Cloze: The Man Who Saved Celtic Music

Familiar with the name “Francis O'Neill”? The current wave of interest in Celtic music owes him a great debt – he's the person ___________________________(1) collected and published the music for thousands of Celtic tunes, making ___________________________(2) available to musicians all ___________________________(3) the world. O'Neill was born in 1848 in Ireland. When he was 16, he ___________________________(4) to the United States. ___________________________(5) his life, he was a rancher, a teacher, a Chicago policeman, and fathered ten children. He also ___________________________(6) the flute!

O'Neill (also known as “Chief O'Neill”) loved Celtic music. At that time, the music ___________________________(7) passed downtune at a time from one musician to  ___________________________(8) .

O'Neill did not read music – he played ___________________________(9) ear – but he became convinced ___________________________(10) the value of saving Celtic tunes for prosperity by transcribing them into musical notation for ___________________________(11) 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 ___________________________(12) had learned ___________________________(13) other musicians; the sergeant would transcribe them into musical notation.

By the time O'Neill died in 1936, he ___________________________(14) collected and transcribed nearly 3,500 tunes – ___________________________(15) of them dating back hundreds and hundreds of years!

article written by Joey Robichaux

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 www.freesheetmusic.net