--they're all we've got. There is no other source of period stroke-style banjo music.
I wouldn't despair, though. Taken as a whole (Briggs, Howe, Rice, Buckley and 2 by Converse) there's no reason to disbelieve that they don't reflect the popular playing style in use at the time--as presented by the leading lights of the time. Apply yourself diligently, and you'll discover a "banjo language" that was in use at the time. You won't be a master--I know I'm not by a long shot-- but us "hacks" have there place, especially in a non-professional impression, which is amply supported by the photographic record George referred to.
Confederate banjoists aren't that hard to find. A few: Mike Mitchell was the banjoist in the "Prisoner Minstrels" at Point Lookout, Md. (New York Clipper,, Dec. 19 1863). Franks Converse's Banjo Reminiscences series tells of Mississippian Charles Mattison, who played banjo while a Sgt. in the 9th Miss. Infantry. Samuel Moorman Gregory was Sweeney's Infantry contemporary in the Army of Northern Virginia. "Flannery and Mayhew" played a banjo and bones duet in a Confederate soldiers show of the 3rd Alabama Volunteers in Norfolk, Va. in Sept. 1861, as recalled in the New York Clipper, Nov. 21, 1874.
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