Wednesday 13 September 2023
Tune of the Day: Charlie Stewart
Traditional Irish jig
One of the earliest appearances of this jig, under the title “French Fancy Dance”, is in the 1859 music manuscript collection of amateur musician M.E. Eames, who judging from some of the tune names in the collection probably lived in Philadelphia. As “Prince Charles”, the melody also appears in the manuscript collection of Irish clergyman and piper James Goodman (1828–1896).
The familiar title “Charlie Stewart” was probably introduced by Francis O'Neill in his popular early-20th-century Irish music collections.