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Posted by: MKOC19 30-Jan-2007, 01:21 PM
I am in my senior year of college and I am working on my Independant Study. It is pretty much how it sounds I study something by myself and I meet with a professor so that they know that I am on track and then I give a presentation on everything that I have been studying.

My school does not have a world music class and that is kind of what I wanted to focus on. I decided to do mine on Celtic Music mainly focusing on the vocal tradition since I am a vocal performance major. At this point in time I am listening to lots of music and looking to buy scores and sheet music. I am looking for any sort suggestions of certian songs to look at or certain artists. There is a lot out there and I need help getting though some of it.

So if anyone has pieces that they absolutely love I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

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Posted by: j Padraig moore 30-Jan-2007, 02:11 PM
Hi MKOC!
I once did an independent study, in photography. It was the last class I did before getting my degree. It was also probably the most worthwhile too.
Since I am no more than a music lover, not a musician or vocalist, I cannot offer too much. But I did think that something in the Welsh tradition might be worth looking in to.

Good luck!

Posted by: MKOC19 30-Jan-2007, 08:59 PM
It is my goal to touch on the different aspects of the Celtic Tradition. Thanks for the suggestion though.

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Mary

Posted by: haynes9 30-Jan-2007, 09:12 PM
Here are some artists and groups, in no particular order, that you might want to look into.

Altan (Started by the late, great Frankie Kennedy and his wife)
The Chieftains (Been around forever)
Old Blind Dogs (Great progressive trad group from Scotland)
Teada (Young Irish group whose music is steeped in tradition. Their latest project includes a DVD that traces the roots of their music. Might give you some good ideas)
The Bothy Band (Legends)
Cathie Ryan (Maybe the top soloist in the business today)
Lunasa (strictly instrumental and incredible talents)

This might be a good jumping off point for you. Hope this is in line with what you are looking for, Mary.

Take care and have a great day.

Posted by: j Padraig moore 30-Jan-2007, 09:13 PM
Cool!
Let us know how this turns out.

smile.gif smile.gif

Posted by: Roberto Phoenix 30-Jan-2007, 09:16 PM
Here is a link you might want to look at.
http://ceolas.org/ceolas.html

You may also want to check out a form of Irish music called lilting. This, if I remember right, is the use of the voice to make music when the use of insturments was outlawed in Ireland. I'll see if I can find a more correct definition.

One group that I know of that has a lilting song is the bridies. It should be in their sound samples.

Posted by: Roberto Phoenix 30-Jan-2007, 09:21 PM
Lilting definition from Wikipedia
Lilting also known as Celtic Mouth Music (puirt-a-beul), diddling, jigging, chin music or cheek music.)

In lilting lyrics written primarily for dancing to and of secondary importance behind the rhythm and tone in the song.

The lyrics in lilting are often meaningless or nonsensical. Many Gaelic singers therefore do not believe in publishing translations of lilting. The origins of lilting or puirt are unclear and may have resulted from the banning of native instruments after the 1745 uprising, or the religious opposition to musical instruments (at its height in the mid-19th century).
The fourth track on Bridies "4 and 9" Cd is a good example of a lilting song even though it does have some music behind it.

www.thebridies.com

Posted by: MKOC19 31-Jan-2007, 12:04 AM
THIS IS GREAT! Exactly what I needed.

Haynes- Thanks for the suggestions some of those groups I have heard of others I have not. This is the stuff that I am looking for. Thanks so much.

Roberto- I will feel redundant if I use great again, but it is. I have heard of lilting before, but I haven't gotten that far in my reading. It will be interesting if I can actually find sheet music for that. I will tell you what I came up with. Thanks for the example as well. Greatly appreciated.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I am looking for. So, if anyone has any other suggestions on music, artists, books anything would be wonder.

THANKS!!!


smile.gif
Mary

Posted by: sisterknight 31-Jan-2007, 08:33 AM
please don't laugh at this suggestion but.......have you checked out your hymn book lately???i play tin whistle and there is alot of celtic tunes in there, mine is the presbyterian church, but the united also have tunes!! note.gif note.gif

Posted by: Dogshirt 31-Jan-2007, 07:28 PM
The Clancey Brothers and Tommy Makem have a tremendous store of Irish vocal. If you can find some of their more obscure albums you will find a wealth of lesser known songs.


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Posted by: Roberto Phoenix 31-Jan-2007, 09:45 PM
Don't forget the Irish Rovers-about the same time period as the Clancy Brothers. There is also the Wolftones, the Fury's, and Battlefield Band on the Scottish side of things. You can also check Entertainers lists on Irish and celtic festival websites. Alot of them have links directly to the bands. CDbaby.com also has a good Celtic section. Its a sun genre of the world music section.

Posted by: MKOC19 31-Jan-2007, 10:26 PM
Dogshirt and Roberto

The two of you read my mind. biggrin.gif I actually grew up listening to Clacy Brothers and Tommy Makem, the Irish Rovers and the Chieftiens to name a few. These were albums and tapes that my father listened to when he was younger. I remember songs that my father used to sing to me and my sibilings when we were younger at night. I dont even know who some of them are by, but that can be pretty common in folk traditions.

Sister,

I hadnt thought about that or that far just yet, but it is something I will have to look into after I have done a little more research. THANKS!

smile.gif

Mary

Posted by: MKOC19 31-Jan-2007, 10:28 PM
Excuse me: Chieftains. It helps to read it again before one posts it.

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Posted by: stoirmeil 01-Feb-2007, 11:52 AM
You will need to take time with the recordings of Jean Redpath. She is the definitive modern performer of the lowland Scots ballad (she never worked in gaidhlig, unfortunately) and various other genre songs, like children's songs, and she has recorded all of the songs of Robert Burns. She concentrated on this as her collge degree work -- and she studied with one of the great folk music scholars, collecters and performers of the generation before her, by the name of Hamish Henderson. Just google on both their names and you will see what I mean.

I assume you know about the collected Child Ballads (your library should have it; some of it is on line). It's a study all in itself how the various modern performers use the multiple variant versions, combine verses from them, etc. You also want to take a look into puirt-a-beul, or "mouth music," which is sung on nonsense syllables to accompany work or the dance. Check out "tweed waulking songs" which are used for the processing of woolen textiles. There are fabulous old National Geographic recordings of native workers doing these. Start with the music librarian of your college for help in getting them.

You'll want to look into collectons of songs by both Thomas Moore and Robert Burns. This is more scholarly background. Then comparing all this with modern performance should be very rewarding.

And you really have to take a look at the new output of the band called Runrig, who are writing all manner of wonderful, modern new songs in the Scots gaidhlig language. This is the new development in celtic traditional music -- the ethnic fusions using a popular rock idiom with old or old-sounding tunes and the native language, and renewed nationalistic themes. Runrig's lyrics are available on line, and we have some of their recordings on this site.

Posted by: MKOC19 01-Feb-2007, 09:35 PM
Stoirmeil-

Wow, this is a lot of great information. Some of it I already knew, but a lot of it I didn't know. I knew that I had some reading to do, but I am coming to realize how little I know. I guess thats what happens; the longer then one is in school the more you come to realize how little one knows. That just comes with the territory, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

Thanks for the suggestions of Thomas Moore and Robert Burns. One of the pieces that I am set on doing is "Believe me if all those Endearing Young Charms" by Thomas Moore. This piece has a lot of personal meaning in my family. This song has been apart of my family for generations.

I'm really excited about all of this.

smile.gif

Mary

Posted by: MKOC19 20-Mar-2007, 09:15 PM
So here is a bit of an update on my progress....

*I have a date, April 21st at 7:30. Unfortunately, the very next day very early I have to go sing with my school choir at a performance. It will be difficult not being able to celebrate after I am done because I will need to be up extremely early the next morning.

*Instead of covering specific groups I am going to try and address specific types of song. At the moment they are...Ballads (specifically art songs), Rebellion, Drinking, Mourning, Gaelic songs (I know that this sounds like a huge category but I need to talk about the importance of them and give them a taste of a song), and there is one other category but I cant think of it. This lecture-recital is supposed to be approximately an hour. That gives me about 10mins to talk about the category, the song and sing said song. So, in the grand scheme of things that is not much time. I know that there was so much more that I could cover, but I needed to draw the line somewhere.

*Here are a few songs that I am going to do for sure or thinking about...
"Believe me if all those Endearing Young Charms" by Thomas Moore
"Danny Boy"
"Parting Glass"
"Foggy Dew"
"Carrickfergus"
"Foggy Dew"
"Wearing of the Green"
There are more but I can not think of them off the top of my head.

SO...this is where I am at the moment. I am very excited and anxious about this. Tell me what you think so far....

Thanks
Mary smile.gif

Posted by: sisterknight 21-Mar-2007, 08:07 AM
most important is to enjoy yourself and enjoy your song choices, she'll make sure everything else falls into place!

Posted by: MKOC19 25-Mar-2007, 04:37 PM
smile.gif THANKS!!

Posted by: MKOC19 19-Apr-2007, 10:48 PM
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OK...So here is my problem. My presentation is in less then 2 days. I was going to sing a few songs unaccompanied and my friend was going to play the piano for me for a few others so there was going to be a balace.

Well, circumstances are that I wasn't able to get the music to her soon enough for her to feel comfortable to play them. She is a very good pianist and these accompaniments aren't that complicated. She had said earlier that it wouldnt have been too much of a problem because I showed some things that I was thinking of some time ago. Anyways, this week has been very stressful for her and she has had an extremely large amount of work to do this week and for some of next week as well. She said that she doesn't want to embarrass me even though she won't and is just getting worked up with all of the things that she has due. So, she will not be accompanying me for this concert.

My question is...will it be bad if i sing everything unaccompanied? And also, would it be bad if I didn't not have a lot of upbeat songs in the program because it is harder to sing more upbeat songs without accompaniment? Tell me what you think. I was still going to have one up beat song because I can't find a replacement.

I am kind of at my wits end on this and would love some feed back.

Thanks!!!

Posted by: j Padraig moore 24-Apr-2007, 06:00 AM
You will probably do great a cappella!
Be confident!!

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Posted by: sisterknight 24-Apr-2007, 06:56 AM
you put your whole self into it, express the music the way it feels to you, remember to phrase, phrase, phrase and use the commas!!! alot of times music is more purer when done unaccompanied!!!
i still say enjoy!!! note.gif

Posted by: MKOC19 25-Apr-2007, 02:21 PM
Thank you all for your help. It went so well. There were moments were it seemed that I had forgotten how to breathe and other times where I didn't think that I could talk fast enough.

The turn out was not too bad. There were moments where I was not satisfied with how I did, but I made up for it in other moments. My professor told me that I passed with flying colors. She was tempted to fail me so that I would have to stay another year because she doesnt want me to leave, but it is done and over with. Now, I have to move on to other things.

j Padraig moore and sisterknight
Thank you both for the last minute encouragement. It means so much to me. You both are fantastic. I was definately very anxious about this presentation, but it went well and its over. So, YAY!!

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! You are amazing people.

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Love
Mary

Posted by: sisterknight 26-Apr-2007, 06:56 AM
hurray for you!!!drinks all around!! beer_mug.gif clap.gif clap.gif

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