Classic banjo in the Music Hall

[Russ Chandler]

I'm interesting in researching the role Classic banjo played in the Music Hall.

There are a few referenced in the standard literature, and a search of the BMG archive pulls up some interesting stuff (God bless text indexed PDF's!)

But does anyone on here have or know of any additional resources that might help me out?

[Mike Bostock]

Fascinating to read about Madeline Rossiter, Carrie. Thank you.

carrie horgan said:

I did some digging on Madeline Rossiter - it was interesting to find out about a black female performer in British music hall (who also played banjo and composed some tunes including Romping Rossie and The Douglas Cakewalk and some songs like On the Promenade: https://bhbmt.org/2021/09/10/madeline-rossiter-millar-known-as-made...

https://footlightnotes.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/madeline-rossiter-1...

[carrie horgan]

Thanks Mike - I always keep a look on Ebay in case any interesting sheet music or other items turn up.   There must be a lot of performers who played and sung with banjo who are lost to history.

Mike Bostock said:

Fascinating to read about Madeline Rossiter, Carrie. Thank you.

carrie horgan said:

I did some digging on Madeline Rossiter - it was interesting to find out about a black female performer in British music hall (who also played banjo and composed some tunes including Romping Rossie and The Douglas Cakewalk and some songs like On the Promenade: https://bhbmt.org/2021/09/10/madeline-rossiter-millar-known-as-made...

https://footlightnotes.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/madeline-rossiter-1...

[Mike Bostock]

Yes, there are many banjo-playing musicians, men and women, who left no identifiable footprint in the archives. That is somewhat inevitable when the focus of research is people who were not in the glare of the professional limelight. What we can glean instead is growing evidence of patterns of unattributed playing, fragments of repertoire, clues to repertoire and identification of the huge variety of venues for amateur playing throughout the country beyond simply domestic settings. Those patterns and settings are by no means static or 'generic' through the Victorian period. We can also examine how and why patterns and behaviours changed and evidence of the influence of wider Victorian popular culture. We can look at business enterprise and sales figures to help understand how and what loomed large in the Victorian public consciousness.

But it's interesting to note there there are also fascinating, long-forgotten individuals whose stories do emerge into the light. I'm currently about to begin writing up findings of one such banjo player whose entire working life from age 14 was employment as a cotton spinner. The genealogy provides no clue whatsoever to his connection with the banjo; not his decades of regular amateur performance his extraordinary breadth of original composition for banjo, or his social commitment to banjo teaching in a poor working class district.

Finding evidence of him was happenstance. My own personal focus is really much more the social context and the development of distinct patterns rather than an individual approach . But on the level of the individual we can be sure there is evidence of many more banjo stories yet to be discovered and brought into the light. It just takes for folks to get interested and recognise and follow-up references that can often be in surprisingly plain sight. That is the legacy of 100+ years of neglect and lack of rigour in regard to the banjo history in our own back yard.