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Captain O’Kane waltz

Also known as Captain O’Cahan, Captain O’Cain, Captain O’Kaine, Ceannaire Ó Caṫáin.

There are 11 recordings of a tune by this name.

Captain O’Kane has been added to 3 tune sets.

Captain O'Kane has been added to 48 tunebooks.

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Two settings

X: 1
T: Captain O'Kane
R: waltz
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
K: Amin
|:AG|EAB c2 B/A/ | B/c/d/c/B/A/ GAB | cec e/d/c/B/A/G/ | EAA A2 A/G/|
EAB c2 B/A/ | B/c/d/c/B/A/ GAB | cec e/d/c/B/A/G/ | EAA A2:||
|:AB| cee e2 d/c/ | Bdd d2 g/f/ | e>a^g a>bc' | ea^g a2 a/b/ |
c'ba g>fe | dBg GAB | cec e/d/c/B/A/G/ | EAA A2:||
# Added by JACKB .
X: 2
T: Captain O'Kane
R: waltz
M: 3/4
L: 1/8
K: Emin
|:ED|B,EF G2 F/E/ | F/G/A/G/F/E/ DEF | GBG B/A/G/F/E/D/ | B,EE E2 E/D/|
B,EF G2 F/E/ | F/G/A/G/F/E/ DEF | GBG B/A/G/F/E/D/ | B,EE E2:||
|:EF| GBB B2 A/G/ | FAA A2 d/c/ | B>e^d e>fg | Be^d e2 e/f/ |
gfe d>cB | AFd DEF | GBG B/A/G/F/E/D/ | B,EE E2:||
# Added by JACKB .

Eight comments

Captain O’Kaine

A beautiful Carolan Air, a lovely setting can be heard on The Wishing Tree by Seamus McGuire.

Posted by .

A minor.

A good setting for pipes and whistles, you might need a C key to reach the high C.

Posted by .

Said to be composed in honour of a member of "a distinguished Antrim family, a sporting Irishman, well known in his day by the name of ‘Slasher O’Kane’" [O’Sullivan]. Tune used by Robert Burns for "The Chevalier’s Lament"

More on this in the other submission:

https://thesession.org/tunes/858

Why called a jig?

Huh. Slow air (lament) for me. Asking this also after reading the Wounded Hussar thread.

Did Carolan himself call it a jig? Or is anything in 6/8 called that, no matter the original intent. I have a collection of 110 of his tunes and this one is missing, so that’s no help. (Although I’d think this mournful little gem would have made it in there.)

For me, even making this into a waltz is a little too much, and too "measured." The tune is about as "lament-y" as they come. 🙂

But thanks for clarification as to why it’s called it a jig.

@Diane Lovejoy: Unfortunately, the only way to post a tune in 6/8 here is to post it as a jig. :~/ JACKB mentioned that it’s actually an air though; it’s certainly not a jig anyway.

Posting tunes in 6/8

Thanks for clarifying sebastian! 🙂 It sure isn’t a jig 🙂

Re: Captain O’Kane

Ceannaire Ó Caṫáin

Re: Captain O’Kane

So Strange - The Captain O’Kane most commonly played is nothing like the videos here… also, it’s not a jig.

It’s played as an air or a waltz…… I like Fergal Scahill’s take on it:

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


Also, evidently it’s not known to be an O’Carolan piece, but rather attributed to him for good reasons having to do with style and anecdotal stories.