I know many players like and use the O’Neill’s 1001 collection, but it seems the Miles Krassen edition is not viewed very favorably. What are the main complaints against that version?
A lot of people object to the way he has ‘arranged’ and fully written the ornamentation in the tunes. Once you are used to it it’s no problem. The book has been used extensively by recording artist to lift tunes when it was new.
The settings in the Krassen 1,001 make much more sense for fiddlers than for other musicians. For instance, rolls on C and Fn are not easily accessible on the flute. But I am not a fan of ‘cooked up’ ornamentation in any case.
I prefer just the plain dots. But actual transcriptions of ornaments – as in Breathnach’s books, the transcriptions in the Perron/Miller collection - Traditional Irish Fiddle Music - or Pat Mitchells’ book on Willie Clancy – taken from master traditional players, can be interesting.