Annotation:Banjo Quadrilles: No.1 (The)
X:1 T:Banjo Quadrilles: No.1 (The) M:2/4 L:1/8 B:Sheet music: The Banjo Quadrilles B:arranged by R.M. Levey (c1844) Z:Conor Ward K: Gmaj g2 g2|ag e2|d/d/d/d/ Bd|AB G2|g2 g2|ag e2|d/d/d/d/ Bd|AB G2|| ee dd|ee d>d|ee dd|dd B2|ee dd|ee d>d|ee dd|dd B|| K:C g|e>e de|g3 g|a>a gg|e3 c|e>e de|g3 g|ag de|c2 z||
BANJO QUADRILLES NO. 1, THE. AKA and see "Boatman's Dance (1)." American, Irish; Quadrille (2/4 time). G Major ('A' and 'B' parts) & C Major ('C' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC. “The Banjo Quadrilles” was one of the hit performances of the blackface minstrel troupe ‘The Virginia Minstrels’ aka ‘Virginia Serenaders’ when they toured Europe during 1843 and 1844. The five quadrilles contain excerpts of popular American folk song music from that period, and some of the song airs were composed by members of this troupe. Conor Ward writes:
‘The Virginia Minstrels’ were a group of 19th-century American entertainers who helped invent the entertainment form known as the minstrel show. Led by Dan Emmet (1815-1904), the original line-up consisted of Emmet, Billy Whitlock (1813-1878), Dick Pelham (1815-1876), and Frank Brower (1823-1874). The troupe appears to have toured Europe in early 1843, with members also performing with other touring acts. They broke up in April 1843 and Whitlock returned to America. In the spring of 1844 the group reformed and came to London, where they were joined by Joel Sweeney (1810-1860), an American banjo player who happened to be in London at that same time.
In 1844 the new ‘Virginia Minstrels’ performed in Dublin at the Theatre Royal from the 24th of April to the 7th of May as entr'actes during plays. R.M. Levey, who was the director of music in the Theatre Royal at that time, must have met the ‘Virginia Minstrels’ during their performance here because he published his arrangement of The Banjo Quadrilles for the Piano Forte selected from the most celebrated Negro Melodies by R. M. Levey (Cramer, Beale & Co, London, n.d.) on sheet music soon after their appearance here. Levey names each of the first four quadrilles in the set of five tunes after the four members of the reformed troupe: No.1 “Sweeny”; No.2: “Brower”; No.3: “Pelham” and No.4 “Emmit”. Given that Emmet composed the first quadrille, which Levey attributes to “Sweeny”, it can be inferred that Levey may be referring to the performer of each quadrille, not the composer.
Levey’s publication of this music, or perhaps other publications yet to be discovered, seems to have disseminated into the Irish folk music tradition very quickly as it appears transcribed in two different music manuscripts in neighbouring counties Leitrim and Longford in less than 18 months after the ‘Virginia Minstrels’ performed in Dublin in April-May 1844. The Leitrim collector Stephen Grier (c1824-94) seems to have copied, but not verbatim, Levey’s publication of ‘The Banjo Quadrilles”, which he dates September 8th, 1845, while the Longford fiddle teacher Thomas Kiernan (c1807-87) may have a different source for his transcription of the “Banjo Quadrilles”, which he dates January 3rd, 1846, given that the third part of his first quadrille differs to the Levey and Grier versions. Independently, another nineteenth century scribe, Eliza Delaney of Rathdowney, Co. Laois, whose manuscript was put together around 1860, has the same five tunes under the title, “The Banjoe Set of Quadrills”.
The first quadrille, to which the surname “Sweeny” is prefaced by Levey contains three parts A,B, and C, and it appears it was played in the order ABACA. The A and B parts of this quadrille are taken from the song, “De Boatman’s Dance”, attributed to Dan Emmet, when published in 1843. This quadrille uses the third part of that song for the A part, and the first half of its first part for B part. Both the A and B parts are marked as if in G major, but the B part seems to be in a minor key. The C part, in trio style, is in C major, but seems to be derived from the B part. Thomas Kiernan’s third part is also in trio style, but seems to be from an entirely different tune, and is somewhat reminiscent of “Dixie”, a song composed by Dan Emmet. This begs the question if the Kernan setting of this quadrille is more authentic than the Levey one.
