Earliest Banjo Music Published in the UK

[Pär Engstrand]

Hi all,

any idea what was the earliest music for banjo published in the UK? Be it a tutor book or music score.

Most of the tutor books don't have any years published in them....

[Rob MacKillop]

Good question. No answers. Surely someone here has a rough idea at least? Just to get the ball rolling. 

[Richard William Ineson]

The starting point for the answer to this question must surely lie in the pages of the B.M.G. magazine and A.P.Sharpe's articles listing the various banjo tutor books which were to form part of his book which he never completed/published due to his unexpected demise. They will have been published in the magazine in the late 60s/early 70s. 

Rob MacKillop said:

Good question. No answers. Surely someone here has a rough idea at least? Just to get the ball rolling. 

[Pär Engstrand]

Great stuff, Mike! Thanks alot.

[Edward Bettega]

BMG December 1961 has a list of Tutor Books. There is also this document - 

Nota Bene: Canadian Undergraduate Journal of Musicology

Volume 5 | Issue 1 Article 6

Schools for the Banjo: A Primary Source Study of

Nineteenth-Century Banjo Manuals

Catherine Crone

Hamilton College

[Richard William Ineson]

Hello Mike, I've enjoyed reading your posts. Sharpe also published a list of the British banjo methods in the B.M.G. I'm too old and feeble to search for the pages myself but they came under the heading 'Banjo Methods' in the 'contents' column and will probably have been published between 1961 -70. Which are the two tutors 'for which no hard copy has been traced'? I've got  a pile of banjo related paper and they might be amongst it somewhere. As you say, the B.M.G. cannot be relied upon as a totally dependable source of banjo history but it's often a good starting point now that we have the internet to find most things for us.

Mike Bostock said:

Please note that the Hickinbottom piece in the BMG Dec 1961 issue refers only to American banjo tutors. It is really only of interest as an example in print from within the banjo community of the general oversight in regard to 19th century English banjo tutors, and the total void in regard to those published before 1880. 

While reading BMG can be an amusing delve into anecdote, personal opinions and individual banjoist's attitudes of the day, it's veracity as a historical source is limited and content should not be accepted verbatim or regarded as in any way comprehensive.

We have thoroughly searched primary sources and now have what we are reasonably certain is a full list of pre-1880 English banjo self-instructors, tutors and tune books. We also have copies of all of them except two, for which no hard copy has yet been traced. In due course I'll continue to upload this material that is in the public domain to classic banjo.ning.