''The Banjo'', Op. 15, is a composition for

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

by the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Louis Moreau Gottschalk Louis Moreau Gottschalk (May 8, 1829 – December 18, 1869) was an American composer, pianist, and virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States. Life and career Gottschalk ...

. Composed in 1853, it is one of Gottschalk's best-known works. The piece features imitations of mid-nineteenth-century African-American

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. ...

techniques and includes demonstrations of techniques, such as up-picking and

strum In music, strumming is a way of playing a stringed instrument such as a guitar, ukulele, or mandolin. A strum or stroke is a sweeping action where a finger or plectrum brushes over several strings to generate sound. On most stringed instrume ...

ming, which are not found in other sources from the period.Gottschalk's "The Banjo," Op. 15, and the Banjo in the Nineteenth Century
by Paul Ely Smith

History

During the summer of 1853, Gottschalk undertook several compositions; among them was the first version of ''The Banjo.'' After taking the piece through a major overhaul, Gottschalk submitted it for publication in 1854 as his

Opus Opus (: opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera ...

15. The accuracy of Gottschalk's banjo imitations in the piece makes it a unique record of the sound of pre-Civil War African-American banjo playing, and it contains evidence of techniques not found in other sources, including combinations of "downstroking" and "up-picking" found in West African plucked lute performance. This unusual accuracy has enabled at least one modern banjo player to recreate the banjo music that Gottschalk transcribed, which invited speculation that Gottschalk may have taken his banjo imitations from actual transcription of an unnamed African-American banjo player. Unlike most banjo music in the popular minstrel shows of the time that more closely followed the melody of dance music, most of "The Banjo" consists of variations of a repeating phrase as is done by musicians in the

Senegambia The Senegambia (other names: Senegambia region or Senegambian zone,Barry, Boubacar, ''Senegambia and the Atlantic Slave Trade'', (Editors: David Anderson, Carolyn Brown; trans. Ayi Kwei Armah; contributors: David Anderson, American Council of Le ...

region in

West Africa West Africa, also known as Western Africa, is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations geoscheme for Africa#Western Africa, United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Gha ...

, the source for the banjo's ancestors.

Musical analysis

''The Banjo,'' written in two-four time in the key of

F-sharp major F-sharp major is a major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has six sharps. Its relative minor is D-sharp minor (or enharmonically E-flat minor) and its parallel minor is F-sharp min ...

, begins with a variant of the ending theme doubled in

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

s. Then the piece explores a strikingly West African-style series of variations on a basic repeating phrase. When the melody from the introduction comes back in, it barely has time to establish itself before a difficult passage in sixteenths takes over. Thundering octaves then take the melody back to the introduction and the whole thing is repeated. Throughout the piece the melodies develop until Gottschalk brings the piece to an end with a pair of

variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individual ...

, containing

Stephen Foster Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826January 13, 1864), known as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour music, parlour and Folk music, folk music during the Romantic music, Romantic period. He wr ...

Camptown Races "De Camptown Races" or "Gwine to Run All Night" (nowadays popularly known as "Camptown Races") is a folk song by American Romantic composer Stephen Foster. It was published in February 1850 by F. D. Benteen and was introduced to the American mai ...

. ''The Banjo''on Allmusic Website

Performances

The Banjo was first performed in March 1855 by Gottschalk himself. Since then it has become a favorite

encore An encore is an additional performance given by performers at the conclusion of a show or concert, usually in response to extended applause from the audience.Lalange Cochrane, in ''Oxford Companion to Music'', Alison Latham, ed., Oxford Universi ...

of piano virtuosi around the world. French pianist

Cyprien Katsaris Cyprien Katsaris (; born 5 May 1951) is a French- Cypriot virtuoso pianist, teacher and composer. Amongst his teachers were Monique de la Bruchollerie, a student of Emil von Sauer, who had been a pupil of Franz Liszt. He is known for his refine ...

created his own transcription of the piece, during performances he plays several wrong notes, adding to the humour of the piece.Cyprien Katsaris Discography
on Cyprien Katsaris Website

References

External links

*
Gottschalk's ''The Banjo,'' Op. 15
The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century by Paul Ely Smith {{DEFAULTSORT:Banjo, The Solo piano compositions by Louis Moreau Gottschalk Piano compositions in the Romantic era 1853 compositions Compositions in F-sharp major