jksiazek

This is sold, thanks!

Notice--price is now reduced to $200. Hey all, I'm lightening the instrument herd to hopefully pick up a tenor guitar in the near future. So this is up for grabs: Rochelle Anglo (first generation): $200 (shipping included within the US). Got this new from the Concertina Connection when they first came out, but alas, I don't think the concertina is for me. Is in good shape, but the left side, middle row G/B button's reed is a bit raspy. Comes with the original gig bag; has the Wheatstone layout. I accept PayPal payments and money orders. Thanks, Jeff Ksiazek

Michael, you can find a link to the CD here. Thanks! -Jeff

All good points and passages, Dan. The "Lark in the Morning" bit is particularly interesting, considering in MoI that settings are credited to Carberry and James O'Neill. Also since it seems James' transcription was completed through McFadden's playing. It's apparent they were using the cylinder recordings at least for the transmission process of tune collecting and learning. We presume that Early had O'Neill Edison phonograph from 1904, and that the machine that WIMA now possesses was O'Neill's. One of my aims in the next few months, time permitting, is to go through O'Neill's correspondence to see if recording stopped after Early's death in 1914. As far as old concertina materials at WIMA, I'm afraid it's slim pickings! The Dunn collection has some of the earliest materials for traditional music; we have some early sheet music stretching back to the early 1800s. We are the institutional repository for Milwaukee Irish Fest, so we do have quite a bit material from musicians looking to play the fest from 1980 through the present, although we can't do much with that online due to copyright. Looking ahead, one of our goals is to get a catalog of our holdings available online within the next year or so. --Jeff

It's great to see so many of you finding the Dunn collection online already. Some of you may know that I'm the archivist at the Ward Irish Music Archives and have been working on this project for most of my time in the position. I'm very pleased that many in the traditional music community are listening to the recordings and finding the information interesting! A couple of comments and clarifications from the discussions raised by Dan and Geoff--with the caveat that very little documentation of O'Neill's recording process survives and that no eye witnesses are alive today to verify or deny any of this. Also that much of this is from my own research with the collection, which I'll fully admit isn't authoritative by any means! Jackie Small's comment about examples from the recordings matching sources from O'Neill: I may re-word this info on the website to be more clear. Jackie's showing that three examples from the cylinders (Banish Misfortune by Edward Cronin, and The Croppies March and Bean Dubh an Gleanna) match O'Neill's source musicians in Music of Ireland or Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody. So the entry of Banish Misfortune in MoI lists Cronin as the source. The recorded version doesn't necessarily match up with the written transcription, however. As far as O'Neill using the cylinders to aid in the transcription process, keep in mind a couple of points. O'Neill didn't purchase his Edison phonograph until 1902, and from various sources, we know that the tune collecting process for MoI began in the late 1800s. O'Neill published MoI in 1903, so the chances of using the cylinders as a transcription aid are pretty low. Not impossible, but unlikely. So why was O'Neill recording? A couple thoughts/points. We list the recordings from being made c.1904 since that's the year that O'Neill began dispersing his musical goods after his son, Rogers, died. This was to keep with his wife's wishes to not have music played in the house. But of course, he kept on playing music and sourcing tunes--just over at Sgt. Early's place, which is who we believe O'Neill passed his belongings onto (specifically his Edison machine). From a letter to a William Halpin in Ireland, we know that recording continued in the Early home up until at least 1912. Touhey recorded himself profusely to fulfill mail orders--domestically in the States, as far as we know. Touhey either wasn't connected to folks in Ireland or didn't want to bother shipping cylinders across the sea. Enter O'Neill. The jist of O'Neill's letter to Halpin was such: Your consignment of Touhey tunes were shipped just a week ago via United States Express Prepaid. Patsy announced the names himself so you have a record of his voice as well. They were made in Sergt. Early’s residence and now they are yours and I wish you luck with them. As far as I can tell, O'Neill was recording these musicians and sending them out to various friends, at least some in Ireland. The other large batch of O'Neill recordings is at University College Cork in the Richard Henebry collection. O'Neill sent Henebry a batch in 1907 as a present. You can read about Henebry's reaction here: Shaskeen Reel For more info on all this, I also recommend The Scribe by Caoimhin Mac Aoidh and the various O'Neill publications. Irish Folk Music is available through Google Books, as is Irish Minstrels and Musicians. Again, much of this is based on my own research, and I look forward to seeing the Dunn collection for further study and discussion about O'Neill's legacy in Irish music. And keep your eyes on the Dunn Family Collection site, as I'll be updating more in the manuscript section in the coming weeks! All the best, Jeff Ksiazek Ward Irish Music Archives

The 2010 Milwaukee Irish Fest Summer School has instructor and registration info available online: http://www.irishfest.com/schools/summerschool.php The school takes place August 16-20, 2010. Also available: The Jim Schuster Music Scholarship for Summer School students between 12-21 years of age: http://www.irishfest.com/pdf/summerschool-SchusterScholarship.pdf From what I've been able to find out about Aogan's class, it will be geared toward more intermediate/advanced players. The ability level of the class will probably be more determined by who's enrolled, since the school hasn't offered a concertina class in a few years. Hopefully there's a good turnout so a concertina class can be offered on a regular basis!

Aogán Lynch of the band Slide will be teaching concertina at the Milwaukee Irish Fest Summer School this August 17 - 19. Each day will offer 2 hours of instruction. For more information, visit the School's website: http://www.irishfest.com/schools/summerschool.php Pre-registration information will be available soon! --Jeff Ksiazek