Celtic music

Does anyone like celtic music? And play it? What are your opinions of it?

Love it love it love it love it love it!!!!!

Try this site for some good pipe tunes, great for fiddle -> The Session

I even have a crystal/glass flute/fife, and it's great for these. Recorder, too.

The Dark Isle, Nine Points of Roguery, Murphy's Reel, Arran Boat, The Minnesota, great stuff!

Me and my (ex)-girlfriend love to play Celtic tunes on our (French) horns. Lance LaDuke of the (Pittsburgh) River City Brass Band plays crazy Celtic music on his euphonium and has his own CD. Flippin' sweet.

I would recommed buying some CD's of Seven Nations, Clumsy Lovers, Off Kilter, and Gjallerhorn, the first three are Celtic rock bands (Celtic music complete with fiddles and bagpipes, but played like rock music!). Clumsy Lovers has their own website -> clumsy lovers

Yay Celtic music!!!!!!

I LOVE CELTIC MUSIC!!!!

I wonder what kind of commonly used harmonic progressions does it employ...

Can anyone tell me that?

I LOVE CELTIC MUSIC!!!!

I wonder what kind of commonly used harmonic progressions does it employ...

Can anyone tell me that?

Really. Simple. Ones. It's all about the melody, the chords just back it up. Rarely are there 'harmonic progressions' as such. Most Celtic tunes sound lovely even though they use only two to four different chords.

For example, a whole tune in C would most likely have chords like G, F, E minor, A minor, and maybe some others. It all depends on what supports the melody best.

Check The Session for some tunes, some of them have chords written in (but not all).

Thanks! :toothygrin:

Yes, I love the folk music of my country, and of Scotland.

I am gald to see that this is a very popular topic, but seriously, celtic music has a lot of the same elements of jazz. So we should talk about it more.

BAck on topic, what do you all think of Natalie Macmaster?

I don't know who Natalie is, but I love Celtic as well. My four most favorite Celtic related artists are Bill Whelan (his big thing is Riverdance), Enya, Lunasa, and Nightnoise. Lunasa and Nightnoise are the two that I do not expect anyone to have heard of. So, if you have not heard of them then I suggest that you go over to amazon.com and search for my favorites of each of them. For Lunasa my favorite is "Otherworld". For Nightnoise my favorite is a combination of the tracks off of "Shadow of Time" and "At the End of the Evening". So, what I suggest is you look over the compilation album called "Pure Nightnoise. In my opinion some of their best tracks are: Hugh, Silky Flanks, At the Races, Fionnghuala, Bleu, Timewinds, and For Eamonn.

I really like the slow majestic kind of Celtic music that uses bagpipes, uellian pipes, or pan flutes. That is the kind of thing that really takes you to the shores of Ireland or Scottland. I cannot help but picture an old English castle by the beautiful rolling hills next to the sea. I also love the light and wimsical celtic fiddling. This brings a picture of children running and playing in a field of flowers to my mind. I can picture this with a really strong breeze and, again, the beautiful hills of Scottland. I really wish to go to either Scottland or Ireland someday. It seems so rich in history and so very, very beautiful.

Now, someone was saying that Celtic music is only about the melody and not about the harmonic progressions and not about strong accompaniment. I am going to disagree strongly. I think this idea is only completely true of the New Age Celtic stuff (like Enya and Loreena Mckennitt). There is nothing wrong with that - I actually do love it - however there is much more to Celtic music than some people realize. If you listen to the Lunasa, Bill Whalen, and Nightnoise examples that I mentioned you will find some very complex orchestrations and instrumentations. In those examples not all of the music is just about a chord backing up the melody. There are sometimes many quick beautiful chord changes. Then sometimes there are many other amazing accompaniment techiniques. Sometimes you just get harmony in voice and no accompaniment at all. I am not angry or anything - I just want to make a point about Celtic music.

I was rather referring to things like The Chieftains and irish folk music. :)

I was talking about traditional celtic music. But o.k.

Me too, I don't know any of those people you mentioned, I know tunes like The Dark Isle, Limerick Lassies, The Irish Washerwomen, Scotland the Brave, and other old, traditional folk tunes. Aires, reels, jigs, slides, marches, stuff like that. I like Loreena McKennit, though, she is pretty good, but a far cry from the traditional music in some of her stuff.

:) The Foggy Dew, by The Chieftains with Sinnead O'Connor... :toothygrin:

:wub: The Foggy Dew, by The Chieftains with Sinnead O'Connor... :happytears:

Obviously you wathced the same video I did on youtube. That is a great song.

Video? :)

I have their Long Black Veil CD... :)

I'm rather familiar with Celtic music, because of Newfoundland's extremely strong ties with Ireland and Scotland. It's fun to play, and fun to compose, actually.

I can't say I like it since I adore it :angry:

I suppose that no one plays it a lot nor is influenced by it in their compositions?

Maybe I should write some Celtic music, than. I've played Celtic music on the fiddle, came up with my own tunes, but never bothered to write them out. Lots a people nowadays write Celtic tunes. Mostly Fiddle or pipe tunes, but other instruments as well.

I too love celtic music. I'd be curious as to what all you celtic/Irish music lovers say to my guitar arrangement of two Irish jigs:

http://musicinmunich.blogspot.com/2007/07/my-guitar-arrangement-of-some-irish.html

I love to arrange Irish tunes for fingerstyle guitar.

I'll end up doing research on celtic music, since I'm planning to write an opera on the subject.

... since I'm planning to write an opera on the subject.

Coolness! :P

Yeah, hooray for me and my predicted-but-not-sure-when-the-hell-I'll-have-time-or-inspiration-for-this projects.

Ironic, for someone who is neither an opera conoisseur or an opera fan.

Hey, I hate watching theater plays too, and I've still written, staged and acted in some. :)

Artists are walking paradoxes. :D

I find so much contemporary "Celtic" music to just be new-age-y scraggy with no musical interest whatsoever.

That said - proper folk melodies, played in traditional style without synthesizers and echo-effects, are amazing.