Music in Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History

The sheet music cover for A.P. Heinrich's The Log House, with a Black man holding a gourd banjo or fiddle peaking out from the house as Heinrich plays violin, 1826. Lester Levy Sheet Music Collection/ Johns Hopkins University Libraries.

Unfortunately, all of the music illustrations got cut from Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History. Here are some of the songs referenced, musical examples of early American music, and other musical transcriptions I've come across recently.

Three musical selections transcribed by Mr. Baptiste for Sir Hans Sloane, Jamaica, 1687.

James Ford Bell Library/ University of Minnesota Libraries.

Papa on gourd banjo:

Rhiannon Giddens's song "Build A House" (0:00 to 1:31 in this video) begins with the second part of the Koromanti tune (starting on the third line above), adapted for banjo, cello, and frame drum. 

Click here to visit Musical Passage, a website where scholars Mary Caton Lingold and Laurent Dubois have made this music come to life. 

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The Maroon ranger song transcribed by John Gabriel Stedman in his original manuscript.

James Ford Bell Library/ University of Minnesota Libraries.

Ranger Song on fiddle:

Stedman's transcription isn't broken up into measures (I count 21 beats in the first part, which might be 4 4/4 measures with a pickup and 25 beats in the second part, which might be 5 4/4 measures with a pickup). This may be a reflection of syncopation that he had a hard time writing in Western musical notation, because although he was a musician, he wasn't a professional or African American like Mr. Baptiste. The triple pattern in the second part reminds me of the first part of Baptiste's Koromanti, but it is not similar enough to be called "the same" (in my opinion). 

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Drouin de Bercy’s transcription of the A ai bombia bombé song he heard in Haiti before 1814.

Archive.org

A ai bombia bombé on fiddle:

The song is in a major key and very lively, which makes it feel a bit militaristic. Jackey Quakenboss, one of the drummers at the Pinkster festival in New York, was said to have sung a song with similar lyrics. 

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One of the Banja songs transcribed by H.C. Focke

Google Books

Arabi na Pambo on fiddle:

Arabi na Pambo is the banja song I reference in Well of Souls, but H.C. Focke transcribed others as well. Many are in a minor key. Click here to see more of the music.

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Calinda

Calinda adapted for gourd banjo:

This transcription of Calinda appears in Slave Songs of the United States, where the editors write, No. 134. The “ calinda” was a sort -of contra-dance, which has now passed entirely out of use. Bescherelle describes the two lines as “avancant et reculant en cadence, et faisant des contorsions fort singulieres et des gestes fort lascifs” (“advancing and retreating in cadence, and making very singular contortions and very lascivious gestures"). 

When I was working on Well of Souls, I came across the record of the de Paur Chorus (already in our possession, somehow), where Danse Calinda is the title track. 

There's also the more adapted version by the Lost Bayou Ramblers that I love. 

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Gottschalk's Le Banjo​

Although Gottschalk was white and he took some of his melodies from Blackface Minstrel tunes, I do want to include some musical examples here because reference them in the book. Far and away my favorite version of Le Banjo is by Robert Pritchard. The liner notes to the Smithsonian Folkways recording write, "'Robert Starling Pritchard (b. 1927) is the first African American pianist playing Western classical music ever commercially recorded and published, affording him a unique place in music history,' says Henri Georges Polgar." Throughout his life, he continued to promote and support African American music and art, and became involved in humanitarian causes around the world. He passed away in 2016 and you can read more about him in his obituary here. Pritchard also adapted some Haitian folksongs for piano on this album, which is also a great piece (listen here).

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There are also a few musical examples that I don't reference in the book.

An African Work Song, Barbados, ca. 1770s-1780s

Work Song on fiddle:

William Dickenson; Gloucester Archives (Clarence Row, Gloucester, England), D3549/13/3/2758. Read more here.

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Transcriptions of songs from St. Bartelemy / St. Bartholomew, 1787-1788

In 1787 Swedish doctor Christopher Carlander traveled to the Swedish colony of St. Barthelemy (St. Bartholomew), which before and after was a French colony. According to Frederick Thomasson in Svarta S:t Barthelemy: Människoöden i en Svensk Koloni 1785-1847 (Black St. Bartholomew: Human Destinies in a Swedish Colony from 1785 to 1847), "Carlander valued seeing the Black populations music and dance and took it seriously, demonstrated by the fact that he wrote down their music and described their dances" (my translation, 132).  These images are from Thomasson's book, and I still would like to see the originals (at Rijksarkivet in Stockholm) and look more into music in St. Bartholomew. (Oh, and my final note for now on this: endless gratitude to my dad, who read about Thomasson's book, got me a copy, and found me a copy of the published version of Carlander's diary, knowing I'd be interested in this transcription and the descriptions). 

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Pompey Ran Away - Negroe Jig

In: Selection of Scotch, English, Irish, and foreign airs, Volume 1. Adapted for the fife, violin or German-flute. 

Pompey Ran Away on gourd banjo:

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Congo Prince Jig

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Congo Prince Jig on gourd banjo:

Although it comes from the book Brigg's banjo instructor (which was a product of the explosion in popularity of the banjo because of Blackface Minstrel troupes), the name of this as "Congo Prince Jig" evokes the King of Kongo and King Charles, the Pinkster King of Albany, who was said to have been from Kongo. 

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If you are aware of other early (1600s-1820s) transcriptions of Black or African American music, please let me know! I'd love to add it here. 

This is part of Banya Obbligato, a series of blog posts relating to my book Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s Hidden History. While integrally related to Well of Souls, these posts are editorially and financially separate from the book (i.e., I’m researching, writing, and editing them myself and no one is paying me for it). So, if you want to financially support the blog or my writing and research you can do so here. ​