The origins of Le banjo

[Austin]

Not sure if this is the place to post this, but I believe the origins of Louis Moreaux Gottschalk's Le Banjo Is actually the tune ride on King Jesus. An old spiritual. Upon first glance they don't look similar, but when it gets past the intro they start to look near the same. I'm not talking about John W Works arrangement from the book "American negro songs" I'm talking about oddly the orchestral arrangement done by a man by the last name of Johnson. (I don't know his first name) The intro to Le banjo is undoubtedly camptown races, but past that It really starts to sound like the spiritual. If so, this piece gives us the first glimpse into what spirituals and Pre-War era African American music sounded like on the banjo.

Possibly the only glimpse. The key of F sharp major seems very strange, but when you take into account that the old A pitch tuning or G pitch of the banjo it starts to make sense. Because it would just be A major with modern era C pitch which again seems strange, but not unplayable I don't think. He clearly transposed the octave string down an octave to make it more playable on a piano, but I think it's meant to be played fingerstyle. Then it becomes a simple Cakewalk after the spiritual section.

The odd thing about this is that cake walks usually start in a minor key and then become major.

I'm curious what everyone here thinks.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=yzDN0Pe4OZ8&si=7qz34J4tELDdxTXR

Am I crazy?