Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.20.1705172338570.27733@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: Physical Non-traditional Mountain Banjo Music
Date: Wed, 17 May 2017 23:40:11 -0400 (EDT)
Physical Non-traditional Mountain Banjo Music http://www.alansondheim.org/mountb1.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/mountb0.mp3 http://www.alansondheim.org/mountb1.mp3 http://www.alansondheim.org/mountb2.jpg The mountain banjo's difficult for me to play; this one is very heavy, fretless, without markers of any sort; the strings near the end of the fingerboard are about a half inch high, making it close to impossible to finger or chord; every string needs a different positioning. If the strings are plucked too hard, they move out of the nut or bridge slots. Playing in tune on fretless is hard in any case. So there's a lot of physical action on this one as well as restraint. The shorter piece involves fast index and middle finger 'vibrating' - switching fingers when they seize up - and the longer is more plucking or pipa-like trills. On both I'm constantly having to 'slide into' pitch when I'm anywhere above the fourth or fifth; I can pull about three and a quarter octaves more or less, but not continuously; I'm guided by pitch harmonics at times, as well as fourths, fifths, and normal discernment. When I miss pitch, I back down. When I miss rhythm, I often pause and bring up something from the bottom string. The drone string slot by the way is slightly out of position, making fourth string sliding harmonies impossible. In whatever passes for real life, the banjo's tone is beautiful; I was playing next to a rooftop demolition project out of my window and very occasionally that comes through. I do want to note that physicality comes through of course with heavy instrument playing - but it also comes through with internal tensions, and that's what's faced here. For those who are interested, there's a good but little-known book, Tensions in the Performance of Music, A Symposium edited by Carola Grindea, with a forward by Yehudi Menuhin, Broude, NY, 1978; I recommend it. The Strad magazine (more or less on traditional bowed string instruments and their classical repertoire) often has useful articles on the same. Of the history of the mountain banjo and its construction, I've found very little online. Some are sold on ebay. Frank Profitt played one.