This is my latest offering now in the library. It's another of those tunes that has entered the public repertoire over the years with added words and recorded by the likes of Leadbelly. This arrangement is taken from the original score and is credited as being written in 1909 by Robert George Hoffman, one of the lesser  known rag time composers. There are some interesting passages, in particular the trio, which has a nice bass solo and is fun to play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjznodu3Qfs

This a recording of Papa Charlie Jackson singing one version of the song and accompanying himself on the 6 string guitar banjo.

Views: 128

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

I forgot to add, I've also included the midi..Steve.

Composed songs by a single individual do become "folk music" but I don't think Alabama Bound is one of them. Both melody and verses are much older than 1909 (proto verses appear in print in the 1840s where they are not claimed as original)  and were in the repertoire of any number of black songsters who were born in the 19th century and learned their songs then. 

Hoffman's version is simply the first copyright. Jelly Roll Morton claimed it (but not legally ) in 1905. He called it Don't You Leave Me Here for obscure reasons but insisted it was really Alabama Bound. Really Alabama Bound is a song family which included Baby Please Don't Go, Don't You Ease Me In, Don't You Leave Me Here, Boat's Up The River, Elder Green's In Town, and a bunch of others.

Henry Thomas was born in Texas in 1874.  Here's a link to his proto Alabama Bound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62ElhlgTqxE

Hi Jody, thanks for that..it's pretty much the same with British traditional and Folk music. Many of what are now classed as folk songs were originally broad sheet ballads, many composed by the ballad sellers themselves in the 18th century. I think Hoffman has done a good job with the tune by 'rag timing' it and it makes an interesting piece for the banjo.

Steve, I'm saying the opposite is true for Alabama Bound.  I also think that "folk song" versus "individual composer" is not a true dichotomy (however that is spelled).  The composers of the printed ballads were part of a living tradition. This tradition in the 1700s was both literate and aural.  And that's another misleading "either/or" artifice (not your fault!)  The same thing is true in classic banjo music. The best pieces sound banjo-like. For that to happen the composer has to have heard banjo. No twiddlybits and snaps = less banjo like. The ballads "became" folk songs because they already were. That is to say the style of the words and the music accorded with a shared set of rhythms and melodic shapes.

I've found when searching the archives that there are tunes that fit the banjo as though they could have been written for it. As you rightly say, there seems little doubt that the composers  were influenced by the instrument. Nicodemus and his banjo is pretty obviously one of these, it's quite a simple tune but sounds great when played. Every tune for which I manage to work out an arrangement , there are many more that end up in the waste bin. I've got about 12 on my 'to do' list but I doubt if many of them will ever make it to the banjo.

Reply to Discussion

RSS

© 2024   Created by thereallyniceman.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service