Norman O'Neill (composer)
Overview
 
Norman Houston O'Neill was an Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 and British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

 who specialized largely in works for the theatre. He studied in London with Arthur Somervell
Arthur Somervell
Sir Arthur Somervell was an English composer, and after Hubert Parry one of the most successful and influential writers of art song in the English music renaissance of the 1890s-1900s....

 and with Iwan Knorr
Iwan Knorr
Iwan Knorr was a German composer and teacher of music. A native of Mewe, he attended the Leipzig Conservatory where he studied with Ignaz Moscheles, Ernst Friedrich Richter and Carl Reinecke. In 1874 he became a teacher and in 1878 director of music theory instruction at the Imperial...

 at the Hoch Conservatory
Hoch Conservatory
Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium - Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on September 22, 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for music and the arts was established for all age groups. ...

 in Frankfurt from 1893-1897. His studies there were facilitated by his lover, Eric Stenbock
Eric Stenbock
Count Eric Stanislaus Stenbock was a Baltic German poet and writer of macabre fantastic fiction.-Life:Stenbock was the count of Bogesund and the heir to an estate near Kolga in Estonia...

. He belonged to the Frankfurt Group
Frankfurt Group
The Frankfurt Group was a group of English speaking composers and friends who all studied at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main in the late 1890s.This group included Balfour Gardiner, Percy Grainger, Roger Quilter, Norman O'Neill and Cyril Scott....

, a circle of composers who studied at the Hoch Conservatory in the late 1890s.

O'Neill was associated with the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...

.
Quotations

"We could try phasers at twenty paces..."

to Splink: "Okay, even alternate versions of you are weird!"

"And they have the nerve to say I'm the weird one."

to the author-breaking the fourth wall: "We need a deus ex machina|deus ex machina, and you're deus!"

"We have a saying about our women, 'can't live with 'em, can't sacrifice them to giant, primitive alien beast gods!'"

"Why do I have the feeling this is deteriorating into the climax of Blazing Saddles?" - Ralph Zinobop (Melonpool crossover)

 
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