Annotation:King Charles's Jig

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KING CHARLES'S JIG. Irish, Scottish; Set Dance (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Howe): AABB (Joyce, Shields/Goodman). A melody by this title appears in the Gillespie Manuscript of Perth (1768). Each part has six measures instead of the usual eight, however, irregularly measured parts are are feature of set dance melodies. The melody appears in Church of Ireland cleric James Goodman's mid-19th century music manuscripts as "King Charles's Jig (old times). 'Seantrúis' (old trousers)." There is a Scottish dance called Sean Trews which is a solo dance performed in tartan trousers rather than a kilt, although what the connection might be with Goodman's tune is unknown, if any. Goodman (1828-1896) was an uilleann piper, and an Irish speaker who collected locally in County Cork and elsewhere in Munster. He also obtained tunes from manuscripts and printed collections.

Additional notes
Source for notated version : - P.W. Joyce said in his 1909 volume that he learned the tune as a child in Limerick, around the 1840's; however, in his 1873 collection he said he noted the tune down in 1852 from James Buckley, a Limerick piper [Joyce].

Printed sources : - Howe (1000 Jigs and Reels), c. 1867; p. 21. Elias Howe (Howe’s 500 Irish Melodies Ancient and Modern), Boston, c. 1880; p. 503 (a collection of “Irish” tunes from previous Howe publications, plus 200 tunes from P.M. Joyce’s 1873 Ancient Irish Music). Joyce (Ancient Irish Music), 1873; No. 58, p. 59. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 140, pp. 71-72. Robbins Music Corp. (The Robbins collection of 200 jigs, reels and country dances), New York, 1933; No. 188, p. 60. Shields/Goodman (Tunes of the Munster Pipers), 1998; No. 200, p. 82.

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