Born in Ireland, Francis O'Neill
collected and transcribed nearly 3,500 Celtic tunes
The Man Who Saved Celtic
Music
by Joey Robichaux
Familiar with the name
"Francis O'Neill?" The current wave of interest in Celtic music owes
him a great debt -- he's the person who collected and published the
music for thousands of Celtic tunes, making them available to
musicians all over the world.
O'Neill was born in 1848 in
Ireland. When he was 16, he emigrated to the United States. During
his life, he was a rancher, a teacher, a Chicago policeman, and
fathered ten children. He also played the flute!
O'Neill (also known as
"Chief O'Neill") loved Celtic music. At that time, the music was
passed down tune at a time from one musician to another. Little had
been written transcribed in written form.
O'Neill did not read music
-- he played by ear -- but he became convinced of the value of
saving Celtic tunes for prosperity by transcribing them into musical
notation for future generations. With the help of a fiddling
sergeant in the Chicago police department who did read music, he
managed to do so. He would play the tunes he had learned from other
musicians; the sergeant would transcribe them into musical notation.
By the time O'Neill died in
1936, he had collected and transcribed nearly 3,500 tunes -- many of
them dating back hundreds and hundreds of years!
He eventually published
eight books -- including the now classic "The
Music of Ireland." This book is still easily available in
most bookstores. This book alone provides notation for 1,850 tunes!
(Note: You can find these transcriptions for free at
http://www.freesheetmusic.net !)
Noel Rice offers this
comment that illustrates O'Neill's contribution: "He recalled
reading about some boys who would sit at the feet of an old
musician, thinking they were learning the music the way generations
before them had. And ... this old man was playing these lovely Irish
tunes right out of O'Neill's book."
About the author: Joey
Robichaux rides the Road Warrior circuit and has been playing some
musical instrument for the past way-too-many years! He maintains the
Free Sheet Music Downloads website offering thousands of free sheet
music downloads at
http://www.freesheetmusic.net .
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