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This is a question I asked myself after a reader in the UK wrote me about one he owned. I had seen pictures of these and assumed they were "one-offs" or customs jobs because they are so rare in the US. Turns out they were once quite popular in Britain.
In the mid-to-late 1800s, a German stringed instrument called the "Concert Zither" became popular in certain kinds of music. The zithers of that era had both fretted and "drone" strings. They were played in the lap like modern-day Appalacian Dulcimer. They also had a sweet, subtle tone, similar to today's autoharps. In 1869, English banjo manufacturer William Temlett patented a 7-string banjo that was supposed to emulate that sound. He called it a "zither-banjo."
One of Temlett's upgrades was a device that was intended to reflect the sound from the back of the banjo head out toward the audience. Previously, nearly all all banjos were "backless," which allowed the vibrations from the inside of the head to be deadened against the player's clothing. That was fine if you were using strumming styles that tended to be quite loud. But if you were going to fingerpick the banjo to imitate the zither sound, the banjo would need to be louder.
Temlett's zither-banjo had what we now call a "resonator." It is shaped like a shallow bowl a couple inches wider than the head of the banjo. This allowed the sound from the back of the banjo's head to come out the front of the instrument. The resonator increased the volume and sustain of the instrument and made fingerpicking it in a concert setting viable.
(An American, C.E. Dobson patented a resonator banjo in the U.S. in 1878. My guess is that they appeared in North America earlier, though.)
About 1877, an New York banjo-player - Alfred D. Cammeyer - apparently modified his banjo with a resonator, frets, upgraded tuners, and silk-wound strings, then attempted to play a zither solo for an orchestral performance. According to Cammeyer, after the banjo's head exploded in the middle of the second performance, he told the audience that it was a "zither-banjo," possibly introducing the term to American audiences. Despite that disaster, folks liked the sound he was getting out of the thing and he began finding more places to play.
Apparently, the main playing style difference he incorporated was a way of stroking the strings with the fingernails that produced a much mellower sound than most banjo playing of the day. Later, Cammeyer went to England with the thing and promoted it there. It "caught on," and Cammeyer promoted the "zither-banjo" relentlessly the rest of his life. He scored any number of arrangements for the thing, and contracted with W. Temlett to produce them under a joint contract. Later, he broke ties with Temlett's company and produced them under his own name. .
As far as I can determine (please contact us if you have any documentation to the contrary), most of the construction differences between zither-banjos and other kinds relate more to the way Temlett interpreted the banjo's design than anything else. Already equipped to produce guitar necks, Temlett kept the slotted heads that were designed to hold six tuners (although only five were usually needed).
At first glance, many zither-banjos look like six-string banjos with resonators and slotted heads. Some have all six pegs, although only five are used. The strings are tuned similarly to American five string banjos. If you're holding the banjo in right-handed playing position, the string farthest from your chin is the first string, usually tuned to D above middle C.
The second string is usually tuned to the B below middle C. The third string is usually tuned to G below that, and the fourth string is usually tuned to the D below that. The fifth string - the drone string, the one closest to your chin - is tuned so that it plays G above middle C at the fifth fret. In fact the tension on this string is almost exactly the same as the first string, which also plays G above middle C at the fifth fret.
In addition to Temlett's original 7-string version, which didn't exactly catch on, a number of manufacturers experimented with putting six strings on the thing. The first four were the same as I described above. The fifth string would be tuned a fourth or fifth below the fourth string (Low A or G). Then the SIXTH string would be the drone string; it would come down through the tunnel and pop out at the fifth fret.
When I wrote my first article about American 6-string banjos, most of which lack a drone string and are often tuned like guitars, a couple folks reported that they had this 6-string banjo configuration. Now I know that they may have come from Britain or have been based on a British design.
Most of the zither-banjos that still exist still have the original vellum (scraped calfskin) heads. Folks who collect and play them try to replace the heads with real vellum. So they tend to have a distinctive sound, even if they're played "American-style."
To hear for yourself, here's a link to an mp3 file of Olly Oakley's interpretation of the Stars and Stripes Forever:
If you want to see what that arrangement would have looked like, here's a link to a low-resolution scan I borrowed off a site that is no longer online:
It's worth pointing out that Oakley picked mostly with his fingernails, achieving a brighter tone than Cammeyer produced, using the fleshy tips of his fingers and very little fingernail (he even oiled his fingernails to keep them relatively soft). So some of the recordings sound even mellower than this one. I hope to put a few more online eventually.
Modern uses are rarer, but one does show up on the Mungo Jerry song "In the Summertime." The zither banjo is played by Paul King, who was quite the fan of traditional Folk music. Most modern users of zither banjos play them in styles more suited for American folk music, especially strum-heavy styles like Frailing and Clawhammer.
Here's an irony - although the zither banjo architecture described on this page evolved almost entirely in England, a UK reader who once brought a 70+-year old English-made and English-played zither banjo to a Folk gathering was chastized by a well-known UK folksinger for bringing an "American instrument" to an event. The joke's on the folksinger, though - I have heard a recording of the fellow in his "Skiffle" phase and there was nothing authentically British in that music.
A nice English fellow named Derek pointed me to this concise account: http://creekdontrise.com/acoustic/zither_banjo/shlomo/shlomos_english_zither_banjo_article.htm
A more complete resource is:
http://zither-banjo.org/pages/home.htm
Buried in its pages are several very old recordings of the thing being played by "serious" zither-banjo players. Plus tabs for several of Cammeyer's compositions if you want to take a "whack" at them. (You have to download a tab reader to see the tabs). Plus Alfred D. Cammeyer's account of how he gave the thing its name in North America (eight years after Temlett called his invention by the same name in England).
I'm not saying to rush out and buy one. Just that they do exist and were once VERY popular in England and places like South Africa, so if you come across one of these in a music store or museum in the US, know that it's just our American banjo's "English cousin," with its own - relatively respectable - history.
Our article "What Kind of Banjo Do I Want?" describes the main kinds of banjos and what they're good for.
Please get in touch.if you want to share photos of a unique instrument or ask any related questions.
Whatever road you decide to travel, I am certain that it will be made more fun with a properly chosen and set-up banjo or banjo-like instrument. :-)
- Paul Race
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Whatever else you get out of our pages, I hope you enjoy your music and figure out how to make enjoyable music for those around you as well. And please stay in touch! All material, illustrations, and content of this web site is copyrighted ? 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006,
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