Annotation:I'm Off to Charlestown

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I'M OFF TO CHARLESTOWN. AKA and see "Off to Charleston." American; Air and dance tune (2/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The first several bars of melody are shared with the American old-time song "Old Plank Road." The tune is included in Kerr's along with a hodgepodge of tunes, including several from America. "I'm Off to Charlestown" [1] was popularized by Christy's Minstrels, a blackface minstrel troupe, and was written by William Donaldson and dedicated to Charles White Esq. It was published in 1850.

My massa and my missus have both gone away,
Gone to the sulpher springs, the summer months to stay;
And while they're off togedder, on a little kind of spree,
I'll go down to Charlestown, the pretty gals to see.

See also the march variant "Off to Charleston" in Hopkin's American Veteran Fifer (1905).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Kerr (Merry Melodies, vol. 3), c. 1880's; No. 395, p. 43.

Recorded sources:

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