John Alvey Turner's 99 Breakdowns, Jigs, & Hornpipes

[Joel Hooks]

I've not been timid in stating how much I enjoy the simpler things in banjo life.  I'm always going on about "jigs and reels" for banjo. 

Here is a collection that will fill the bill of passing an evening or two with high entertainment value. 

The original copy I have was missing the first page (page one and two).  As I was scanning it I realized that I had seen these pieces before-- the Spires collection!  For some reason, perhaps limitations to technology at the time, the Spires collection divided up this into individual pieces.

I personally find value in the intact collection, same as bands used to put out albums that were meant to be listened to as a whole work. 

Through sheer tenacity, I was able to reassemble the first two pages and now I offer Turner's 99 complete for your enjoyment (and mine too).  

https://archive.org/details/turners-99-breakdowns-jigs-and-hornpipe...

[Jody Stecher]

What do you make of #32? It starts with a G an octave below the third string.  Some of these tunes appear in other period collections from both sides of the Atlantic, some have a parallel existence in aural tradition. There are some good ones here. And then there are a few which appear to have been composed out of spare parts or composed by a committee or composed according to how it looked on paper rather than how it sounded.  This has a parallel in old fiddle music where there are a few tunes in books which have no melody, but are basically a series of unrelated phrases, clichés, scales,  and arpeggios. 

By the way bands (and soloists) STILL put together albums intended to be listened to as a whole work.  I should know as I still record such albums, and produce them for others.  

[Joel Hooks]

My thought on the low G... typo.

[IAN SALTER]

Joel,

Once again, thank you for the effort that you put into producing these fabulous books. The four 'Breakdowns, Jigs & Hornpipes' and all of the other volumes by Turner, are all that I use, every day. 

N°32. 'Glenkindie's Reel' in the '99', also appears in 'Turner's Banjo Journal N°10' which was clearly written to be played on 6 and 7 string banjos, as were numbers 2, 8, 13, 14 and one tune in 20, from those editions currently available. Numbers 1-5 were published in 1881 and assuming a regular release of subsequent volumes, this reflected the popularity of those instruments, alongside the 5 string banjo, in that period.

[Joel Hooks]

Well, there you go!  

[Joel Hooks]

Yeah Jody, I will admit that I have blown hours with Ryan's and a banjo or Spanish guitar in my lap.  Plenty of clinkers in that one, but most are somewhat entertaining and a handful are great.  Ryan's shines in the 6/8 department. 

I find that generally these collections for banjo are not bad.  The ones that I don't think are great get better if I put in a small bit of effort.  Overall I am usually satisfied.  And with what I am charging people for these, it is a downright bargain. 

[Joel Hooks]

There are a couple of references for publication on this.

Phantom Reel was published by Stewart in 1889

Wizard Jig was published by Stewart in 1891

The cover ad samples go to TBB 794 which puts this copy past 1899, but this could have been a later printing of an earlier work. 

[IAN SALTER]

The '60' and '101' books were published in 1887. The British Library catalogue indicates 1898, which may be the library disposition date for them. The available edition of '33' has the same ad samples as '99' (and '101') but were both, most likely first published around the time of the other two. They must have remained a very popular choice for amateur players, to have been worth updating and reprinting for all those years. Let's hope similar volumes surface.

'Phantom Reel' is an interesting piece, that will require some work. 

[Joel Hooks]

99 could not have been published before 1889.

[Trapdoor2]

I would think that the "99" is significant...perhaps 1899? Last year of the century, etc.?

Just a WAG, of course.

[IAN SALTER]

J. A. Turner changed the text of their press adverts in 1892, to refer to four breakdown books. The number of compositions isn't stated, but this would most likely be the complete '60', '101', '33' and '99' series.