O'Neil's 1001 The Dance Music of Ireland by Francis O'Neill

O'Neil's 1001 The Dance Music of Ireland Reviews

• 
  Paul Magnussen

  In 1967, in love with folk music, I knew how to play about ten Irish dance tunes, and was desperate to learn more.
  
  One day the Grehan Sisters came to our local folk club, and I asked them if there were any book of such tunes that I might buy: they told me of O’Neill’s, and gave me the address of the publishers, Walton’s Musical Galleries, to whom I wrote the next day.
  
  When the book arrived I felt like Aladdin. There are literally 1001 dance tunes here, comprising:
  
  365 double jigs
  045 single jigs
  045 slip jigs
  350 reels
  150 hornpipes
  030 long dances & set dances
  016 miscellaneous
  
  Francis O’Neill (1848-1936), born in County Cork, was Police Chief in Chicago. He seems to have been a good Chief, for he was re-appointed twice; but it is for his assiduous collections of Irish music that he’s remembered today.
  
  In an interview on Andy Irvine’s website, Liam O’Flynn refers to O’Neill’s as “the bible”, and this seems to be the consensus, although other good collections have appeared (notably Brendán Breathnac’s).
  
  All is not perfect, however: Francis O’Neill was musically illiterate, and relied on his (unrelated) friend James O’Neill for notating the tunes. Unfortunately James was classically trained, and this seems to have made him blind to the modal nature of many of the tunes, so that key signatures are wrong and essential accidentals are missing.
  
  A good example is Chief O’Neill’s Favorite, where the Fs and Cs in the first two bars of the B part should be natural; leaving them sharp destroys the whole character of the piece. On the other hand, The Mooncoin Jig, which is in A Mixolydian, is notated properly with two sharps, and is exactly as you will hear it played by (for example) Paddy Glackin.
  
  Attempts have been made to correct the mistakes in O’Neill’s, notably by
  Miles Krassen; but the response has been decidedly mixed.
  
  O’Neill himself wrote modestly: “Being not unmindful of the fact that the perfect book has yet to be printed, we would bespeak for this endeavor to supply a recognised want, such generous consideration as may reasonably be expected for an earnest and unselfish effort undertaken for the promotion of a patriotic purpose.”
  
  Time has more than vindicated him.
  
  Summary
  
  This, then, is the standard source for Irish dance music; so much so that O’Neill numbers are given to the tunes, in the same way as BWV numbers are given to Bach. This is the book to have.
  
  Those wishing to read more about O’Neill may do so in
  A Harvest Saved.
• 
  Bianka Black

  If you need to learn a tune it's probably in this book, but likely under a name you don't know. :)