Celtic music is a broad grouping of
musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical
traditions of the Celtic peoples of Western Europe. The
term Celtic music may refer to both orally-transmitted
traditional music and recorded popular music with only a
superficial resemblance to folk styles of the Celtic
peoples.
Most typically, the term Celtic music is
applied to the music of Ireland and Scotland, because
both places have produced well-known distinctive styles
which actually have genuine commonality and clear mutual
influences. The music of Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man,
Brittany, Northumbria and Galicia are also frequently
considered a part of Celtic music, the Celtic tradition
being particularly strong in Brittany, where Celtic
festivals large and small take place throughout the
year. Finally, the music of ethnically Celtic peoples
abroad are also considered, especially in Canada and the
United States.
The most significant impact of
Celtic Music on American styles, however, is undoubtedly
that on the evolution of country music, a style which
blends Anglo-Celtic traditions with "sacred hymns and
African American spirituals". Country music's roots come
from "Americanized interpretations of English, Scottish,
Scots and Scots-Irish traditional music, shaped by
African American rhythms, and containing vestiges of
(19th century) popular song, especially (minstrel
songs)". This fusion of Anglo-Celtic and African
elements "usually consisted of unaccompanied solo vocals
sung in a high-pitched nasal voice, the lyrics set to
simple melodies (and using) ornamentation to embellish
the melody"; this style bears some similarities to the
traditional song form of sean-nós, which is similarly
highly-ornamented and
unaccompanied.
Celtic-Americans have also been
influential in the creation of Celtic Fusion, a set of
genres which combine traditional Celtic music with
contemporary influences.
Irish American Music
Irish emigrés created a large number of
emigrant ballads once in the United States. These were
usually "sad laments, steeped in nostalgia, and
self-pity, and singing the praises... of their native
soil while bitterly condemning the land of the
stranger". These songs include famous songs like
"Thousands Are Sailing to America" and "By the Hush",
though "Shamrock Shore" may be the most well-known in
the field.
Francis O'Neill was a Chicago police
chief who collected the single largest collection of
Irish traditional music ever published. He was a
flautist, fiddler and piper who was part of a vibrant
Irish community in Chicago at the time, one that
included some forty thousand people, including musicians
from "all thirty-two counties of Ireland", according to
Nicholas Carolan, who referred to O'Neill as "the
greatest individual influence on the evolution of Irish
traditional dance music in the twentieth
century".
In the 1890s, Irish music entered a
"golden age", centered on the vibrant scene in New York
City. This produced legendary fiddlers like James
Morrison and Michael Coleman, and a number of popular
dance bands that played pop standards and dances like
the foxtrot and quicksteps; these bands slowly grew
larger, adding brass and reed instruments in a big band
style [6]. Though this golden age ended by the Great
Depression, the 1950s saw a flowering of Irish music,
aided by the foundation of the City Center Ballroom in
New York. It was later joined by a roots revival in
Ireland and the foundation of Mick Moloney's Green
Fields of America, an organization that promotes Irish
music.
Ireland
Ireland is internationally known for
its traditional music, which has remained vibrant
throughout the 20th century, when many other traditional
forms worldwide lost popularity to pop music. In spite
of emigration and a well-developed connection to music
imported from Britain and the United States, Irish music
has kept many of its traditional aspects; indeed, it has
itself influenced many forms of music, such as country
and roots music in the USA, which in turn have greatly
influenced rock music in the 20th century. It has
occasionally also been modernised, however, and fused
with rock and roll, punk rock and other genres. Some of
these fusion artists have attained mainstream success,
at home and abroad. (One example of a traditional song
that has received exposure as the result of being
recorded by pop and rock artists is "She Moved Through
the Fair".)
During the 1970s and 1980s, the
distinction between traditional and rock musicians
became blurred, with many individuals regularly crossing
over between these styles of playing as a matter of
course. This trend can be seen more recently in the work
of bands and individuals like U2, Horslips, Clannad, The
Cranberries, The Corrs, Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy, Sinéad
O'Connor, My Bloody Valentine, Rory Gallagher, and The
Pogues.
Nevertheless, Irish music has shown an
immense inflation of popularity with many attempting to
return to their roots. There are also contemporary music
groups that stick closer to a traditional sound,
including Altan, Gaelic Storm, Déanta, Lúnasa, Kila and
Solas. Others incorporate multiple cultures in a fusion
of style, such as Afro Celt Sound System and Loreena
McKennitt.
In addition to folk music, Ireland
also has a rich store of contemporary classical
music.
Irish traditional music, like all
traditional music, is characterized by slow-moving
change, which usually occurs along accepted principles.
Songs and tunes believed to be ancient in origin are
respected. It is, however, difficult or impossible to
know the age of most tunes due to their tremendous
variation across Ireland and through the years; some
generalization is possible, however -- for example, only
modern songs are written in English, with few
exceptions, the rest being in Irish. Most of the oldest
songs, tunes, and methods are rural in origin, though
more modern songs and tunes often come from cities and
towns.
Music and lyrics are passed
aurally/orally, and were rarely written down until
recently (depending upon your definition of "recently",
there are many examples of written music previous to
1800). Of major importance to the transcribing of
melodies belonging to both the instrumental traditions
and the song traditions were the collectors. These
included Petrie, Bunting, O'Neill and many others.
Though solo performance is preferred in the folk
tradition, bands or at least small ensembles have
probably always been a part of Irish music since at
least the mid-19th century, although this is a point of
much contention among ethnomusicologists.
For
instance, guitars and bouzoukis only entered the
traditional Irish music world in the late 1960s. The
bodhrán, once known in Ireland as a tambourine, is first
mentioned in the nineteenth century. Ceili bands of the
1940s often included a drum set and stand-up bass as
well as saxophones. (The band At The Racket continues
the "tradition" of the saxophone in Irish music.) As of
current writing, the first three instruments are now
generally accepted in traditional Irish music circles
(although perhaps not in the most purist of venues),
while the latter three are generally not. (The Pogues
received much criticism for their use of a drum kit, for
instance.)
Furthermore, such "unimpeachable"
instruments as button accordion and concertina made
their appearances in Irish traditional music only late
in the nineteenth century. There is little evidence for
the flute having played much part in traditional music
before art musicians abandoned the wooden simple-system
instrument still preferred by trad fluters for the
Boehm-system of the modern orchestra, and the tin
whistle is another mass-produced product of the
Industrial Revolution. A good case can be made that the
Irish traditional music of the year 2005 has much more
in common with that of the year 1905 than that of the
year 1905 had in common with the music of the year
1805.
More recently, traditional Irish music has
been "expanded" to include new styles, arrangements, and
variations performed by bands, although arguments run
rife as to whether you may then call this music
"traditional." However, the greater part of the
community has accepted that the music played by such
bands as Planxty and the Bothy Band and their numerous
spiritual descendants is indeed
traditional.
Musicians from non-Irish styles
(bluegrass, oldtime, folk) have discovered the appeal of
Irish traditional music. However, the rhythmic pulse and
melodic flow of Irish traditional music are quite
distinct to the rhythmic and melodic structures that
govern other musical forms, even in the case of the few
tunes shared between these musical genres. Also, Irish
sessions and bluegrass and old time jams carry
completely different sets of etiquette and expectations,
and these do not, for the most part, integrate well;
this has led to many misunderstandings and outright
confrontations.
Due to the importance placed on
the melody in Irish music, harmony should be kept simple
(although, fitting with the melodic structure of most
Irish tunes, this usually does not mean a "basic" I-IV-V
chord progression), and instruments are played in strict
unison, always following the leading player. True
counterpoint is mostly unknown to traditional music,
although a form of improvised "countermelody" is often
used in the accompaniments of bouzouki and guitar
players. Structural units are symmetrical and include
decorations, in many cases imaginative and elaborate, of
the rhythm, text, melody and phrasing, though not
usually of dynamics.
Unaccompanied vocals ar sean
nós ("in the old style") are considered the ultimate
expression of traditional singing, usually performed
solo, but sometimes as a duet. Sean nós singing is
highly ornamented and the voice is placed towards the
top of the range; to the first-time listener, accustomed
to pop and classical singers, sean nós often sounds more
"Arabic" or "Indian" than "Western". A true sean nós
singer will vary the melody of every verse, but not to
the point of interfering with the words, which are
considered to have as much importance as the melody.
Non-sean nós traditional singing, even when
accompaniment is used, uses patterns of ornamentation
and melodic freedom derived from sean nós, and,
generally, a similar voice placement.
The concept
of 'style' is of large importance to Irish traditional
musicians. At the start of the last century, distinct
variation in regional styles of performance existed.
With increased communications and travel opportunities,
regional styles have become more standardized, with
soloists aiming now to create their own, unique,
distinctive style, often hybrids of whatever other
influences the musician has chosen to include within
their style.
Breton
Traditional Breton folk music includes
a variety of vocal and instrumental styles. Purely
traditional musicians became the heroes of the roots
revival in the XXth century, most importantly the Goadec
sisters. At the end of the XIXth century, the vicomte
Theodore Hersart de la Villemarqué's collection of
largely nationalistic Breton songs, Barzaz Breiz, was
also influential, and was partially responsible for
continuing Breton traditions.
Undoubtedly the most famous name in
modern Breton music is Alan Stivell, who popularized the
Celtic harp with a series of albums in the early 1970s,
including most famously Renaissance de la Harpe Celtique
(1971) and Chemins de Terre (1973). His harp was built
by his father, who based it off the plans for the
medieval Irish Brian Boru harp; this type was unknown in
Brittany before Stivell. He later began playing the
bombarde, a double-reeded shawm (or oboe), and began
recording Breton folk, Celtic harp and other Celtic
music, mixing influences from American rock and roll.
Stivell's most important contribution to the Breton
music scene, however, has probably been his importation
of rock and other American styles, as well as the
formation of the idea of a Breton traditional
band.
Inspired by Stivell, bands like Kornog and
Gwerz arose, adapting elements of the Irish and Scottish
Celtic music scene.
The most famous band of
Breton music is Tri Yann, from Nantes (their original
name is Tri Yann an Naoned, litteraly "the three John
from Nantes"). It was born in 1972 and still famous,
claiming it produces a progressive
rock-folk-celto-medieval music ! It gave some musical
gems, now standards, like "Les filles des Forges", "Les
prisons de Nantes", "La Jument de Michao", "Pelot
d'Hennebont", and new interpretation of Irish music,
like "Cad é sin don té sin", "Si mort a mors"
(originally An Cailín Rua), "La ville que j'ai tant
aimée" (from "The town I loved so well"), "Mrs
McDermott" (from the XVIIth-century Irish harpist Ó
Carolan), "Kalonkadour" (from "Planxty
Irwin").
Another famous band is Soldat Louis,
from Lorient. More rock-oriented, it plays modern
compositions talking about Brittany and the life on the
sea ("Du rhum, des femmes", "Martiniquaise", "Pavillon
noir").
Besides folk-rock, recent groups have
included world music influences into their repertoires -
especially younger groups such as Wig-a-Wag. Hip hop
with a Celtic flavour has been espoused by groups such
as Manau.
Brittany hosts annual rock and pop
festivals, the biggest in Brittany, also in France,
being the Festival des Vieilles Charrues (held in late
July in Carhaix, Finistère), the Route du Rock
(mid-August, Saint-Malo) and the Transmusicales of
Rennes, held in early December.
Newfoundland
There are very strong connections
between Newfoundland folk music and Irish music, however
elements of English folk music and French-Canadian music
can be heard within the style.
It should be noted
that a very traditional strain of Irish music exists in
Newfoundland, especially in the primarily Irish-Catholic
communities along the southern shore.
The
instrumentation in Newfoundland music includes the
button accordion, guitar, violin, tin whistle and more
recently the bodhrán. Many Newfoundland traditional
bands also include bass guitar and drum kit. Other folk
instruments such as the mandolin and bouzouki are common
especially among Newfoundland bands with an Irish
leaning.
Because Newfoundland is an island in the
North Atlantic, many of the songs focus on the fishery
and seafaring. Many songs chronicle the history of this
unique people. Instrumental tune styles include jigs,
reels, two steps, and polkas.
Novia Scotia
Music is a part of the warp and weft of
the fabric of Nova Scotia's cultural life. This deep and
lasting love of music is expressed the through the
performance and enjoyment of all types and genres of
music. While popular music In Nova Scotia has
experienced almost two decade of explosive growth and
success, the province remains best known for its folk
and traditional based music.
Nova Scotia's folk
music is characteristically Scottish in character, and
traditions from Scotland are kept very traditional in
form, in some cases more so than in Scotland. This is
especially true of the island of Cape Breton, one of the
major international centers for Celtic
music.
Despite the small population of the
province, Nova Scotia's music and culture is influenced
by several well established cultural groups, that are
sometimes referred to as the "Founding
Cultures."
Originally populated by the Mi'kmaq
First Nation, the first European settlers were the
French, who founded Acadia in 1604. Nova Scotia was
briefly colonized by Scottish settlers in 1620, though
by 1624 the Scottish settlers had been removed by treaty
and the area turned over French settlement until the
mid-1700s. After the defeat of the French and prior
expulsion of the Acadians, settlers of English, Irish,
Scottish and African decent began arriving on the shores
of Nova Scotia.
Settlement greatly accelerated by
the resettlement of Loyalists to Nova Scotia during the
period following the end of the American revolutionary
war Nova Scotia is one of three Canadian Maritime
Provinces, or simply, The Maritimes. When combined with
Newfoundland and Labrador the region is known as the
Atlantic Provinces, or Atlantic Canada. . It was during
this time that a large African Nova Scotian community
took root, populated by freed slaves and Loyalist blacks
and their families, who had fought for the crown in
exchange for land. This community later grew when the
Royal Navy began intercepting slave ships destined for
the United States, and deposited these free slaves on
the shores of Nova Scotia.
Later, in the 1800s
the Irish Famine and Scottish Highland Clearances
resulted in large influxes of migrants with celtic
cultural roots, which helped to define the dominantly
celtic character of Cape Breton and the north mainland
of the province. This celtic, or gaelic culture was so
pervasive that at the outset of World War II reporters
from London, England were horrified when some of the
first regiments to arrive in England from Canada piped
themselves ashore, styled themselves as "Highland
Regiments" and spoke Scots Gaelic as their primary
language.
Cornwall
Cornwall is a region in the southwest
United Kingdom which has been historically Celtic,
though Celtic-derived traditions had been moribund for
some time before being revived during a late 20th
century roots revival.
The most famous modern
Cornish folk performer is likely the Cornish-Breton
family band Anao Atao; other well-known musicians
include the singer Brenda Wootton. The 1980s band Bucca
is recognized as a major pioneer in the popularization
of Cornish music.
The town of Cadgwith (on the
Lizard Peninsula) is known for an informal, weekly
gathering of singers; their material includes a number
of common folk songs, as well as their anthem "The
Robbers Retreat". The Camborne Town Band is a
long-renowned band, formed in 1841 in a tin mining town.
It has been estimated that there are over 100 bands
playing mostly or exclusively cornish tunes in cornwall
at present. As the traditional music corpus is not as
large in some other countries (though still a great
number of tunes) many bands will fill some specific
niche in the style, giving great variation in an
event.
The Cornwall Folk Festival has been
held annually for more than three decades. Other notable
festivals are the pan-celtic lowender perran and
midsummer festival golowan. Numerous other festivals and
annual events have a cornish music
theme.
Cornwall has won the PanCeltic Song
Contest three years in a row between 2003 and
2005.
Cornish musicians have used a variety of
traditional Celtic instruments, as well as imported
mandolins, banjos and accordions. The bodhrán (crowdy
crawn in Cornish) has remained especially popular for
years. Old inscriptions and carvings in Cornwall (such
as at Altarnun church at Bodmin moor) indicate that a
line-up at that time might include an early fiddle
(crowd), bombarde, bagpipes and harp [2].
Folk
songs include "Sweet Nightingale".
Cornish dance
music is especially known for the cushion dance from the
19th century, which was based on an old tune adapted for
French court dances. The cushion dance was originally an
aristocratic past-time, that eventually crossed over to
the poor. The dance's popularity peaked in the early
1820s [3].
Cornish music festivals called troyl
were common, and are analogous to the closely-related
fest-noz of the Bretons.
In the later part of the
20th century, the temperance movement became a major
part of Cornish culture. Along with it came choral
traditions; many folk songs were adapted for carolling,
hymnal singing. Eventually, processional bands appeared,
leaving behind a legacy of marches and polkas
[4].
Sport has also been an outlet for many
Cornish folktunes, and Trelawney in particular has been
taken up as a kind of unofficial national anthem by
Cornish rugby fans.
Mann
The Isle of Man is a small island
nation in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and
Ireland. Its culture is Celtic in origin, influenced
historically by its neighbours, Scotland, Ireland and
Wales. The island is not part of the United Kingdom, but
Manx music has been strongly affected by English folk
song as well as British popular music.
A roots
revival of Manx folk music began late in the 20th
century, alongside a general revival of the Manx
language and culture. The 1970s revival was kickstarted,
after the 1974 death of the last native speaker of Manx,
by a music festival called Yn Chruinnaght in
Ramsey.
Prominent musicians of the Manx musical
revival include Emma Christian (Ta'N Dooid Cheet -
Beneath the Twilight), whose music includes the harp and
tin whistle, and harpist and producer Charles Guard
(Avenging and Bright), an administrator at the Manx
Heritage Foundation, MacTullagh Vannin (MacTullagh
Vannin) and the duo Kiaull Manninagh (Kiaull Manninagh).
Modern bands include The Mollag Band and Paitchyn
Vannin.
Scotland
Scotland is internationally known for
its traditional music, which has remained vibrant
throughout the 20th century, when many traditional forms
worldwide lost popularity to pop music. In spite of
emigration and a well-developed connection to music
imported from the rest of Europe and the United States,
the music of Scotland has kept many of its traditional
aspects; indeed, it has itself influenced many forms of
music.
Scottish traditional music, although
influencing and being influenced by both Irish
traditional music and English traditional music, is very
much a creature unto itself, and, despite the popularity
of various international pop music forms, remains a
vital and living tradition. As of 2003, there are
several Scottish record labels, music festival and a
roots magazine, Living Tradition.
Many outsiders
associate Scottish folk music almost entirely with
bagpipes, which has indeed long played an important part
of Scottish music. It is, however, not unique or
indigenous to Scotland, having been imported around the
15th century and still being in use across Europe and
farther abroad. The pìob mór, or Highland bagpipe, is
the most distinctively Scottish form of the instrument;
it was created for clan pipers to be used for various,
often military or marching, purposes. Piping clans
included the MacArthurs, MacDonalds, McKays and,
especially, the MacCrimmons, who were hereditary pipers
to the Clan MacLeod.
Folk and Ceilidh Music takes
many forms in a broad musical tradition, although the
dividing lines are not rigid, and many artists work
across the boundaries. Culturally there is a split
between the Gaelic tradition and the Scots
tradition.
There are ballads and laments,
generally sung by a lone singer with backing, or played
on traditional instruments such as harp, fiddle,
accordion or bagpipes.
Dance music is played
across Scotland at dances or ceilidhs. Group dances such
as jigs, strathspeys, waltzes and reels, are performed
to music provided typically by an ensemble, or dance
band, which can include fiddle (violin), bagpipe,
accordion and percussion. The major names to know in
this part of the musical tradition are Niel Gow, James
Scott Skinner, and Jimmy Shand.
There are
traditional folk songs, which are generally melodic,
haunting or rousing. These are often very region
specific, and are performed today by a burgeoning
variety of folk groups. Most famous of which is
Capercaillie.
Popular songs were originally
produced by Music Hall performers such as Harry Lauder
and Will Fyffe for the stage. More modern exponents of
the style have included Andy Stewart, Glen Daly, Moira
Anderson, Kenneth McKellar and the Alexander
Brothers.
Military music, typically massed pipes
and drums. Major Scottish regiments maintain bapipe and
drum bands which preserve scottish marches, quicksteps,
reels and laments. Many towns also have voluntary pipe
bands which cover the same repertoire.
Though bagpipes are closely associated
with Scotland and only Scotland by many outsiders, the
instrument (or, more precisely, family of instruments)
is found throughout large swathes of Europe, North
Africa and South Asia. Out of the many varieties of
Scottish bagpipes, the most common in modern days is the
Highlands variety, which was spread through its use by
the Highland regiments of the British Army.
The
most traditional form of Highland bagpipe music is
called pibroch, which consists of a theme (urlar) which
is repeated, growing increasingly complex each time. The
last, and most complex variation (cruunluath), gives way
to a sudden and unadorned rendition of the
theme.
Bagpipe competitions are now common in
Scotland, with popular bands including colonial groups
like the Victoria Police Pipe Band (Australia) and
Canada's 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band and the Simon
Fraser University Pipe Band, as well as Scottish bands
like Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band and Strathclyde
Police Pipe Band.
Scottish traditional fiddling
encompasses a number of regional styles, including the
bagpipe-inflected west Highlands, the upbeat and lively
style of Norse-influenced Shetland Islands and the
strathspeys and slow airs of the North-East. The
instrument arrived late in the 17th century, and is
first mentioned in 1680 in a document from Newbattle
Abbey in Midlothian, Lessones For Ye Violin.
In
the 18th century, Scottish fiddling is said to have
reached new heights. Fiddlers like William Marshall and
Niel Gow were legends across Scotland, and the first
collections of fiddle tunes were published in
midcentury. The most famous and useful of these
collections was a series published by Nathaniel Gow, one
of Niel's sons, and a fine fiddler and composer in his
own right. Classical composers such as Charles McLean,
James Oswald and William McGibbon used Scottish fiddling
traditions in their Baroque
compositions.
Scottish fiddling is the root of
much American folk music, such as Appalachian fiddling,
but is most directly represented in Cape Breton, Nova
Scotia, an island on the east coast of Canada, which
received some 25,000 emigrants from the Scottish
Highlands during the Highland Clearances of 1780-1850.
Cape Breton musicians such as Natalie MacMaster, Ashley
MacIsaac, and Jerry Holland have brought their music to
a worldwide audience, building on the traditions of
master fiddlers such as Buddy MacMaster, Carl MacKenzie
and Winston Scotty Fitzgerald.
Among native
Scots, Alasdair Fraser and Aly Bain are two of the most
accomplished, following in the footsteps of influential
20th century players such as James Scott Skinner, Hector
MacAndrew, Angus Grant and Tom Anderson. The growing
number of young professional Scottish fiddlers makes a
complete list impossible. Top current names include
Aidan O'Rourke, Bruce MacGregor, Catriona MacDonald,
members of the band Blazin Fiddles; John McCusker;
Duncan Chisholm of Wolfstone; Chris Stout of the
Shetland group Fiddlers Bid; Pete Clark, Eilidh Shaw,
Gavin Marwick, Anna-Wendy Stevenson, Angus Grant Jr.,
and Alasdair White.
Northern Spain
In recent times, however, many Galician
folk musicians have considered Galician music to be at
least partially “Celtic” in origin, and whether or not
this is the case much modern Galician folk and folk-rock
is strongly influenced by Irish and Scottish traditions.
Certainly, Galicia is nowadays a strong player on the
international Celtic folk scene; and as a result,
elements of the pre-industrial Galician tradition have
become integrated into the modern Celtic folk repertoire
and style. Many, however, claim that the "Celtic"
appellation is merely a marketing tag, such as Susana
Seivane, a Galician gaiteira, who said "I think (the
'Celtic' moniker is) a label, to sell more. What we do
is Galician music". In any case, due to the "Celtic"
brand, the Galician music industry is the only
non-Spanish speaking music in Spain that has an audience
beyond the country's borders.
The ancestors of
the Celts lived in Spain after about 600 BC, arriving
from the area around the upper Danube and Rhine rivers.
Little is known about the population that existed there
before then. During the 1st century, the Roman Empire
conquered all of modern Spain and Portugal. The Latin
language came to dominate the region, and is the
ancestor of all the Romance languages of the Iberian
Peninsula (Galician, Portuguese, Catalan and Spanish).
With the exception of Basque, all the other regional
languages died out. The departure of the Romans in the
5th century led to the invasion by the Germanic Suevi
people in the northwest, who left little cultural
impact. By the 8th century, the Moors controlled
southern Iberia, but never conquered the north, which
was the Kingdom of Asturias.
In 810, it was
claimed that the remains of Saint James, one of the
apostles, had been found in Galicia. The site, which
soon became known as Santiago de Compostela, was the
premier pilgrimage destination in the European Middle
Ages and served as a rallying point for Christians to
defend the area against the Moors. This had a monumental
effect on the folk culture of the area, as the pilgrims
brought with them elements, including musical
instruments and styles, from as far afield as
Scandinavia.
However, little is known about
musical traditions from this era. A few manuscripts are
known, such as those by the 13th century poet and
musician Martín Codax, which indicate that some
distinctive elements of modern music, such as the
bagpipes, were common by then.
The Galician folk
revival drew on early 20th century performers like
Perfecto Feijoo, a gateiro and hurdy-gurdy player. The
first commercial recording of Galician music had come in
1904, by a corale called Aires d'a Terra from
Pontevedra. The middle of the century saw the rise of
Ricardo Portela, who inspired many of the revivalist's
performers, and played in influential bands like
Milladoiro.
During the regime of Francisco
Franco, Galician folk music was suppressed, or forced to
adopt lyrics with little for most listeners to connect
to. Honest displays of folk life were replaced with
rehearsed spectacles of patriotism, leading to a decline
in popularity for traditional styles. The appropriation
and sanitization of folk culture for the authorities led
to a perception that folk music was folklorico. In the
late 1970s, recordings of Galician gaita began in
earnest following the death of Franco in 1975, as well
as the Festival Internacional Do Mundo Celta (1977),
which helped establish some Galician bands. Aspiring
performers began working with bands like Os Areeiras, Os
Rosales, Os Campaneiros and Os Irmáns Graceiras,
learning the folk styles; others went to the renowned
workshop of Antón Corral at the Universidade Popular de
Vigo. Some of these musicians then formed their own
bands, like Milladoiro.
In the 1980s, some famous
performers began to emerge from the Galician (and
Asturian) music scene. The included Uxía, a singer
originally with the band Na Lúa, whose 1995 album Estou
Vivindo No Ceo and a subsequent collaboration with
Sudanese singer Rasha, gained her an international
following.
It was Carlos Nuñez, however, who has
done the most to popularize Galician traditions. His
1996 A Irmandade Das Estrelas sold more than 100,000
copies and saw major media buzz, partially due to the
collaboration with well-known foreign musicians like La
Vieja Trova Santiaguera, The Chieftains and Ry Cooder.
His follow-up, Os Amores Libres, included more fusions
with flamenco, Celtic music (especially Breton) and
Berber music.
Other modern Galician gaiteru
include Xosé Manuel Bundiño and Susana Seivane. Seivane
is especially notable as the first major female
gaiteiras, paving the way for many more women in the
previously male-dominated field. Galicia's most popular
singers are also mostly female, including Uxía, Mari Luz
Cristóbal Caunedo, Sonia Lebedynski and Mercedes
Peón.
Wales
Wales is a part of the United Kingdom,
but a culturally distinct Celtic country. Its
traditional music is related to the Celtic music of
countries such as Ireland and Scotland. Welsh folk music
has distinctive instrumentation and song types, and is
often heard at a twmpath (folk dance session), gŵyl
werin (folk festival) or noson lawen (traditional party
or ceilidh). Modern Welsh folk musicians have sometimes
had to reconstruct traditions which had been suppressed
or forgotten, as well as compete with imported and
indigenous rock and pop trends. The record label Fflach
Tradd has become especially influential. There is also a
thriving modern musical scene which spans several genres
and two languages.
Welsh folk is known for a
variety of instrumental and vocal styles, as well as
more recent singer-songwriters drawing on folk
traditions. The most traditional of Welsh instruments is
the harp. The triple harp (telyn deires, "three-row
harp") is a particularly distinctive tradition: it has
three rows of strings, with every semitone separately
represented, while modern concert harps use a pedal
system to change key by stopping the relevant strings.
It has been popularised through the efforts of Nansi
Richards, Llio Rhydderch and Robin Huw Bowen. Another
distinctive instrument is the crwth, which, superseded
by the fiddle, lingered on later in Wales than elsewhere
but died out by the nineteenth century at the
latest.
The fiddle is an integral part of Welsh
folk music. Among its modern exponents are The Kilbrides
from Cardiff, who play mostly in the South Welsh
tradition but also perform tunes from throughout the
British Isles.
This article is
licensed under the GNU Free
Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia
article "Metasyntactic variable".
