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[Marcus Ailstock]

I found this Banjo music book at my local Antique store. I was wondering if anyone has seen this before or has any information on it?

[Marcus Ailstock]

From what little information I have found is that it was published around 1912. It is a collection of 253 popular and standard Airs, Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Waltzes, Marches, Schottisches and Gems from the Operas.

[Joel Hooks]

Depends on the content.

We cannot tell much from the cover, what are the titles of the pieces?  Five string, plectrum or tenor banjo?

"A" notation or "C" notation.

It would be even better it you would just scan the pages and let us play through the pieces provided that they are for five string, Ian could add them to the music library.

This looks like your first post but been around for a while, welcome!

Not much value, if any in this.  There is already a lifetime supply of sheet music available... and only 100 or so folks in the world play this stuff.

[Joel Hooks]

Actually looking at the cover, I see that it is in A notation. I'd love to play through it. It is possible that it is a reprint of an earlier book. Carl Fischer published a tutor in A into the 1950s I think. I have to look a the date on mine. It was a recovering of the Eclipse tutor.

[Jody Stecher]

Below the words "Banjo Solo" on the cover is written in smaller print the words "American notation". That would probably suggest five-string banjo,  I think,  because as far as I know tenor and plectrum banjo music was always written in C notation on both sides of the Atlantic. All the same I would also like to see the table of contents.

Joel Hooks said:

 Five string, plectrum or tenor banjo?

"A" notation or "C" notation.

[Marcus Ailstock]

There are pieces in C notation. What is A notation? I will start scanning them in when I get a chance, it'll take some time though. 

I'd love to share cause I'm not the best at reading music notation so I'd like to hear some of the pieces from others who are more skilled. I'll update you folks soon.

[Joel Hooks]

Until 1907 music published for the banjo in the US was written in the natural keys of A, E, and D.  The standards for banjo music that were used were put on paper by a young Frank Converse with the Buckley's,  consistent with the pitch of the banjo at the time--the fourth string was tuned to A and the rest the same intervals of standard tuning.

Banjo tastes changed, and increasing the pitch increased the "carrying power," important when PA systems did not exist. Construction changed too, by the 1860s the "New York style" banjo became the standard with pros (the banjo in popular music was almost exclusively associated with the minstrel stage with a secondary role in phony banjo contests).  

Up from A to B flat, then to C (the standard today).  Some went higher to D, with short banjos made just for it.  C and B flat became the gold standards.

The A system was established and stayed.  The Brits came to the game after the pitch had been raised and started writing music in C.  This also gave English publishers and "composers" an excuse to plagiarize.  Ellis wrote later in life to have published over 500 pieces under his name that were not his.  Most were S. S. Stewart's, who was vocal about the thefts.

The music with no sharps is likely A minor, though one can play in C assuming the pitch of the banjo is A, it is awkward though.

We will look out for it!  I love the "short pieces."  Most of the jigs, reels, etc., are great for stroke style- fun stuff.

[Trapdoor2]

Carl Fischer published scads of banjo music over the years. I don't believe I've seen this cover before but it wouldn't surprise me if the tunes inside were reprints or simply a re-cover of an earlier publication.

"American Notation" is indeed a hint that it will likely be in what we call "A Notation". Although they voted to go to "C notation" in '07, publishers were unlikely to reset/re-arrange existing stuff. I have some stuff where the tunes are published in both.

I usually just look at the music and scan for sharps/flats. Then, I scan for the lowest note in the piece (two ledger lines below...it's A notation. "A" being the lowest note).

Funnily, the old tuning (eAEG#B) hung on for longer than anyone expected. I recently discovered that the Kratt Pitch Pipe company still makes pitch pipes for the 5-string banjo in that tuning. I contacted them about it and they have no idea why...except that they occasionally still get orders for their SN-7 pipe. They started making pitch pipes in this country in the 1920's...and were offering both "C" pipes and "A" pipes for the 5-string banjo from the very start.

 

[Jody Stecher]

If the majority of the key signatures in this publication  show three sharps or four sharps then this is "A Notation". The banjo is tuned so that the relationship of strings to each other is as they are in gCGBD tuning but a step and a half lower (aA E G# B) or even a step further down. This was the standard string relationship for most of the 19th century along with its variant "elevated bass" which would be the equivalent of "open G" tuning except at lower pitch.

In A notation the player fingers as though in today's C major but it comes out in A major. Same step and a half difference exists for all keys. In A notation the absolute pitches are written. A sounds as A. B sounds as  B, and so on. One may also read C notation and play on a low-tuned banjo and in that case C sounds as A. One may also read A notation and play on what is today's standard-tuned banjo. In that case a written A sounds as C. 

Clear?

Marcus Ailstock said:

There are pieces in C notation. What is A notation? I will start scanning them in when I get a chance, it'll take some time though. 

I'd love to share cause I'm not the best at reading music notation so I'd like to hear some of the pieces from others who are more skilled. I'll update you folks soon.

[Joel Hooks]

More confusing than it needs to be Jody.

I like the explanations given by SSS, Converse, etc...

The Banjo is a transposing instrument.  It may be tuned to any pitch that suits the player (Converse added to suit the voice), but the music is always read as if it is tuned to the standard intervals with the fourth at A (or B in elevated bass).

Music for the banjo almost always defaults to "standard" intervals.  Cases of scordatura are noted at the beginning of the piece.  The common being "elevated bass," but there are a few more examples.  "Sebastopol" has you "tune like the Spanish guitar" according to the SSS catalog listing.

There are a couple of  minor key sheets that has you raise the second string a half step.  The two I can think of off hand are "Jumbo Jig" by George (or one of those) Dobson and "American Jig" by one of the Bohees.

Then there is the rare piece like "The Bagpipes" in Converse's 1871 "The Banjoist,"  an excellent example of scordatura.

The thousand(s) of others are all in "standard" intervals.

[Jody Stecher]

The sheet music for Jumbo Jig and American Jig specify tuning the second string *down* a half step, not up. The string is lowered, not raised.

The banjo tuning for Sebastopol is like the guitar tuning for Sebastopol but is not like standard spanish guitar tuning, not in the 19th century and not now. By the late 18th century guitar strings were tuned to same intervals they are now and before that they were not tuned to intervals of  Sebastopol tuning.

"Scordatura" means "false tuning" and the term is deliberately pejorative.  There are several dozen banjo tunings, each serving the purpose of creating a sonic atmosphere appropriate to the particular musical composition(s) for which the tuning was created by intelligent musicians. None of these tunings exceeds another tuning in truth or falsehood. They are simply special cases that add variety and color to the repertoire.

[Joel Hooks]

Yeah, that's right-- flat a 1/2 step.  Like I wrote, I did not have them in front of me.

The "tune like the Spanish guitar" was in quotes because that is what SSS wrote-- as in my quote "according to the SSS catalog listing."  See #37 for the exact quote-- I just quote documentation, I don't rewrite it.

[Jody Stecher]

That was a paraphrase, not a quote. And SSS was wrong.