America's Instrument: The Banjo in the Ninteenth Century - Hardcover

Gura, Philip F.; Bollman, James F.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807824844 ISBN 13: 9780807824849

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999

Synopsis

This handsome illustrated history traces the transformation of the banjo from primitive folk instrument to sophisticated musical machine and, in the process, offers a unique view of the music business in nineteenth-century America.

Philip Gura and James Bollman chart the evolution of "America's instrument," the five-stringed banjo, from its origins in the gourd instruments of enslaved Africans brought to the New World in the seventeenth century through its rise to the very pinnacle of American popular culture at the turn of the twentieth century. Throughout, they look at how banjo craftsmen and manufacturers developed, built, and marketed their products to an American public immersed in the production and consumption of popular music.

With over 250 illustrations--including rare period photographs, minstrel broadsides, sheet music covers, and banjo tutors and tune books--America's Instrument brings to life a fascinating aspect of American cultural history.

About this title

Book Description:

"This magnificent . . . book traces the banjo from its origin among slaves attempting to replicate native West African instruments to its central place in American popular culture in the last half of the nineteenth century."-- Boston Globe

From the Inside Flap:

An illustrated history of 'America·s instrument," the five-stringed banjo, from its origins in the gourd instruments of enslaved Africans to the sophisticated musical machine so loved by Americans at the turn of the 20th century.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0807824844
• ISBN 13: 9780807824849
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400