The Three Sea Captains

jig

Key signature: Gmajor

Submitted on June 17th 2001 by Jdharv.

This tune has been added to 167 tunebooks.

Also known as The Four Retarded Children, Set Dance, Set-Dance, Setdance, Three Captains, The Three Captains, Three Sea Captains.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

• Buried Treasure Of The Toucan Pirates by Toucan Pirates
• Feet, Don't Fail Me Now by Boldwood
• Instrumental by The Dubliners
• Irish Traditional Music (on Uilleann Pipes, Hammered Dulcimer, Fiddle, Flute And Whistle) by Various Artists
• Irish Traditional Music Of County Clare by Bernard O'Sullivan And Tommy McMahon
• Jealousy by Touchstone
• Music From The Reeds by Noel Battle
• No Trouble At All by Noel Lenaghan
• O'Riada's Farewell by Sean O'Riada
• Out Of The Blue by Alan Kelly
• Over The Sea To Skye: The Celtic Connection by James Galway And The Chieftains
• Rattlin' Banjos (part 2) by David McNevin
• Slow Airs And Set Dances by Eugene O'Donnell
• The Fairy Bridges by Josephine Keegan
• The Final Round CD 1 by Kevin Joyce
• The Irish Fiddler by Sean Maguire
• The Master Pipers Volume 2 by Tommy Kearney
• The Sound Of The Sun by Fred Morrison
• Traditional Music Of Ireland by Various Artists
• Traditional Music Of Ireland, Vol. 2 by Sean Ryan And Peter Carberry
• Traditional Music On The Hammer Dulcimer by John Rea

X: 1
T: Three Sea Captains, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
D|G3 BGB|c2A F2D|GDG BGB|d2B G3|
cec A3|BdB G3|A2B c2B|ABG FED|
GDG BGB|c2A F2D|GDG BGB|d2B G3|
cec A3|BdB G3|EcB AGF|G3 G2:|
d|gfg dcB|ABc def|gfg dBd|e2c A2d|
g2a bge|f2g afd|e3 ed^c|d3 z2 B|
c2d ecA|B2c dBG|A2B c2B|ABG FED|
GDG BGB|c2A F2D|G3 BGB|d2B G3|
cec A3|BdB G3|EcB AGF|G3 G2:|

Set Dance / Barndance?

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

# Posted on June 17th 2001 by Jdharv

Designating tune types

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.

# Posted on June 17th 2001 by Jeremy

The Three Sea Captains

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

# Posted on December 21st 2004 by Feisen4treble

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...

# Posted on December 21st 2004 by Zina Lee

The Three 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

# Posted on July 7th 2005 by murfbox

"The Three Sea Captains"

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 :| )

# Posted on December 12th 2006 by ceolachan

"The Three Captains" / "Na Tri Taoisaig/Taoiseaca" ~ some history

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...

# Posted on December 12th 2006 by ceolachan