The banjeaurine, also spelled banjourine or banjorine, is essentially a mini

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

, designed to play lead instrument in banjo orchestras from the 1890s to the 1930s. The banjeaurine was invented by

Samuel Swaim Stewart Samuel Swaim Stewart (January 8, 1855—April 6, 1898), also known as S. S. Stewart, was a musician, composer, publisher, and manufacturer of banjos. He owned the S. S. Stewart Banjo Company, which was one of the largest banjo manufacturers in the ...

, owner of the S.S. Stewart Banjo Company in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. The new instrument first hit the music scene in 1885, played before the public by William A. Huntley. A higher pitched version of the conventional

5-string banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

, the banjeaurine soon became an essential part of banjo orchestras, where it was responsible for the majority of the solos in musical pieces. There were normally two of these instruments in a typical banjo orchestra. The banjeaurine has a shorter neck than traditional banjos, with a scale between 19" and 20", a fretboard extension that is cantilevered over the head, and either 17 or 19 frets. Most banjeaurines, especially early ones, have 12"- to 12-1/2"-diameter rims. Later models may have 11" rims, a size that became a standard banjo rim size during the late 1920s. The body has a top made out of skin, real or synthetic, and usually an open back without a resonator. The banjeaurine has five strings, one of which is shorter than the others and is called the fifth string or thumb string. The banjeaurine is tuned a fourth higher than the standard banjo (or like a Standard Banjo w/ a Capo on the 5th Fret), at open C major. Most notably constructed by Stewart, banjeaurines were also offered by other major banjo manufacturers, including Washburn, Fairbanks, Fairbanks & Cole,

Cole Cole may refer to: People and fictional characters * Cole (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Cole (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname * Cole tribe ...

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, and ...

, Weyman, Schall,

Thompson & Odell Thompson & Odell (ca.1874 – ca.1905) of Boston, Massachusetts, published music and repaired and manufactured musical instruments. Musicians Charles W. Thompson and Ira H. Odell ran the business. They kept a shop on Tremont Street and later o ...

, Kraske, and

Lyon & Healy Lyon & Healy Harps, Inc. is an American musical instrument manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois and is a subsidiary of Salvi Harps, but also has a layered corporate structure. Today best known for concert harps, the company's Chicago headquar ...

Gold Tone, Vangoa, and several other banjo companies currently make these instruments as mini banjos.

References

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20100306010853/http://www.banjoorchestra.org/history.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20090207003442/http://www.classicbanjo.com/instruments.php *https://web.archive.org/web/20100926133227/http://irish-banjo.com/instruments/five-string-banjo/banjeaurine/index.html Fairbanks Banjos at American Banjo Museum

Fairbanks Banjos at American Banjo Museum

Banjo family instruments {{Lute-stub