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Article #68: The Man Who Saved Celtic Music

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Familiar with the name "Francis O'Neill"? written transcribed in written form.
The current wave of interest in Celtic O'Neill did not read music -- he played
music owes him a great debt -- he's the by ear -- but he became convinced of the
person who collected and published the value of saving Celtic tunes for
music for thousands of Celtic tunes, prosperity by transcribing them into
making them available to musicians all musical notation for future generations.
over the world. With the help of a fiddling seargeant in
O'Neill was born in 1848 in Ireland. the Chicago police department who did
When he was 16, he emigrated to the read music, he managed to do so. He
United States. During his life, he was a would play the tunes he had learned from
rancher, a teacher, a Chicago policeman, other musicians; the sergeant would
and fathered ten children. He also transcribe them into musical notation.
played the flute! By the time O'Neill died in 1936, he had
O'Neill (also known as "Chief O'Neill") collected and transcribed nearly 3,500
loved Celtic music. At that time, the tunes -- many of them dating back
music was passed down tune at a time from hundreds and hundreds of years!
one musician to another. Little had been






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