Collins, Broomfield Correspondence on Cammeyer and the Zither Banjo

[Joel Hooks]

Okay, here is the entire contents of the file folder scanned.  The carbon copies of Collins' letters were so light that I could not read them.  I was able to play with my scanner settings to bring out the text.

You have to get through some trash talk before you get to the interesting info.

The extracts were typed out by George Collins after Broomfield sent him all of Cammeyers' letters. It is too bad we don't have those. Collins did keep one letter (scanned in this file).

Please read and discuss!  I won't give any spoilers, but the stuff about Farland, while not surprising, is interesting to get from a primary source. 

https://archive.org/details/collected-letters-george-collins-and-le...

[Jody Stecher]

In the third line of page 2 of the letter of August 6. 1952 there is a sentence that seems to begin

"He struck with his finger life ..."

 I'm trying to guess what was intended that looks like "life" but is probably some other word. Can anyone decipher it?

[Joel Hooks]

Stuck with his finger tips.

[Jody Stecher]

Ah.  Tips makes sense. 

Joel Hooks said:

Stuck with his finger tips.

[Joel Hooks]

So, I guess I'll get started.

Some things I find interesting.  Cammeyer claimed to NOT play "classical" music except for one piece, Chopin's Nocturne in E flat that "was all the rage in the 80s".

Cammeyer's observations on Farland were interesting, if not consistent with other things I have read.  "Many notes stopped on the vellum".  2400 people showed up to hear him the first night, only a handful the next.  It seems that many in the industry liked the idea of Farland, but the hype could not fill theaters once people sat through one concert and knew what they were actually getting. 

Collins was not so kind about Farland's playing.

[Byron Thomas]

Well, that was a great set of information to peruse through! Something that I don't understand. How did Farland remain popular if he wasn't playing what people wanted? Or was it that just enough people were interested to keep him relevant? It's crazy to think that one week you can play to an audience of 2400 but then the next week only playing to a few people. How is this not enough of a sign to fail a person? It's really sad to read that Farland didn't play any banjo music in his repertoire.  How was he able to continue using the metal head on his banjo for concert playing. It doesn't seem like it was well received although Farland has nothing but praise for the innovation (obviously for advertising). 

All of the talk about the zither banjo really has me coming away with the sensation that I really need to study the zither banjo. Maybe even find an old chair to upcycle and Cammeyer did. On another note, is there any info out there about this trash talk about A.P. Sharpe (#) and his associate (I can't make out the other person being referenced)?

Broomfield writes:

"When I found myself with the crows in the shape of # and b, I decided to get out."

"Don't bother too much about # and b(?). They are of no importance over here. "They are dear old pals" so will run along with each other. B is just an amateur player, unknown to most people. Let them be sore. Their ideas and opinions cut no ice here. Will carry no weight with anyone. I have nothing to do with any of these "guys"."

I can't imagine what could have been said to make Broomfield detest them this much. 

How well connected were the banjo players of the past? I don't know how it works in modern times but after reading Converse and Baur reminisces plus these letters from Broomfield, it seems like these guys, the top players, were constantly brushing shoulders with each other. 

[Joel Hooks]

The "academics" have long claimed or insinuated that what we call "classic banjo" did not organically develop.  The narrative is that there was an industry that was, more or less, forcing classic banjo onto a public that felt obligated to play this music in order to follow along with societal constrants. Top industry elites appropriated the intellectual property of enslaved persons and forced their agenda of "elevation" in a sinister plot of racism.

"Old time" or "folk music", on the other hand, was purely the music of the people, developed by the salt of the earth, though nameless, orginless ("traditional" just growed), and historically vague.  But most importantly, entirely free of the evil corporate "musical elevation".  Somehow this evaded minstrelsy while including huge numbers of minstrel songs, all while developing in isolated tandem for eons. 

Farland kinda kills this narrative.  Farland was a clear example of an "industry plant" in my opinion.  An unbelievable amount of ink was pressed about him.  The "industry"-- pretty much all of them, did everything they could to try and convince the banjo playing masses that Farland was everything. 

Then we eventually get the other side of that story. 

Read all the magazines that are available from 1893 on.  They REALLY wanted Farland to be the movement.

Yet it did not work. 

Farland had enough momentum to make a living until his hearing and hands failed him. 

BTW, my interpretation of "elevation of the banjo" was (in part) the attempt to end the banjo's association with minstrelsy.  "Elevating" the music, in my conclusion, was an attempt to slow or end the publication of "minstrel" style racist titles and instead focus more on Romantic Era stock pieces and new compositions in the Romantic style. 

In a way, Stewart and the rest were damned either way.  So they write a lot about cleaning up things and getting away from minstrelsy and they are "racist" for trying to appropriate an instrument and make it more white and european.  Academics criticize them in the future as racists. 

Or, they publish what working class people wanted (which was minstrelsy, and racism), and they are criticized for being racist. 

[Richard William Ineson]

'Constantly brushing shoulders with each other', is one way of putting it. There was /is an awful lot of snobbery involved in most things in the UK, the banjo world being no exception. I was discussing Len Broomfield's arrangement of 'Rubenstein's Melody in F' with a prominent member (now dead) of the UK 'banjo illuminati' many years ago, he rubbished Broomfield's arrangement quite thoroughly and then said, "Of course, Broomfield couldn't play the banjo, he was a taxi (cab) driver", which made me laugh at the time. 

Byron Thomas said:

Well, that was a great set of information to peruse through! Something that I don't understand. How did Farland remain popular if he wasn't playing what people wanted? Or was it that just enough people were interested to keep him relevant? It's crazy to think that one week you can play to an audience of 2400 but then the next week only playing to a few people. How is this not enough of a sign to fail a person? It's really sad to read that Farland didn't play any banjo music in his repertoire.  How was he able to continue using the metal head on his banjo for concert playing. It doesn't seem like it was well received although Farland has nothing but praise for the innovation (obviously for advertising). 

All of the talk about the zither banjo really has me coming away with the sensation that I really need to study the zither banjo. Maybe even find an old chair to upcycle and Cammeyer did. On another note, is there any info out there about this trash talk about A.P. Sharpe (#) and his associate (I can't make out the other person being referenced)?

Broomfield writes:

"When I found myself with the crows in the shape of # and b, I decided to get out."

"Don't bother too much about # and b(?). They are of no importance over here. "They are dear old pals" so will run along with each other. B is just an amateur player, unknown to most people. Let them be sore. Their ideas and opinions cut no ice here. Will carry no weight with anyone. I have nothing to do with any of these "guys"."

I can't imagine what could have been said to make Broomfield detest them this much. 

How well connected were the banjo players of the past? I don't know how it works in modern times but after reading Converse and Baur reminisces plus these letters from Broomfield, it seems like these guys, the top players, were constantly brushing shoulders with each other. 

[Joel Hooks]

In the US (North America), what we call classic banjo was largely a pursuit of the working class. Even our good friend Alfred Farland worked in a wool textile mill before making music his primary occupation. 

I've been keeping a running list of professional banjoists and their "before" (often concurrent) jobs/trade/occupations as I come across them.  Mentions of before jobs (or after) are few so there have been many accidental discoveries.

There are a handful of banjoists who were just banjoists, though they came from working class families.  Fred Stuber was an example (his dad ran a photography studio).  But he died at 25 and did not outlive music as a profession (many turned to more secure work after starting a family). 

Regarding knowing one another-- yeah, pros did.  And forming the Guild and having conventions made the group even tighter.