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".
