In Tune with Celtic Music

We often use the term Celtic music to describe the music of Ireland and Scotland, because both places have produced popular and distinctive styles that are nevertheless clearly mutually influenced. However, properly speaking, the music of Wales, Cornwall, Isle of Man, Brittany, parts of northern Britain, and Northeastern Portugal should also be considered as Celtic music, particularly in Brittany, where Celtic festivals are still held throughout the year.

Nonetheless, identifying a common thread in Celtic music poses a problem. Most popular musical forms now described as typically Celtic may actually trace their origins to Western Europe. Such forms as jigs were adapted from Italian music, and polkas originate in Czech and Polish tradition. On the other hand, there are musical genres and styles common to each individual Celtic country, reflecting the influence of individual traditions as well as the characteristics of specific languages.

Nevertheless, without bothering too much about these divisions, we can say that all or many of them are kept alive through a large number of music festivals, among them some prominent ones like Celtic Colors (Cape Breton, Nova Scotia) and Celtic Connections (Glasgow).

Modern adaptations of Celtic music include the earliest ones that we saw in the 1960s from Jethro Tull, Horslips, and Alan Stivell. In fact, Stivell made the first attempt to create a modern pan-Celtic genre and is even now exploring with all kinds of Celtic fusion. In 1982, The Pogues created Celtic folk-punk, and since then, there have been many attempts to incorporate Celtic influences into other modern forms of music.

For instance, Marxman, an Irish-Jamaican hip hop group that was banned from the BBC in the late 1980s for including IRA slogans in their songs, used traditional Celtic instruments in many of their songs. The controversial Sinéad O'Connor has also actively used Celtic fusion and absorbed a range of modern and traditional Celtic influences. Today, there are Celtic-influenced genres of every type of popular music, from House to Trance, and hip-hop to Punk Rock.

Common Celtic musical forms include jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, strathspeys (specific to Scotland) and slow tunes. Much of the music is distinguished by robust, repeating melodies in a set rhythm, which is usually perfect as music to dance to. Ballads are also common, reflecting the strong oral story-telling tradition of the Celts. The USA has also absorbed Celtic music through the immigration of the Scotch-Irish population, and Celtic music is the foundation for much of the Appalachian folk music.

So as you can see, the term Celtic music covers Irish traditional music and traditional genres and forms that originated in Scotland and the Shetland Islands, Brittany, Wales, the Isle of Man, northern England, Cornwall, and Galicia (northwestern Spain). However, there is a debate about the presence or absence of a common thread uniting these Celtic regions, because there is also a lot of variation between these regions when it comes to musical styles.

On the other hand, people living in all these Celtic lands have performed related musical styles, and thus there may be a musical tradition in these areas. Why don’t you listen for yourself?