Customer Reviews

O'Neill's Music of Ireland: Over 1,000 Fiddle Tunes

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The problem isn't only that a lot of tunes have been left out that were in the original edition offered by Daniel Collins. But Krassen has altered many tunes so that instead of presenting piping versions -- which the original offered -- we now have simplified fiddle-friendly versions. Many pipe ornaments have been lost. Krassen has lost much of the magic.
O'Neill was a piper and many of the versions of tunes he saved came from pipers. This is also true of the earlier collections of tunes from which O'Neill drew for many of his tunes, such as Ryan's Mammoth Collection. In Krassen's version a lot of the classical, 19th. Century pipery flavor has been sacrificed for "cleaner," presumably "modern" versions. This is the last edition of O'Neill's one should consider buying. I play fiddle, flute, and concertina, I've lived in Ireland for years, and have been playing Irish traditional music for over thirty years. I know this sounds terribly opinionated. But even if you play fiddle and learn from the dots you should use a tune-book closer to the source than this. Get the big yellow Collin's edition or the slim white-covered "condensed" O'Neill's collection. You'll be happier in the long run.

Author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing the Fiddle (Complete Idiot's Guide to)

This is the very first book of Irish tunes I purchased when I began playing Irish fiddle back in high school, and I found it very useful. A short primer at the beginning gives you the basic gist of how an Irish fiddler might ornament his/her tunes. In the collection itself, ornaments such as rolls, triplets and grace notes are written directly into the melodies. This allows you to get a sense of where these ornaments might go. While it doesn't contain all the tunes from the original O'Neill collections, the most commonly known tunes are here. So once you've (hopefully) moved on to learning all your tunes by ear, you'll still have a good reference volume on your shelf when you just can't for the life of you remember how "The Woman of the House" starts....

This is a fantastic resource. Many of the best arrangements are in this version. I have 4 versions of O'Neill's: Krassen, Walton's, Ryan's, and Jim O'Neill's. I use them all, but especially Krassen and Waltons. Do not believe the discouraging remarks. This is one of the best. Get them all and compare the tunes. Each has strengths and weaknesses. Taken together they give you the best of all worlds.

Absolutely the classic collection of Irish fiddle tunes - collected in Chicago by Irish born Chicago policeman Francis O'Neill around the turn of the century (1800s-1900s) - published in 1903. This is a revised edition. I also have an older edition (the one with the yellow cover)

O'Neills contains hundreds of well known and not so well known tunes collected around the turn of the 20th century. This is an excellant source book to find traditional settings for tunes. Though this revision is geared towards the fiddle player, any musician will find this a wonderful reference. There is a previous version of O'Neills that contains some tunes that were lost in the revision by Mr. Krassen. Some people prefer this earlier edition.