The Three Sea Captains jig

I got this tune from Tim Livernoir (a Rhode Island-based flute player). He told me it was a set dance, not a barndance, but there was no option to designate it as a set dance. So, here it is.

JDH

John, I hope you can understand why “set dance” can’t appear as a tune designation. It says nothing about the time signature of the tune. Jigs, polkas and reels can all be set dances. The same goes for “O’Carolan Composition”.

Please appreciate that the tunes need to be ordered on the site by some criteria and I have chosen the tune type and key signature as the basic criteria. You can always add in the comments whether a jig or a polka or whatever is also a set dance.

But please appreciate that “set dance” is far too nebulous a term to order tunes by.

As an Irish dancer, I can clarify this is a set dance- as it’s my set dance 🙂.

My fav comment about 3 Sea Captains is that of my TCRG’s father, who heard it so often as she prepared for Nationals that he started calling it The Three Million Sea Captains…

This set dance was composed in honour of the victory of the combined fleets of Britain, France and Russia (and their respective sea captains) over the Egyptian and Turkish fleets at the battle of Navarino in 1827.
Navarino bay is off Pylos in the Peloponnese of southern Greece..
This was the last great sea battle fought with wooden ships and was decisive in the struggle for Greek independence from the Ottoman empire.
For more information and anecdotes about the dance:
http://www.setdancingnews.net/
Old news and reviews - Vol.19

K: G MAjor
|: D |
G2 G BGB | c2 A F2 A | G2 G BGB | d2 B G2 B |
cec A2 A | BdB G3 | A2 B c2 B | AB/A/G FED |
GDG BGB | c2 A FGA | G2 G BGB | d2 B G2 B |
cec A2 A | B/c/dB G2 F | EcB AGF | G3 G || ( ~ or :| )
|: B/c/d |
g2 g dcB | AA/B/c def | g2 g dBd | ecA A3 |
g2 a bge | f2 g afd | e2 f g2 f | edc d3 |
c2 d ecA | B2 c dBG | A2 B c2 B | ABG FED |
GDG BG/A/B | c2 A F2 A | G2 G BGB | d2 B GAB |
cec A2 c | BdB G3 | EcB AGF | G3- G2 || ( ~ or :| )

Courtesy of “The Fiddler’s Companion” ~ Andrew Kuntz

“The Calvert Collection”, 1799
Assembled by Thomas Calvert, musician, Kelso, Scotland
This collection includes bass parts for many of the tunes, second violin parts for some, and included in the transcriptions are double-stops, trills, ties, etc… The following transcript has been simplified for easier comparison…

Calvert business, from a note in this collections, was supplying “a variety of music and instruments, instruments lent out, tun’d and repaired.”

Page 14: “The Three Captains”

K: G Major
D |
G2 G BAB | c2 A F2 A | G2 G BAB | d2 B G2 B |
cec A2 c | BdB G2 B | gfe dcB | ABG FED |
G2 G BAB | c2 A F2 A | G2 G BAB | d2 B G2 B |
cec A2 c | BdB G2 B | AcB AGF | G3 G2 ||
f |
g3 dBG | ABc def | gfg dcB | ecA A2 f |
~g2 a bge | ~f2 g afd | egf ed^c | d3 d2 B |
c2 d edc | B2 c dcB | A2 B ~c2 e | dBG FED |
G2 G BAB | c2 A F2 A | G2 G BAB | d2B G2 B |
cec A2 c | BdB G2 B | AcB AGF | G3 G2 ||

Note: In this transcript the parts do not repeat…

X: 2
T: Three Sea Captains, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: GMaj
|: D |\
G2 G BGB | c2 A F2 A | G2 G BGB | d2 B G2 B |
cec A2 A | BdB G3 | A2 B c2 B | AB/A/G FED |
GDG BGB | c2 A FGA | G2 G BGB | d2 B G2 B |
cec A2 A | B/c/dB G2 F | EcB AGF | G3- G2 :|
|: (3B/c/d/ |\
g2 g dcB | AA/B/c def | g2 g dBd | ecA A3 |
g2 a bge | f2 g afd | e2 f g2 f | ed^c d3 |
c2 d ecA | B2 c dBG | A2 B c2 B | ABG FED |
GDG BG/A/B | c2 A F2 A | G2 G BGB | d2 B GAB |
cec A2 c | BdB G3 | EcB AGF | G3- G2 :|

I’m sorry… I’m sure it’s intuitive to someone that knows how to play but not to me…

Tony
If you’re referring to the ABC notation, then you could try:
http://abcnotation.com/wiki/abc:standard:v2.1
If you read sheet music you can also match the ABC to the sheet music using the links above.

His book, Irish Fiddle Tunes - 62 Traditional pieces - includes a CD containing every tune in the book. The recording is exceptional - all tunes are played solo by Dr. Cranitch. For anyone learning the - Three Sea Captains on fiddle, this recording and notation will speed you on your way. The package - book and CD - is yet another wonderful and lasting contribution to ITM by this Cork master fiddler -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWC5vrdcUvM

play video

Tony, just in case you haven’t made sense of abc yet, ABC is not something you would normally read music from directly. Rather, it is an easy way of sharing tunes very small sized text files that don’t need costly software to read and create. There are loads of ABC editors and readers available free on the net.
This site is an excellent place to go for information
http://forum.melodeon.net/index.php/page,abc.html

One of the most popular and easiest to use for windows, mac and linux is easyabc, available here
https://sourceforge.net/projects/easyabc/

with Mick Moloney on guitar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvM4V7gnV7k

play video

It was claimed above (and it seems this is a common claim in Irish step dancing circles) that:

“This set dance was composed in honour of the victory of the combined fleets of Britain, France and Russia (and their respective sea captains) over the Egyptian and Turkish fleets at the battle of Navarino in 1827.”

I think that Admiral Codrington would have been a bit put out to be called a “captain” (as would the other two admirals), but in any case, this tune could not have been composed in honour of the battle of Navarino as it already existed. One printing in 1799 is mentioned above.

Of all the versions I’ve heard, my favorite is from the English YouTuber Peakfiddler, even though it’s not from an album.
https://youtu.be/JMhQ3lMmBes

play video