The Salamanca reel

I find this tune to be quite tricky and when it came time to transcribe it, I really had to stop and think about what I actually play. I’m still not sure if this quite how I do it.

It’s definitely a good idea to play this one nice and slowly and tell you’re absolutely certain you can hit every note. Otherwise you’re going to get tripped up in that second part.

The first part can be tricky enough as well. You can ornament it nicely with some triplets. In the opening bar, try a FED triplet instead of FD in the ADFD phrases. If you can do similar triplets for the other phrases like this (e.g. GFE instead of GE at the end of the BEGE phrase) then the tune gets a nice lift to it.

Watch out for that G sharp in the second bit - it’s come back to haunt you from St. Anne’s Reel.

VERY nice tune.

I think Jeremy has it alittle wrong. The second part actually goes:

|:fg|afde gbeg|fdcd AGFG|Addc etc.

(I think)

Michael, a distinctive rendering! Harmonically it fits in with the tune as first posted, so I suppose it’s not really a “version”.
TRevor

I have it as fg|afdg bgeg|fd (3dcd BAFG|Addc defg|(3aba ^gb a2
Am I wrong too?

yes

😀

I have this as the Wild Salamanca. I remember eading somewhere that the tune title refers to a wild Spanish horse. We had a go-round in the the pub the other night about tune titles.
Anybody else know about the title for The Salamanca? If so could you email me direct to:david@dlevine.net. Thanks.

I heard somewhere that the name of this reel was a reference to the Irish seminary in Salamanca, Spain.
In the penal times when it was illegal to study for the priesthood in Ireland or Britain, seminaries were set up specially for them in catholic countries on the continent.
There was one for the English in Valladolid (near Salamanca).
Presumably, some of the students studying there were musicians.
I met a priest in Lancashire a few years ago who told me he learnt Spanish while studying there, so it may still be there.

Of course, all this may have nothing to do with the name of the reel, but it´s something I heard or read, I can´t remember where.
I´ll send the gist of this post to David´s e-mail address in case he doesn´t get to read this.

As for the “Wild” bit, that could refer to the way the tune is played.
You have The Bucks of Oranmore, but you have the Mighty Bucks of Oranmore on a recording by Noel Hill and Tony Macmahon. The same tune but played in a more exciting way than usual.

Submitted & Created on July 26th 2002 by milesnagopaleen.
https://thesession.org/tunes/860

The Dubliners have a great banjo recording of a tune under this name, but it seems several tunes have adopted this name, does anyone know of the recording and if a midi file is on this website?

Somewhat weirdly, there’s only one tune I know of with the name Salamanca, and it’s this one: https://thesession.org/tunes/99 . Never heard the Dubliners recording, but can’t imagine that a tune called The Salamanca would be a significantly different one from the one everyone else calls The Salamanca, unless they just got the name wrong when they recorded it. There’s about as many different settings of the thing as there are players, though, Mick. 🙂

Perhaps I’m still getting used to this whole ‘internet’ thing, and this website in particular!

Takes some getting used to, Mick. Believe me. I’ve been here since the beginning and still can’t quite get used to some of the goings-on. 🙂

Hey that’s spooky because I was trying this tune today and I haven’t played it for ages, then I open The Session and…

Follow this tune with McMahon’s (The Banshee) and the Sailor’s Bonnet and you’ll have a set popularised by the great Bothy Band which most players will be familiar with.

After many months wondering, i discovered that the Dubliners precede this tune with
“the snow on the hill”
https://thesession.org/tunes/8535

i found this through Doug Clarks site,http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com/
which has a Dubliners Discography, i quote from the site
"Paul Magnussen reports that the instrumental track Salamanca is a medley of
Snow on the Hills (O‘Neill 569) and The Salamanca Reel (O’Neill 603)."

Going to have to go with Llig’s ABCs on this one. That’s what my ears told me the Bothies play on their album.

T:Salamanca, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K:Dmaj
Z:Carey Parks
|dB|:AD(3FED AD(3FED|Adcd fdcd|BE~G2 BE~G2|Bded cdeg|
fB~B2 fB~B2|fafc deag|fdec dBAG|FGEF D2:|
|:fg|afde gbeg|fdcd AGFG|Addc defg|a2^gb a2f=g|
~a3f ~g3e|~f3d dfag|fdec dBAG|FGEF D2:|

X: 73
T:Salamanca Reel, The
R:reel
D:Bothy Band 1975.
Z:id:hn-reel-73
M:C|
K:D
AD (3FED AD (3FED|Adcd fedc|BE~E2 BE~E2|Beed cdeg|
fB~B2 fB~B2|fgef dfag|fdec dBAG|1 FAEF D2dB:|2 FAEF D2fg||
|:afdf gbeg|fdcd BAFB|Addc defg|(3aba gb a2fg|
~a3f ~g3e|~f3e dfag|fdec dBAG|1 FGEF D2fg:|2 FAEF D2dB||

We played this last night and it got me thinking about the origin of the name. Looking here I was mildly surprised to read about “The Wild Salamanca”, the racehorse and the other putative origin being from the seminary in the city. Whilst I am in no position to contradict these possibilities, I had always thought it had been composed to celebrate the British (and at that time also Irish) and Portuguese victory over Napoleon in the Battle of Salamanca in 1812. I Googled “Salamanca Reel” and other sources appear to confirm this, but they might also be apocryphal. It wouldn’t be the first time the Napoeonic Wars had been referenced in Irish folk music, and I think firstly of the songs “The Bonny Light Horseman” and “As I Roved Out”. Whatever its origin, it is a great tune.

I sometimes think it’s more fun to play this tune as a hornpipe.

Here’s piper David Power’s great rendition of the tune as a reel: https://myspace.com/davidpoweruilleannpiper/music/song/salamanca-and-the-steam-packet-18033280-17834465

Can’t recall where I learned this tune but have always played it this way and a little slower (~ 85 bpm, counting in twos,) than most other reels. It transitions nicely into a more up-tempo reel like “The Banshee”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVOwf2DfuOE

play video

The Dubliners version is in G and is on the CD: Jigs Reels & Hornpipes available on iTunes.

Found in John Chamber’s collection of Irish tunes

https://thesession.org/tunes/99

Simple setting with no ornamentation. This is the melody line that is in my head, I possibly got it from the Galway pub sessions.

This is how I learned the Salamanca. It is a nice, flowing version.