The Banjo in Black Appalachian Music - Essay Example

April 6, The Banjo in Black Appalachian Music There is a popular impression, in society, that Appalachia is white, and that the history of Appalachian music is white, having its roots in Europe. Actually, however, Black Appalachian music merged the African banjo with the European fiddle, and this formed the instrumental center of Appalachian music (Mazbrow). Failing to account for Black Appalachian music, and particularly the banjo as central to that music, would lose more than half of a story that is critical to the history of music and American heritage. This is so because Appalachian music has been a template for cooperative cultural and racial interweaving. The banjo can have four or five strings and is made from a gourd, used as the sound box, covered with hide or plastic. The instrument developed from African instruments (banjar, bandora, banza) that were introduced by slaves (Banjo). The banjo’s predecessor was played in seventh century Africa (Mazbrow). In the seventeenth century, the instrument consisted of a long pole and attached gourd with three or four strings, made from horsehair, catgut, or hemp plant. At first it was played by West African wandering musicians, but by the eighteenth century was played by slave musicians in the West Indies. Knocking and beating was the style used. Notes began to slide and bend once tuning pegs and a flat board for fingering was added (Banjo). This “banjar” instrument was played in Maryland and Virginia from the mid-eighteenth century. It had a skin head, pegs, and a short thumb string. In Africa, the banjar was played with the talking drums but, in response to a slave uprising in South Carolina, drums and horns became illegal, and the traditional way of playing was adapted to banjar solos (Banjo). The combination of banjo and fiddle, at the core of Appalachian music, was played exclusively by black musicians for about 100 years, before white musicians adopted it (Mazbrow). Just as spirituals were used to communicate escape plans, black banjo songs communicated subversive methods to survive slavery. Many of these songs used cunning animals, like foxes and snakes, to camouflage their message (Banjo). Black banjar music began to have a strong influence on the fiddle playing of Appalachian immigrants from Scotland and Ireland. Soon, white Appalachian musicians were playing the instrument in the same thumping style as the black Appalachian musicians. For some time, white banjo players depended on black banjo players, not only for rhythm and style, but even for acquiring a banjo in the first place (C. Conway 146). Mutual interest and instrument design collaboration soon modified the banjar, replacing the gourd with a wooden rim and open back. Sweeney, an Irish American added a fourth melody string, and the short drone thumb string was kept, so now the banjo had five strings (Banjo). Although African-American Appalachian musicians played the banjo throughout the nineteenth century, white Appalachian musicians dominated the emerging radio and recording technology (Banjo). The first white banjo player to achieve fame for his music, Joel Walker Sweeney, learned how to play the banjo from a neighboring plantation slave, and mid-nineteenth century white banjo players usually performed in black-face (Mazbrow). It was white performers whom people connected to hillbilly music, even though white banjo players had adopted a black musical tradition (Mazbrow). In fact, there has always been a lot of white pride in fiddle and banjo music, by those whose tradition came from Appalachian ancestors, and would never conceive of any black African American contribution to their musical heritage (Mazbrow). Appalachian fiddle and banjo music is popularly thought to be Irish and Scottish, but is syncopated and polyrhythmic, showing African history (Mazbrow). Polyrythm is alien to European music and central to African (Mazbrow). The typical way of strumming the banjo is to brush down with the backs of the fingernails while the thumb plucks the drone-string in between beats, creating a micropulse which divides the beat. This method of playing banjo-family instruments is still used in Africa but is not used on any European instruments (Mazbrow). The inter-racial sharing of this musical tradition was fed by black minstrels as well as by cross-cultural exchanges due to steamboat travel, labor gangs, the civil war, and waterfront dancehalls. In the dancehalls, the fiddle and banjo became, and remains today, a popular instrument combination (Banjo). Often the melody was European and the rhythm was African (Mazbrow). The banjo and fiddle became a standard part of string bands, and also duet performances. New styles of picking (like up-picking and cross-picking) developed, and contributed to Bluegrass music (Banjo). Outside Appalachia, the banjo became part of medicine shows, vaudeville, and Dixieland jazz, as well as part of a classical tradition. When these styles became less popular, the banjo come to be seen as primarily an Appalachian instrument, by outsiders. This was furthered by the revival of banjo folk and country music in the 1960’s, as well as Hollywood’s use of Appalachian banjo music for movies and television theme songs (example: The Beverly Hillbillies) (Banjo). Black musicians began turning away from Appalachian banjo music in the twentieth century, for several reasons. One is that they were tired of being satirized by white people’s blackface performances and wanted more personal dignity and fewer slave status reminders. Another is that black musicians, moving to Northern urban areas, became more active in ragtime, blues and jazz, as a more modern sound. Another reason is that whites dominated the banjo Appalachian music scene (Mazbrow). Furthermore, although the banjo had clearly become the symbol of Appalachian music, and still is today, the guitar was displacing it in popularity, and the banjo itself had morphed into a different shape with a louder sound, to match the intensity of emergent bluegrass. The banjo now had a tone ring and a large resonator (Conway 149). With the 1960’s resurgence in folk music, Appalachian music has many participants today. The banjo is part of the festival scene wherever people gather to remember the old songs. It is also part of family and community gatherings in Appalachia (Banjo). However, interview research with African American Appalachian musicians recently revealed that they identify more as African American than they do as Appalachian, and that they identify with black Appalachian sacred music more than with hillbilly music, which is still white dominated, nor are they significantly represented at festivals and gatherings (Hacquard 126). Today’s world is filled with racial and ethnic conflict, memories of traumatic pasts, prejudice and discrimination, skin-color sensitivity, historical misunderstandings, and widespread suffering, just as it has always been. The banjo provides a template for peaceful cooperation and intercultual development. It is a black instrument that often plays white melodies in black influenced rhythms for black, brown and white audiences. It was brought from Africa and partnered with the European fiddle. The banjo has survived a long evolution from earth materials to electronic plastic. It has contributed to various genres of music, especially Appalachian music which combines African, Scottish, Irish, and Native American traditions and influence. The banjo cannot be said to be a melting pot instrument, however, because it retains cultural distinctions in creative interplay and to mutual benefit. In the banjo, as an instrument, especially in its longtime pairing with the fiddle, in performance, African American contributions are equally represented with European American contributions. There is no imbalance of power in the evolution of the instrument, even though there is in genre representation today. In specifically Black Appalachian music, we have a strong tradition that was fundamental to Appalachian music in general. Even when white people are ignorant about this foundation, still the African rhythms and African method of playing the banjo survives in an eternal, central role. Works Cited "Banjo." 2013. Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Web. 5 April 2013 . Conway, Cecelia. "Mountain Echoes of the African Banjo." Appalachian Journal (Winter 1993): 20(2): 146-160. Print. Conway, Cecilia. "Black Banjo Songsters in Appalachia." Black Music Research Journal (Spring-Autumn 2003): 23(1/2: 149-166. Print. Hacquard, Deborah J. Thompson and Darrin. "Region, Race, Representation: Observations from Interviews with African American Musicians in Appalachia." Journal of Appalachian Studies (Apring/Fall 2009): 15(1/2): 126-139. Print. Mazbrow. "The Interracial Origin of Appalachian and Fiddling: Lost in Perception." 10 March 2010. Brownie's Lament. Web. 6 April 2013 . Read More