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Scan 214
Dictionary of music and musicians, 1908
12 lines. Read by computer on 10 September 2026. Printed page 186. See the scan on archive.org.
1upon a hoop to the required writhe or degree of stiffness for resonance. There is no back to it. Banjos have five, six, seven, or nine catgut strings, the lowest in pitch being often covered with wire. The chanterelle or melody-string is called from its position and use the thumbstring, and is placed not, as in other fingerboard instruments, highest in series, but on the bass side of the lowest-tuned string, the tuning-peg for it being inserted halfway up the neck instead of in the head. The length of the thumbstring is given as sixteen inches from the nut to the bridge, and that of the others twenty-four inches. The five-stringed banjo is tuned either the last note being the thumbstring, or in G, a note lower. The six-stringed is tuned
3The seven-stringed introduces the middle C in the lowest octave, and the nine has three thumbstrings but is rarely used. The pitch of the banjo, like that of the guitar, is an octave lower than the notation. 'Barre' designates the false nut made by placing the first finger of the left hand across the whole of the strings at certain lengths from the bridge to effect transposition. [See CAPO TASTO.]
5As to the origin of the banjo, the existence of instruments of the lute or guitar kind implies a certain grade of knowledge and culture among the people who know how to stretch strings over soundboards, and to determine the required intervals by varying the vibrating lengths of the strings. Such instruments found in use by savage or very uncivilised peoples suggest their introduction through political or religious conquest by a superior race. The Arabs may thus, or by trade, have bestowed a guitar instrument upon the negroes of Western Africa, and the Sene-gambian 'bania' be, as Mr. Carl Engel suggests (Musical Instruments, 1874, p. 151), the parent of the American negro's banjo. Others derive the name from Bandore.
7A. J. H.
9BANKS. See VIOLIN-MAKERS.
11BANTI, BRIGITTA GIORGI, said to have been the daughter of a Venetian gondolier, was born at Crema, Lombardy, 1759. She began life as a 'cantante di piazza,' or street-singer; and received some little instruction at the expense of a rich amateur. At the age of 19 she set out for Paris, to seek her fortune, supporting herself by singing at inns and cafés by the way. De Vismes, Director of the Académie, happening to hear a splendid voice on the Boulevard at Paris one evening, stopped at the café where the girl was singing, and slipping a louis into her hand desired her to come to him at the Opéra the next day. Here, upon hearing an air of Sacchini twice or thrice, she astonished the Director by singing it perfectly from beginning to end. He engaged her for the Opéra, where she made a triumphant début in a song between the second and third acts of 'Iphigénie en Aulide.' While singing in Paris, though she never made the slightest mistake in concerted pieces, she sometimes executed her airs after a very strange fashion. For instance: in the allegro of a cavatina she would, in a fit of absence, recommence the air from the very beginning, go on with it to the turning-point at the end of the second part, again recommence, and continue this proceeding until warned by the conductor that she had better think of ending. In the meantime the public, delighted with her voice, is said to have been quite satisfied. Agujari having left London, the managers of the Pantheon gave the young singer—still called Giorgi—an engagement, on condition that £100 a year should be deducted from her salary for the cultivation of her voice. Sacchini was her first master, but he soon gave her up in despair. Piozzi followed, with no better success. Abel was the last. She was at this time, without doubt, a very bad singer with a very beautiful voice; and of so indolent and careless a disposition that she never could be made to learn the first rudiments of music. In 1780 she left England, and sang to enthusiastic audiences at several foreign courts. Lord Mount-Edgcumbe heard her at Reggio in 1785, where, he says, her singing was delightful. In 1794 she returned to London, making her début in Bianchi's 'Semiramide,' in which she introduced an air from Guglielmi's 'Debora,' with violin obbligato, originally played by Cramer, afterwards by Viotti, Salomon, and Weichsell, the brother of Mrs. Billington. This song, though long and very fatiguing, was always encored, and Banti never failed to repeat it. Genius in her seemed to supply the want of science; and the most correct ear, with the most exquisite taste, enabled her to sing with more effect, expression, and apparent knowledge of her art, than many a better singer. She never was a good musician, nor could sing at sight with ease; but having once learnt a song and mastered its character, she threw into it deeper pathos and truer feeling than any of her rivals. Her voice was of most extensive compass, rich and even, and without a fault in its whole range,—a true voce di petto throughout. In her youth it extended to the highest pitch, and was so agile that she excelled most singers in the bravura style; but, losing a few of her upper notes, she modified her manner by practising the cantabile, to which she devoted herself, and in which she had no equal. Her acting and recitative were excellent. Her most favourite pieces were the 'Alceste' of Gluck, in which she very greatly excelled, three of her songs in it having to be repeated every night; his 'Iphigénie en Tauride'; Paisiello's 'Elfrida' and 'Nina'; 'Mitridate,' by Nasolini; 'Alzira,' 'Merope,' 'Cinna,' and others composed ex-
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