A Bruxa waltz

Composer: Anton Seoane
Source: The Mermaid’s Song by Tannahill Weavers
Transcription: gmp
Note: Anton Seoane plays with the Galician band Milladoiro

I love this tune and have been playing it in sessions with a flute player. Some really interesting chords here for the bored session guitarist. Where or what is Bruxa? Anyone know?

I think "A Bruxa" means a witch. Seem to remember that from sleeve notes on a recording of "La Lugh", which is showing up in the "Recorded By" link. It’s been popular with many Northern Ireland players for years now.

We recorded this tune as "La Bruxa" (pronounced bru-ha) and understood it to be a Galician tune that meant, The Witch. I think there might be a spell cast over this melody because it seems to make a lot of people cry.

in portuguese, "a bruxa" means "the witch" 🙂

I know Galician is more similar to Portugese than Spanish (Castellano). Solas also recorded this.

We, Siansa, do this tune on our CD …the imaginatively titled Siansa. Please email if you would like a copy. Sales pitch over.

It’s a really good tune from Galicia.

Doesn’t solas have a different version of the second part and a completely different third part? Must go and re-learn it!
What always confused me about the way Solas plays it is that they leave out the last beat of the 2nd part and make it into the first beat of the third part. (I think that’s right anyway??)

I believe the first (and best) recording from the British Isles to be that of the Easy Club in the early 1980s

I agree; indeed I think they were the band to bring the tune to everyone else’s attention. By the way I think it is pronounced ‘Bru-sha’ in Galicia, and it does indeed mean ‘The witch’.

By the way the fiddler player in the Tannahill Weavers is the same John Martin as appeared in the Easy Club and Ossian. Clearly putting himself about.

If the composer is Antón Seoane, then this tune is definitely Galician and "A Bruxa" means "The Witch".

Jamie Laval and Ashley Broder do a stirring rendition of this one on their recent "Zephyr in the Confetti Factory" CD. Anton Seoane is credited with writing it. Best version I’ve heard so far.

The composer, Anton Seoane, is a member of the Gallician group "Milladoiro" and this tune appeared on the first album(LP) of Milladoiro: "A Galicia de Maeloc" (French label: Escalibur, +/- 1981).
and indeed, a beautiful song, as many by them are.

Indeed, "A Bruxa" means "the witch" in Galician, but my understanding is that bruxa means a nice witch who will do good deeds, as opposed to a wicked witch, which is a "meiga" (I think).

In Galician, ‘x’ is pronounced either like a ‘sh’ in English, or like the s-sound in "measure", "pleasure" (the same as a French ‘j’). So the name of this tune is pronounced something like "a BRU-ja", or "a BRU-sha".

A few edits (preferential) by Clare Connors of Columbia, MO that I think is a more enjoyable setting.

Raising it a whole step to see if it can more easily be played in a session with D whistles and low whistles. That single A# is a lot easier to half-hole than a plethora of F♮s.

This tune (X3) went beautifully paired with the fourth setting of the Far Away Waltz https://thesession.org/tunes/187
A Bruxa followed by Far Away. Two dark and beautiful Bm waltzes