Annotation:While I My Banjo Play
X:1 T:While I My Banjo Play C:W.H. Montgomery M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Air S:Philip Carolan music manuscript collection N:Philip Carolan (c. 1839-1910, Crossmolina, County Mayo), a musically literate N:farmer and fiddler who compiled his ms. probably during 1863-1873. S:Angela Buckley, thesis, “A Critical Edition of the Irish Music Manuscripts of S:Philip Carolan c. 1839-1910, vol. 2”, Waterford Institute of Technology, S:2007, p. 87. Carolan ms. 1, No. 269. K:G d|dd/d/ dd|ed dB|d(c/B/) ce|d2 zd|dd/d/ dd| ed dB|d(c/B/) ce|d2 zd|d^c dd|d^c dd|d^c dd| d^c dd|ed ^cB|BA GF|AG FE|1 D3:|2 D4|| dd/d/ dd|ed d2|d(c/B/) ce|d3d|dd/d/ dd |ed dd| g(B/c/) dF|1G4:|2 G3||:d|GB GB|d3e| Be df|g3g|fee e|eG Bd|dc BA|G3:|
WHILE I MY BANJO PLAY. English, Minstrel Air (2/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC. The original version of the song was published in New York c. 1818-21 by J.A. & W. Geib as “Bonja song, a favorite negro air.” It was reset to music by the English composer William Henry Montgomery (1810-1886) and published as Nos. 1180 and 1181 of the Musical Bouquet, London (1857) as “While I my banjo play. Lisettes song. Written by Harried Beecher Stowe.” The last a reference to its inclusion in Stowe's Dred (Boston, 1856), where she included the words of the song (with some variants). The piece has been identified as “a weak copy of [English composer Charles] Dibdin’s 'Wag' rondo, and the satiric complaint has simmered down to anemic content in dubious dialect.”[1]
What are the joys of white man here,
What are his pleasures say?
He great, he proud, he haughty, fine,
While I my banjo play.
He sleep all day, he wake at night,
He full of care, his heart no light;
He great deal want, he little get,
He sorry so he fret.
Chorus:
What are the joys of white man here,
What are his pleasures say?
He great, he proud, he haughty, fine,
While I my banjo play.
While I my banjo play.
While I my banjo play.
While I my banjo, I my banjo.
I my banjo play.
The piece was sung by the Christy Minstrels.
- ↑ "THE NEGRO IN EARLY AMERICAN SONGSTERS," S. Foster Damon, The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Vol. 28 (1934), p. 137.