Annotation:Captain White's Jig (1)
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CAPTAIN WHITE('S JIG) [1]. AKA - "Captain Wake," "Captain Wyake," "Captain Wyke's Dance." AKA and see "Jim Cameron's," "Rockeby." Irish, English, Canadian; Jig and Country Dance Tune. D Major ('A' and 'C' parts) & A Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC (Kerr): AABC (Kennedy, Messer & Raven): AABCC (Miller). Donegal fiddlers play the tune as an untitled single jig, according to Caoimhin Mac Aoidh. It was played, for example, by Mairead ni Mhaonaigh and Frankie Kennedy in the 1980's. A similar jig is in the Fleishman index (6566), originally from a publication by Thomas Mooney called A History of Ireland (Boston 1846), where it is called "Rockeby or Captain Wyake," itself similar to another jig in the same index (5454) called "Lady Pert's Reel or Rockeby," originally from Maurice Hime's New Collection of Country Dances (Dublin, 1814). There may be some relationship to the first part of "Belfast Boat (The)" (CRÉ IV, No. 2) and to "Tim Clifford's" or "Micho Russell's." The air for the song "The Trip to Bangor" is a similar tune.
The tune was entered into several English musicians manuscripts of the first half of the 19th century under the title "Captain Wake." It appears in the 1840 music manuscript collection of multi-instrumentalist John Rook (Waverly, Cumbria); in the 1837 music copybook of James Blackshaw (north Shropshire), and the 1832 collection of R. Hughes (Whitechurch, Shropshire). Blackshaw describes it as a "Quick Step." As "Captain Wyke's Dance" it can be found in the 19th century music manuscripts of the Hardy Family of Dorset.
Source for notated version: a c. 1957 recording of Eugene Leddy's Ceili Band (County Cavan-Leddy {1913-2002}, a dairy farmer and fiddler, founded his band in 1938 and performed throughout Ireland, but was a regular at Cornafean Hall, Cavan) [Miller & Perron].
Printed sources: Fiddler Magazine, vol. 5, No. 4, Winter 1999; p. 26. Kennedy (Fiddlers Tune Book, vol. 1), 1951; No. 83, p. 41. Kerr (Merry Melodies vol. 1), c. 1880; No. 9, p. 28. Messer (Way Down East), 1948; No. 76. Messer (Anthology of Favorite Fiddle Tunes), 1980; No. 134, p. 88. Miller & Perron (Irish Traditional Fiddle Music), 1977; vol. 2, No. 58. Miller & Perron (Irish Traditional Fiddle Music, 2nd Edition), 2006; p. 17. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 109. Sherman (Wessex Tune Book, vol. 2), 1963.
Recorded sources:
Academy Sound & Vision Ltd. ALD 4010, The Yetties - "The Musical Heritage Of Thomas Hardy" (as "Captain Wyke's Dance"). Blarney Castle Records BC-507, Eugene Leddy's Ceili Band "Ceili Bands of Ireland" (c. 1957. Various artists)
See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]