Comment by Mike Moss on July 19, 2013 at 8:18

Well done, Marc. I like the way you approached this one -- I think this is truer to what is indicated on the printed page -- rather than the way Wm. J. Ball did it, starting out slow and eventually reaching a frantic crescendo in the waltz bit.

Comment by thereallyniceman on August 8, 2013 at 7:40

I have just watched Marc's video and agree with Mike that it certainly seems a different approach to the piece and not like other versions that I have heard. When looking at the score I agree that Marc's is played at the tempo as notated. I have always played it with a very slow, romantic, first section.. but no, the tempo is indicated as quite fast as Marc plays it!

Thanks Marc.. very nice performance.

I am in a quandary now as to how I prefer it :-)

Comment by TONY BRYAN on August 10, 2013 at 13:04

It is always the player's task to interpret a piece, ideally to convey the composer's intention. In the case of Spanish Romance, it is worth looking at the piece in context. In the first place, Grimshaw was a multi-instrumentalist, and was as much at home with the guitar as he was with the banjo. His banjo style owes a great deal to the guitar styles of his day. I would say that Spanish Romance is probably his most guitar-ish banjo composition, to the extent that it comprises three typical Spanish guitar techniques. Secondly, this is supposed to be about Spain, and to most people of Grimshaw's time, Spain was conflated with gypsies and flamenco. So, on a general level, Spanish Romance is a flamenco piece played on the banjo. Thirdly, it is a 'romance'. A 'romance' normally comprises opposing pairs of themes: the male and the female. As written, Spanish Romance is set up this way: the first part is a deep or male theme, and this is followed by the slow song of the female part. There has to be a clear contrast between the first two parts. The third part of the piece is also in two contrasting styles: the first takes us back to the low C on the open fourth string, while the second is nearly two octaves above and contains a tune that takes several bars at a time to move the melody, making it sound much slower.
A fairly obvious way of interpreting what is on the page is to imagine the whole thing as a flamenco performance. It starts with the man doing a foot-stamping flamenco dance (compare this part with the treatment of clog dancing in Lancashire Clogs), followed by the lady singing him a love song (perversely, Grimshaw has the man singing the love song!). They then perform the wild Spanish waltz together.
To get the right feel on the banjo, the first part needs to bring out the base line and virtually hide the feathering (the added rhythm triads). For the love song part, the tune needs to be brought out and sustained as much as possible, again treating the background notes very lightly. My copy of the score has a note saying that the chords that start most of the bars should be played as a quick ripple rather than picking the notes all at once. The waltz is rather more tricky. My teacher, Alf Lane, was always of the opinion that it was never intended that the chords in the first section should be plucked. He brushed them backwards and forwards with his first finger. He recommended that I try to work up the Spanish guitar 'rasgado', which involves making a fist of the right hand then unrolling the fingers across the strings, starting with the little finger. If you can do it, it certainly sounds flamenco! It's just a continuous chord covering two beats. By contrast, the second waltz theme can have the chords plucked, but lightly.
Like I said at the start, the player can play it fast or slow, loud or soft, but the intention should be to convince the listener that a consistent 'picture' is being presented.
Hope this helps.

Comment by thereallyniceman on August 10, 2013 at 18:03

That is a very interesting insight into how you think that the piece should be played and "felt". I have always been one for hammering out tunes and perhaps suffer from a lack of empathy in my interpretations. 

Perhaps I fall into the Van Eps school of playing... play them fast and loud ;-) 

Thanks for the in depth post.

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