22 Oct /15

Banjo

Banjo - Word of the day - EVS Translations
Banjo – Word of the day – EVS Translations

As far as musical instruments go, the banjo is pretty well travelled. According to etymology experts, banjo is the pronunciation used by African slaves for a scallop-shaped stringed instrument popular in the 16th century called a bandore. The term bandore may derive from the Spanish bandurria. This, ultimately, derives from the Greek word pandoura, which meant ‘three-stringed lute’. Variations of the banjo appear across the world and include the Japanese shamisen and the Morrocan sinter.

The playful twang of the banjo as a player plucks its strings quickly lifts the spirits of anyone listening. Banjos became popular in the UK in the 1840s, but it was in America where the modern banjo found its home thanks to the American minstrel performer Joel Walker Sweeney from Virginia.

But perhaps it’s in the music of Bluegrass where the banjo is most at home. The banjo, the fiddle and other instruments take it in turns to play the melody while the rest of the band provides accompaniment. The result: an upbeat, heart-warming vibe that should at least get your foot tapping. And the story of Bluegrass, which takes its name from the bluegrass of Kentucky, is a little like the story of languages. If you listen to Bluegrass music, and are unfamiliar with its style, you might think that it’s a kind of traditional Celtic music; the fiddle, especially, might make you think of Irish folk songs. Well, to take the story of Bluegrass right back to its beginnings, you have to journey back many centuries ago to the UK and Ireland where people enjoyed traditional folk music. As people left their homelands in the 18th century to settle in America, they took their music and reached Appalachia in Eastern United States where Bluegrass was born. African Americans threw some blues into that Celtic mix and then came along the banjo to complete the sound.

It’s sometimes said that music is a language. And like languages, which evolved across continents and changed into different languages as new civilisations developed, music also travels the world and tells a tale of where it came from. If you listen to Bluegrass—its banjo, fiddle and voices—you can hear its story.