Annotation:Lament for Rogers O'Neill

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LAMENT FOR ROGERS O'NEILL. Irish, Slow Air (4/4 time). G Minor Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. O'Neill, in his 1913 work Irish Minstrels and Musicians, identifies this melody as having been written in 1904 "on the death of a young collegian of brilliant promise in Chicago." Rogers F. O'Neill was the last surviving son of compiler Captain Francis O'Neill (Rogers' three younger brothers had all died in childhood, on the same day, from diptheria) who contracted spinal meningitis and died at the age of 18. In addition to his academic success, Rogers was also a promising violinist (Carolan, 1997). O'Neill does not attribute the tune to anyone.

Chicago's Irish Music Club, c. 1903. Rogers O'Neill is in the back row, third from left, standing in between fiddler Edward Cronin and his father, Francis.

See also Chicago fiddler Edward Cronin's hornpipe "Rogers O'Neill."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Neill (Irish Minstrels and Musicians), 1913, p. 118.

Recorded sources:

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