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Scan 268
Grove's Dictionary of music and musicians, 1927
24 lines. Read by computer on 5 September 2026. Printed page 216. See the scan on archive.org.
1the post of principal violin. He composed some music for the theatre, and, in conjunction with Godfrey Finger, published a small collection of these pieces. He was also a contributor to Henry Playford's 'Division Violin,' 1685, the first printed book for the violin put forth in England. He resided for many years in Brownlow Street, Drury Lane, where he died. There is a fine mezzotint engraving of him by Smith.
3E. F. R.; addns. and corr. J. F. R. S., W. B. S., etc.
5BANJO (American), an instrument of the guitar kind, but with a long neck, and a body like a drumhead, of parchment, strained upon a hoop to the required writhe or degree of stiffness for resonance. There is no back to it. Banjos have 5, 6, 7 or 9 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 finger-board 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 16" from the nut to the bridge, and that of the others 24". The 5-stringed banjo is tuned either
7[Music: G, D, A, E, B], the last note being the thumbstring, or in G, a note lower. The 6-stringed is tuned
9[Music: G, D, A, E, B, D].
11The 7-stringed introduces the middle C in the lowest octave, and the 9 has 3 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.)
13As 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 sound-boards, 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 Senegambian 'bania' be, as Carl Engel suggests (Musical Instruments, 1874, p. 151), the parent of the American negro's banjo. Others derive the name from Bandore. Jefferson, in 1784, says that the instrument is known to the negroes as 'Banger.' It was also up to 1830 known as 'Bonja.'
15A. J. H., rev.
17BANKS, BENJAMIN (b. 1727; d. 1795), violin-maker, one of the most important of the English makers. He was reputed to be a pupil of Peter Wamsley of London and possibly Joseph Hill was his fellow-pupil. It had hitherto been the fashion among the London makers to follow the model of Jacobus Stainer, and Banks showed some originality in adopting the instruments of Amati as his pattern, although in a modified form, for his violins are smaller than those of the Amatis, and there are other notable differences. Banks was a good all-round craftsman and produced many meritorious instruments; his violas, however, are too small, but his violoncellos especially are excellent. It is unfortunate that he, like so many of the makers of this period, was so slow to recognize the supreme excellence of the Stradivari model.
19E. H. F.
21BANTI, BRIGITTA GIORGI (b. Crema, Lombardy, 1759; d. Bologna, Feb. 18, 1806), a famous opera singer.
23She was said to have been the daughter of a Venetian gondolier and began life as a 'cantante di piazza,' or street-singer, receiving 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 Opéra, 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 (Nov. 1, 1776) in a song between the 2nd and 3rd acts of 'Iphigénie en Aulide.' 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.
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