IF YOU ACQUIRED THIS CD BY DONATING TO THE 
IRISH MUSIC PROJECT, THANK YOU!

UPDATES ARE BEING ANNOUNCED VIA A YAHOO! GROUP
(http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/oneills/)
WHERE YOU CAN SIGN UP AND RECEIVE NOTICES OF CHANGES
TO THE COLLECTIONS AS WELL AS NEW COLLECTION ADDITIONS.

IF YOU ACQUIRED THIS BY SOME OTHER METHOD, PLEASE
CHECK THE WEBSITE (www.oldmusicproject.com/oneils1.html)
TO BE SURE YOU HAVE AN UP-TO-DATE COPY.

DO read the whole thing!


PROLOGUE:


My name is Vince Brennan from Philadelphia PA and I write this in 
the Summer of 2003 at the end of a nearly three-year project to 
convert these tunes to ABC, NWC, MIDI and sheet music formats.  
How long this archive will survive and when you will be reading 
this is anyone's guess...  at present, I know of online archives 
which have been online since 1986,  but all this stuff is still really
in it's infancy so it's anyone's guess as to how long it will 
stay around.

These files were created using WIN98SE as the basic OS and how 
long THAT'S going to last is also anyone's guess as well 
(If Mr. Gates has his way it'll die in DEC of 2003...),  
but you have full permission and my request to convert these 
files to whatever storage / operating systems may come after,  
with the only proviso that you send me a copy, along with any corrections, 
amendments, emendations or revisions.  Also,  be aware that this 
CD now is the sole support of the website since my band has 
broken up and is no longer providing the web-space.  If you find
someone else who'd like a copy,  have them make the donation
to support the effort. (www.oldmusicproject.com/xxxCD.html)

Contact me by email for my current snail-mail address. 
(vince@oldmusicproject.com)

MAC USERS:  You will need an emulator such as "Soft Windows" or "Virtual PC"
to read the Noteworthy files or use the additional programs included, 
but ABC, MIDI and GIF should be usable on the MAC as they sit.


ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS:  FOR PC

NOTEWORTHY PLAYER.EXE (V 1.75)
Two ZIP programs
ABCPLAY.ZIP
XLVIEWER.ZIP (for reading the Index files)
BOXMARKS.TTF (Download to your FONTS directory in the usual way)
List of Tunes.xls  (The index)
IRFANVIEW is NOT included:  go to www.irfanview.com and download
                                                  the latest version from there to get all
                                                  the changes. It's still free (10-30-04)
FOR MAC:

BARFLYxxx.SIT (3 verzions...install them ALL)
Concertina.SIT YAPS.HQX



THE TUNES:  

O'NEILL'S MUSIC OF IRELAND (The 1850)

These tunes were all collected over the course of twenty years 
by Daniel Francis O'Neill,  one-time Chief of Police of Chicago, 
and were published in 1903 by Lyon & Healy as a special-interest 
volume sponsored by the Irish Music Club of Chicago.  It has 
endured over the years to it's Centenary (this year! Quelle co-inki-dink!) 
as a useful record of the way Irish-Americans played and perceived 
the musical tradition of Ireland and of the tunes themselves.

This particular compendium is somewhat different from the printed 
work, in that I have slowed it up a lot for teaching purposes 
and have also endeavoured to amend the many errors and strange 
keys as found in the original.

Chief O'Neill and his main assistant,  Sg't. James B. O'Neill 
(no relation), were both trained musicians but were 'classically' 
trained and not brought up 'in the tradition', so that many original 
keys were set in B-flat or E-flat (perfectly reasonable keys for 
a professionally-trained flautist (Chief O'Neill) or violinist 
(Sg't. O'Neill) but absolute horrors for the traditional musician 
who - if he ventures from the "Holy Triad" of G, D and A - may 
occasionally visit C but shudders at F or Db-minor.  

For that reason, I have transposed <almost> all the tunes into 
trad-friendly keys (and have also drawn on my not-so-humble resources
of having played IrTrad Music for nearly thirty years) correcting
some of the more egregious errors in the printed tunes.    

For those of you who would really like a copy of the "O'Neill's
Music Of Ireland - The 1850" I should warn you that there is a version
out by Dr. Miles Krassen which omits the entire "AIrs & Songs" section.
Dr. Krassen's version contains a great deal of scholarly work and is
well worth the purchase for that reason alone,  but for completeness,
you'll want the other version available at many music sellers and now
published by Mel Bay Inc.

.................................................................................................................

ALLAN'S IRISH FIDDLER

A misnomer of sorts;  Mozart Allan was a publisher in Glascow who
contracted with one Hugh McDermott (or MacDermott) to compile a
book of "standard" Irish dance tunes which he then published, sometime 
in the 1920's I think.  The "wee book" has become the standard bible for 
session (seisun) players and most tunes therein should be in the repetiore
of any Irish music player.
  
.................................................................................................................

The Complete Music Of O'Carolan

214 tunes attributable to Turlough O'Carolan,  a blind harper of the 18th
century and "The Patron Saint" of Irish Music.  This collection was provided
to me in NWC by Chris Gilb (see acknowledgements at end) and I am immensely
grateful.  Any errors found in it are probably my own in transcription.

More information online at http://www.oldmusicproject.com/occ/tunes.html.

.................................................................................................................

If YOU find errors I have overlooked or stupidly ignored,  
please feel free to contact me at  music@oldmusicproject.com 
with your corrections or suggestions which I will 
incorporate at the next (ongoing) re-do of the site and tunes. 
(Last re-do of ALLAN'S completed 11-01-2004)
(Last re-do of O'Neill's  completed 11-05-2004)


IF YOU HAVE ACQUIRED THIS CD THRU A GIFT / FOUND IT ON THE ROAD / WHATEVER,  
go to the yahoo! group listed above and  add yourself  to the 
notification/update lists.  I'd just like to be sure that everyone 
is on the same page.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

IF YOU THINK SOMEONE ELSE WOULD LIKE A COPY OF THIS CD, 
THEY MAKE GREAT GIFTS AND YOU'D BE HELPING TO SUPPORT
THE WEBSITE.

IF YOU ARE ASSOCIATED WITH AN INSTUTITION
WHICH MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN MAKING A GRANT FOR THIS PURPOSE
PLEASE CONTACT ME AT vince@oldmusicproject.com.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
OTHER INFORMATION AND UPDATES AT
http://www.oldmusicproject.com/oneils1.html
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MECHANICS


ALL TUNES SHOULD BE IDENTIFIED BY THEIR NUMBER.

Tunes are variously filed by this NUMBER:  name or snippets 
thereof are attached to the files for alphabetizasion (gotta stop 
drinkin' when I try to spel things) purposes but experiments 
proved that the NUMBER remained the cohesive identifying
theme for the tunes and so became the main reference.
EXCEPTION:  MIDI files are listed alphabetically in ALLAN'S
 'cos I'm too feckin' lazy to change 'em!

The Tunes index is in Excel format and IT is in ALPHABETICAL order,  
with columns for the tune number, date of entry 
(helped me keep track of progress) and the page they appear upon 
(at www.oldmusicproject.com/oneils1.html) (THAT URL >>IS<< CASE-SENSITIVE!): 
an Excel viewer is included on the CD should you not have Office 
2000 installed on your computer.   This listing may easily be 
re-sorted using the commands in the toolbar.

THE FILES

ABC fles will open in NOTEPAD... if they bring up the 
"associate files" dialog box the first time you attempt 
to open one,  simply associate the .ABC extension with NOTEPAD, 
WORDPAD or .TXT and you're in business. 
 
NWC files REQUIRE the NWC reader be installed.

Also included are Noteworthy Composer's FREE READER programme 
(v1.75) as well as a reader programme for the ABC files.   
You can use this to listen to the MIDI files or you can 
download WINAMP from www.winamp.com to take care of this. 
(Incidentally,  I DO know most of the MIDI's sound like 
rejects from the "International Elevator Muzak Corporation" 
and there's not a bloody thing I can do to improve them. 
Whee possible I have made MIDIs from the NWC files, but  
you can make your own MIDI's from the NWC files and select 
the playback instruments: however, to save them you'll need to 
purchase the complete program from NWC.)  (Note: as of July
2004, NWC is preparing to release the first main update to the 
Noteworthy Composer programme since it's inception.  This will
be release 2.0 and I mention this because Files which are viewed 
and then saved in V2.0 will then NOT be viewable in 1.75 afterwards.
I will continue to use 1.75 until V2.0 "shakes itself out" and I'll make a 
decision then as to whether or not to upgrade. 


The GIF images of sheet music may be viewed either thru 
whatever image viewer is already installed on your computer 
or by using the FREE IRFAN-VIEW program (see above for URL).  
A very useful little program which also will convert 
"from" just about any format "to" just about any format. 
I recommend no less than 800 x 600 screen resolution for viewing.

Included here is the font "Boxmarks" which you should install 
using the standard method for installing fonts on your computer.... 
this will allow you to read the diacritical marks used for bowing 
and other ornaments correctly... if you do not install it 
you will have mishmash above some of the staff.


I highly recommend all four programs above as possible 
purchases as well,  especially if you might have aspirations 
for making a music archive of your own compositions or those 
which you regularly play.   


NOTE:  NWC Playback
The playback sound quality encountered here is directly 
proportional to the quality of your digital sound-card.  
If your sound card is crap,  so then shall be the sound it emits.  
You gets what you pays for.  I have adjusted the volume of the
files so that the fiddle no longer "blares" which it did when set
to full volume.  To modify volume further,  open any NWC file 
and press ALT-S & P to bring up the PROPERTIES box;  once up,  
click on the MIDI tab and change the volume level in the first box
(now set to 70 by default) either up for louder or down for 
softer.  Range is 1 - 127  but best is 65 - 100.


Here endeth the lesson.



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PHILOSOPHY (Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bodhran)


           (OK:  You're right.  N O B O D Y  loves the Bodhran!)



Why?   Well,  it wasn't because 'it's there' or 'I felt like it'.....  
I did this for myself since I can't read music and, once I had done it,
published it in hopes that it will provide a ready resource for other
less-than-musically-literate perple who may want to learn this stuff,  
as a resource for those who teach Irish traditional music,  
as an alternative to the progressively crappy reprints of the 
Original Volume which I see hitting the market,  as a chance to 
perhaps cast the tunes back into traditional keys more suited to 
session playing and as a chance to correct some of the more 
egregious errors in typesetting perpetrated upon us by the 
gnomes at Lyon & Healy,  some of which are truly inexplicable.

Mostly because the tunes are ALL "Public Domain" and by 
hand-transcribing them from the original volume I am able 
to put them all together and then declare this compendium 
as a Free Work for all to have.

("Free?  Ye blackguard,  Ye charged me nine pound fifty 
for the CD!  How is that free?")

For those of you whose wee Welsh hearts are affronted by the 
idea of counting out brass for a supposedly free item,  rest 
assured that the money goes to supporting the on-line site, 
buying CD blanks, a new CD burner and postage/mailing/jewel 
cases.  There has never been nor ever will be (so long as I live) 
a charge to access the tunes online. For those of you who prefer 
to have the music conveniently accessible or whose ISP is run by
three worms on a treadmill OR those who think that this is a truly
worthwhile thing and wish to support the effort, we have the CD. 
THAT (ye damned cheap Scot) is why I charged ye nine and fifty.  

BONUS     BONUS     BEANIE    BONUS     BONUS     CECIL     BONUS

A few madrigals and catches are in the "Bonus" folder... hope you enjoy them!

BONUS     BONUS     BONUS     BONUS     BONUS     BONUS     BONUS


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS


Noteworthy Composer (www.noteworthysoftware.com)

A superb little program which has many limitations but which, 
for the price, is probably the best music notation programme 
available today online.  The creators are truly interested in 
making each successive release more user-friendly and there 
is an ENORMOUS library of music composed in this format which 
ranges from the totally inane to 12-part Renaissance-style 
choral performances and on into the realm of Classical music 
(sonati, concerti, etc.).   NOTE: This is all written in V-1.75, but V 2.0 
now available (8-10-04) from the site.  IF YOU SAVE OR EDIT ANY 
OF THE TUNES IN V 2.0 YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO RE-OPEN
THEM WITH V 1.75!



ABC2NWC (www.Abcmus.co.uk) Brian Creer

I cannot thank Brian enough for his continued cheery replies 
to my many whining emails about problems I encountered when 
converting from Noteworthy to ABC.... most of which were 
caused by my own lack of attention to what I was doing... and 
his speedy rectifications of those few inconsistancies 
actually encountered in the program.  He is at present 
dividing his time between the necessity of earning a living,  
revamping this great little program and playing music 
in his band "Spare Parts" in the south of England.



PAUL SCHWARTZ and his site CONCERTINA NET 
(http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html)

.....without his site you would not have this CD in hand now.  
Paul put together a superb facility which allows the input 
of any SINGLE ABC file and extraction of a MIDI sound file 
and a GIF image of that file in PDF format (viewable with 
Adobe's free reader programme.)  It worked EVERY time I 
used it and I cannot thank Paul enough for putting this 
up for perople to use... the true spirit of the internet 
reigns still!


Alfred Bollinger of Switzerland and his program Print-Key 
(http://www.geocities.com/~gigaman/) which I used to capture 
a screenshot of the PDF produced by Paul's converter, 
which used the ABC file produced by Brian's converter from 
the NWC file into which I had originally hand-transcribed 
the music from the book's pages...   Sheesh! 

("And de knee-bone connected to de thigh-bone, an' de thigh-bone....")

Chris Gilb of New Hampsire (or Vermont or some other God-forsaken
frozen state in the New England area...) for support and consultation 
on this and several other projects as well as the transcriptions of
the O’Carolan’s section.

R. W. W. Taylor of New York state for his insightful comments on the
Allan's Compendium, help of a few errors and omissions and the VERY
nice tune list (in XLS) now included with the files.  

Dr. Larry Allen of Wisconsin for going over the "hidden staff" trick in
Noteworthy until I got it thru my head,  thus allowing me to present the
tunes in both collections with the rolls (cuts), shakes and trills sounding
out correctly, as well as for his many terrible jokes.  

My  former band (www.sosyourmom.com) for generously donating the 
large amount of webspace and bandwidth required to put all this online
and for supporting the site when I was (and still am) financially 
unable to do so.  You can reward THEM by going to their website 
and purchasing a copy of their CD for your library.  You will not
be disappointed.
 

OK, then,  at least a note of appreciation? (sosyourmom@yahoo.com)



Daniel Francis O'Neill and James B. O'Neill for putting 
out the effort over a MUCH longer timeframe than I to 
collect and at least attempt to get the tunes into some order.  
The thought of Chief O'Neill sitting in his office, listening to
the same tune six or seven times through, transcribing it on
staff and then playing back what he thought he'd heard... 
"Daunting" hardly seems sufficiently descriptive of the 
process!  


While we of a later time may not agree with their treatment 
of the tunes, it is nonetheless arguable that without their 
efforts and the efforts of The Chicago Irish Music Club, 
we would have far less Irish traditional music in the 
United States today and possibly in the world.  Also to 
those usually un-acknowledged traditional musicians who 
contributed their knowledge to Chief O'Neill's efforts 
and who played and re-played their tunes for him to transcribe.
I deliberately made sure that their names were included in
my transcriptions.



        ***** Michael A. Miller of Philadelphia *****

Finally, the one man most responsible for getting me 
interested in and from whom I learned the majority of 
my Irish Tradtional repetoire: multi-genre musician, 
performer, teacher, raconteur, and friend. 

Thank you.




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