89 Spanish Ladies

Back to Cecil J. Sharp (1916) ''One Hundred English Folk Songs''

Tune Analysis: Plagal. Hexatonic, no F (6th). Notated in the key of A minor. The tune presents as A Aeolian, but with a key signature of A Dorian (i.e. if the missing Fs were presumed sharpened) the melody would be unchanged.

Sheet Music (1916) Media:89SpaLad_1916_Sheet_Music.pdf

Cecil Sharp's Note 89 (1916)

MIDI Sequence Media:89SpaLad.mid

PDF Media:89SpaLad.pdf

Music XML File:89SpaLad.xml

ABC Code:
X:89
T:89 Spanish Ladies
P:Collected by Cecil J. Sharp
C:From 'One Hundred English Folk Songs' (1916)
Z:Transcribed by Lewis Jones
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%%pagewidth 21.00cm
%%leftmargin 1.00cm
%%rightmargin 1.00cm
L:1/4
M:3/4
I:linebreak $
Q:1/4=120
K:Am
V:
V:1
E | A A B | A2 (A/B/) | c B A |$ (A/G/) E E | A A B | A3/2 A/ B | c d c |$ B2 B | c B c | %10
w: Fare-|well and a-|dieu to *|you Span- ish|lad\- * ies, Fare-|well and a-|dieu to you|lad- ies of|Spain, For|we've rec- eived|
d c d/ d/ | (e/d/) c A |$ (A/G/) E e/ d/ | c A A | (A/G/) E D | E c B | A2 |] %17
w: ord- ers for to|sail * for old|Eng\- * land But we|hope in a|short * time to|see you a-|gain.|
W:
W:
W:1 Farewell and adieu to you, Spanish ladies,
W:Farewell and adieu to you, ladies of Spain;
W:For we've received orders for to sail for old England,
W:But we hope in a short time to see you again.
W:
W:CHORUS: We will rant and we'll roar like true British sailors,
W:We'll rant and we'll roar all on the salt seas,
W:Until we strike soundings in the channel of old England:
W:From Ushant to Scilly is thirty-five leagues.
W:
W:2 We hove our ship to with the wind from sou'-west, boys,
W:We hove our ship to, deep soundings to take;
W:'Twas forty-five fathoms, with a white sandy bottom,
W:So we squared our main yard and up channel did make.
W:
W:3 The first land we sighted was call-ed the Dodman,
W:Next Rame Head off Plymouth, off Portsmouth the Wight;
W:We sail-ed by Beachy, by Fairlight and Dover,
W:And then we bore up for the South Foreland light.
W:
W:4 Then the signal was made for the grand fleet to anchor,
W:And all in the Downs that night for to lie;
W:Let go your shank painter, let go your cat stopper!
W:Haul up your clewgarnets, let tacks and sheets fly!
W:
W:5 Now let ev'ry man drink off his full bumper,
W:And let ev'ry man drink off his full glass;
W:We'll drink and be jolly and drown melancholy,
W:And here's to the health of each true-hearted lass.
W:
W:NOTE
W:
W:This is a Capstan Chantey. It is also well known in the navy, where it is sung as a song, chanteys not being permitted.
W:Captain Kettlewell, R.N., who has made a special study of this song and has very kindly revised the words for me,
W:tells me that when it is sung on board ship, the conclusion of the chorus is, or always used to be, greeted with a shout
W:of "Heave and pawl!" (the pawl is the catch which prevents the recoil of the windlass).
W:The tune is in the Aeolian mode and, in my opinion, it is one of the grandest of our folk-tunes and one of which a seafaring
W:nation may well be proud. Nowadays, alas! sailors sing a modernized and far less beautiful form of the air in the major mode
W: