Spanish Point waltz

This is a nice tune played by John Sheahan and Michael Howard. The individual track and ful l cd is on youtube . Hope I have the notation right but comments/corrections are welcome.

Sorry, but you have the equivalent of 4 crotchets in each bar instead of 3, so is it supposed to be in 3/4 or 4/4? If the latter, it’s not a waltz!

I assume it’s this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCvSEb5LDtU

play video

Afraid I don’t do ABC, but looking at the notation and listening to the video, it’s apparent that it starts with lead notes of 2 quavers, then pretty well all bars consist of MINIM quaver/quaver, and yes it is a waltz, and therefore all of your barlines are in the wrong places. (i.e. nearly all of your crotchets should be minims). There are a few errors in respect of notes too. Perhaps someone else will have a go at fixing it, as it’s a nice tune and worth doing.

A nice waltz but, as Trish says, the “ABC” requires some adjustment. I agree that most of the crotchets require to be changed too.
I don’t want to tackle it yet though as I’m not yet familiar enough with the tune. Perhaps later.

Hi Trish and Johnny Jay-- Changed the notes in the bars to correct my first attempt and now it is 3/4 and also changed one note . Any other help/suggestions appreciated.

It’s going all right until the 5th full bar, which should in fact be 2 bars, the first note being longer than you have it: it’s a minim tied to a quaver on the F#, then the final note is your G quaver. The next bar starts with a minim on the A, followed by the DA quavers. Then your next bar begins with minim B followed by 2 quavers. so, every bar after that has the barlines in the wrong place: they should all be….barline minim quaver/quaver barline.
I’ll try scoring it in standard notation, and see if I can convert it to ABC from there! It’ll be a wee challenge for me!

Looks better. However, there seems to be a bar missing in Part One…probably in the first line.

I’m inclined to think the “lead in” notes are part of the tune and it seems to be written that way in lines 2,3, and 4. So, it would be a case of rewriting it to read

First line
de f4| af e4| dc B4| AG F4| DE F4| G2 A4|dA B4 | fd e4 |

After listen to the tune again, I think the notes in bars 5 and 6 are a little longer. So, I’ve adjusted these and it seems to fit.

Also, you have double bar lines after 10, 12 14th bars in first half. Also after the 14th in the second half . So, it’s just a case of taking one of them out of the ABC.

Hope this helps. I’m still not totally familiar with the whole tune. Therefore, I’ve only made suggestions for the obvious mistakes. However, it should be close enough and quite “serviceable” now.

Hi Leprauchan,

I’ve amended the tune according to my suggestions. I thnk it’s probably more accurate now although I would need to familiarise myself fully with the tune to be sure.

This is roughly how the tune is played on the guitar (which is slightly different from the whistle take).
Underlying harmony is:
|:D - A - G - D - D - F#m - G - A
D - A - G - D - D - D - A - D :|
|:A - D - G - D - F#m - G - D - A
D - A - G - D - D - D - A - D :|

This is a rough transcription of the whistle take with chords (as played) added.

Donald’s version looks good to me many thanks: as you say, there are few notes different between the guitar and whistle renditions (and I can hear the whistle better on the YouTube!)
Corresponds with what I was saying about the longest notes coming straight after the barlines and the quavers being lead notes into the next bar (so afraid your barlines are mis-placed, Johnny Jay.)

OK, I’m sure you are right but my one seems to work too.
🙂

There are (probably several tunes called Spanish song/tune/Spanish…). I posted “Spanish Song” but it is not to be confused with another (American) “Spanish Song”. My tune has a Hispanic, slightly Moorish sound maybe. {In fact mine’s a song with 16th century words}.

Is Spanish Pointl definitely Irish? A quite good tune seemingly.

Spanish Point is in County Clare, Susan.

Composed by John Sheahan of the Dubliners. “Spanish Point” is a few miles from Miltown Malbay, in Co. Clare. Could hardly be more Irish.

Thanks everybody for the help in getting this right. Not always good but do get a few right and changed my in itial offering to Donalds . At least I got it on with help and its a nice tune. C HEERS !!!!!

Thanks leprecawn: it’s a very nice tune which I shall now take away and learn to play. As YouTube does, it led on to several others played by (composed by?) John Sheahan, so I’ll be after those too! Already play several of his.
And thanks again to Donald!
P.s. While looking for it on YouTube, I found another Spanish Point tune with Donal Lunny playing: totally different tune. A place that inspires composers!

Thanks for confirming it’s Irish. I don’t know County Clare, is that where Edna O’Brien came from?

Here you are, Susan: this will give you the Spanish connection:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Point,_County_Clare

Clare is a most beautiful county of Ireland, home of the Willie Clancy summer schools in Milltown Malbay, which is not far from Spanish Point. We once happened upon the Micho Russell festival in Doolin: didn’t expect too much music on a Sunday night in February, but there were sessions everywhere: our B & B hosts were musicians too, fiddle and keyboard players.
And yes, Edna O’Brien was born in Co Clare: enjoyed her books!

More beautiful than Kerry?

“Trish” said “a”, not “the”. Clare people would probably say, yes. Kerry people, probably, no.

Oooh! Sloppy reader me.
Actually true. I’m a dreadful reader (of words and notes).
Just discovered this evening a hilarious mistranscription (i.e., duff notes) of mine in a well known pipe tune. I must work harder to play what’s written on the sheet rather than what’s in my head when checking transcriptions.

Agree, Kerry is very beautiful too, in fact, so many beautiful places all over the Republic and in N Ireland: almost as good as Scotland!