The University Museum

Banjo

The North American banjo is an instrument that traveled great distances - both geographically and conceptually - to be in the United States as it is today. The prototypical banjo was brought by Africans to North America during the slave trading period. First associated with rural black Americans during the 1800s, the banjo was appropriated by white Americans during the Victorian period to play classical music, and is now more commonly linked in people's minds with the music of the rural Southern United States.

These banjos are representative of modern versions based on an African prototype, the spike fiddle. Like its African ancestor, the banjo gets its volume and percussive sound quality from the manner in which its resonating body is constructed - a natural or synthetic skin stretched over a wooden and/or metal circular frame.

The larger Merlin banjo, in the foreground of this photo, manufactured in 1966, is a 5-string model with a synthetic head and a heavy chrome-plated cast aluminum metal ring covering a wooden body. This instrument produces what has been described as a "robust" tonal quality.

The smaller banjo, above, apparently handcrafted by an unknown luthier (instrument builder), has a predominantly wooden body with a lighter metal ring to secure the head. Such an instrument would typically have a quieter sound than ones like the Merlin model.

bern21@ibm.net Discussion of Merlin banjos. http://geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/6945/merlin.htm
Linn, Karen 1991. That Half-Barbaric Twang: The Banjo in American Popular Culture. Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Reck, David 1977. Music of the Whole Earth. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc.