CITATION — REFERENCE ENTRY
Minstrel and Classic Banjo: American and English Connections — American Music
- Key
- winans1994-minstrel-classic-banjo
- Authors
- Winans, Robert B.; Kaufman, Elias J.
- Issued
- 1994
- Type
- article-journal
- Container
- American Music
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-30
Raw CSL JSON
{
"URL": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/3052489",
"page": "1-30",
"type": "article-journal",
"issue": "1",
"title": "Minstrel and Classic Banjo: American and English Connections",
"author": [
{
"given": "Robert B.",
"family": "Winans"
},
{
"given": "Elias J.",
"family": "Kaufman"
}
],
"issued": {
"date-parts": [
[
1994
]
]
},
"volume": "12",
"container-title": "American Music"
}
Claims
-
The banjo was a Black folk instrument with African origins until the minstrel show popularized it in the United States in the 1840s, leading to banjo traditions in white and Black folk culture and in popular culture. Rural southern folk musicians kept the early minstrel style of five-string playing, now called clawhammer or frailing, long after it declined on stage and in the parlor.
"In the 1840s the minstrel show in the United States popularized what had previously been a black folk instrument with African origins, the banjo. This popularization led to the development of banjo traditions in both folk culture, white as well as black, and popular culture (in the parlor as well as in the theater). In the more familiar folk tradition of five-string banjo playing, folk musicians (mostly rural southern) have continued to maintain the early minstrel style of playing, now called clawhammer or frailing, long after its decline on the stage and in parlor traditions of the 1880s."
-
Briggs' Banjo Instructor (1855), the second-earliest American minstrel banjo tutor, was the first to describe and show clearly the minstrel stroke style of playing. Tom Briggs supposedly invented thimble playing, a version of the stroke style using a metal finger pick over the nail, which became widespread among stage performers.
"Briggs' Banjo Instructor, published in 1855, was the second earliest American minstrel banjo tutor, and the first to describe and show clearly the minstrel stroke style of playing. Briggs supposedly invented "thimble playing," which was a version of the stroke style using a "thimble" (that is, a metal finger pick over the nail), a style which became widespread among stage performers."
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