What is Celtic Music?
The term “Celtic Music” is an artifact of the recording industry. It is used to segregate musical styles into proper bins for sales. But the term gained and holds the public imagination.
Scholars and many musicians argue against the term. They claim that this umbrella term is too broad in scope, too restricting in terms of style and not at all genuine. These arguments come from thoughtful, informed people and ought to be taken seriously.
Still, we have to call the traditional music of the Six Celtic Nations something. For the purposes of this course, Celtic Music will have to do.
Features that make Celtic Music Unique
• Melody instruments play in unison not harmony
• Dance styles often underpin the music and dictate structure. Celtic tunes are generally two or three part melodies repeated many times.
• Much of the ornamentation in Celtic music is largely taken from the practical need of bagpipe players to be able to stop or start a note. Celtic ornamentation is similar to Baroque ornamentation. However Celtic ornamentation originates from a practical need that turned out to be beautiful. Baroque ornamentation is mostly about beauty. The names applied to ornaments that sound the same are often different in Baroque and Celtic musics. Celts play long and short rolls, crans, cuts, and slides. Baroque musicians play mordants, trills appoggiaturas, turns, and slides
• Celtic melodies tend to be unrelenting. That is, melodies contain few rests. This is not difficult for bowed or plucked instruments such a fiddle and bouzouki. However, flute and whistle players must find places in the music to take a breath. To do so often results in subtle changes to melodies.
• Celtic melody frequently uses the pentatonic scale (major and minor) and relies heavily on harmonic rhythms.
• Melody players with wind, bowed and plucked instruments often use microtonal effects (bends) to enhance the emotion of a melody. Similar techniques are found in rock-and-roll guitar performances and music of the Middle East.
• Celtic music makes extensive use of the modes of the musical scale. Much of pop music makes use of only the major and minor modes of the scale. The proper terms are Ionian mode and Aeolean mode. Celtic music uses both of these modes but also embraces Dorian mode and Mixolydian mode. Occasionally Celtic music will also use the Phrygian mode and Lydian mode. Creative use of the modes of the musical scale gives Celtic music great energy.
• Celtic music is progressive. Those who play it honor the tradition but work hard to make the tradition relevant to the times. Celtic music no doubt began with solo voice, harp and flute music and later added the fiddle. As technology developed new musical voices, the Celts welcomed these into their music. The Uillean pipes where not invented until the early 1700s but they were quickly adopted by Celtic musicians. Today a Celtic ensemble likely includes free reed instruments such as concertina and accordion; strum-plucked instruments such as bouzouki, tenor banjo and guitar; wind instruments such as flute, whistle bombard, and duduk; percussion instruments such as bodhran, bones, shakers and spoons. Increasingly the sounds of electronic synthesizers and electric guitars are becoming part of the Celtic sound as “Celtic Rock” finds new listening audiences.
• Contemporary Celtic music sometimes reaches well past the traditional music of the Six Celtic Nations. For a thousand years the Celts spanned much of Europe all the way to modern day Turkey. Some Celtic musicians incorporate rhythms, instruments and melodies that are certainly Middle Eastern in origin.
• Some of Celtic music can be traced back to the 14th century or even earlier. But mostly what listeners think of when they use the term Celtic Music is dance and song music dating back no earlier than about 1600. Much of the “Celtic Repertoire” is the dance music of the 18th and 19th and 20th centuries.
If you were to ask, now deceased, Supreme Court Associate Justice Potter Stewart to define “Celtic Music”, he might have said something like: “I know it when I hear it”.
The term “Celtic Music” is an artifact of the recording industry. It is used to segregate musical styles into proper bins for sales. But the term gained and holds the public imagination.
Scholars and many musicians argue against the term. They claim that this umbrella term is too broad in scope, too restricting in terms of style and not at all genuine. These arguments come from thoughtful, informed people and ought to be taken seriously.
Still, we have to call the traditional music of the Six Celtic Nations something. For the purposes of this course, Celtic Music will have to do.
Features that make Celtic Music Unique
• Melody instruments play in unison not harmony
• Dance styles often underpin the music and dictate structure. Celtic tunes are generally two or three part melodies repeated many times.
• Much of the ornamentation in Celtic music is largely taken from the practical need of bagpipe players to be able to stop or start a note. Celtic ornamentation is similar to Baroque ornamentation. However Celtic ornamentation originates from a practical need that turned out to be beautiful. Baroque ornamentation is mostly about beauty. The names applied to ornaments that sound the same are often different in Baroque and Celtic musics. Celts play long and short rolls, crans, cuts, and slides. Baroque musicians play mordants, trills appoggiaturas, turns, and slides
• Celtic melodies tend to be unrelenting. That is, melodies contain few rests. This is not difficult for bowed or plucked instruments such a fiddle and bouzouki. However, flute and whistle players must find places in the music to take a breath. To do so often results in subtle changes to melodies.
• Celtic melody frequently uses the pentatonic scale (major and minor) and relies heavily on harmonic rhythms.
• Melody players with wind, bowed and plucked instruments often use microtonal effects (bends) to enhance the emotion of a melody. Similar techniques are found in rock-and-roll guitar performances and music of the Middle East.
• Celtic music makes extensive use of the modes of the musical scale. Much of pop music makes use of only the major and minor modes of the scale. The proper terms are Ionian mode and Aeolean mode. Celtic music uses both of these modes but also embraces Dorian mode and Mixolydian mode. Occasionally Celtic music will also use the Phrygian mode and Lydian mode. Creative use of the modes of the musical scale gives Celtic music great energy.
• Celtic music is progressive. Those who play it honor the tradition but work hard to make the tradition relevant to the times. Celtic music no doubt began with solo voice, harp and flute music and later added the fiddle. As technology developed new musical voices, the Celts welcomed these into their music. The Uillean pipes where not invented until the early 1700s but they were quickly adopted by Celtic musicians. Today a Celtic ensemble likely includes free reed instruments such as concertina and accordion; strum-plucked instruments such as bouzouki, tenor banjo and guitar; wind instruments such as flute, whistle bombard, and duduk; percussion instruments such as bodhran, bones, shakers and spoons. Increasingly the sounds of electronic synthesizers and electric guitars are becoming part of the Celtic sound as “Celtic Rock” finds new listening audiences.
• Contemporary Celtic music sometimes reaches well past the traditional music of the Six Celtic Nations. For a thousand years the Celts spanned much of Europe all the way to modern day Turkey. Some Celtic musicians incorporate rhythms, instruments and melodies that are certainly Middle Eastern in origin.
• Some of Celtic music can be traced back to the 14th century or even earlier. But mostly what listeners think of when they use the term Celtic Music is dance and song music dating back no earlier than about 1600. Much of the “Celtic Repertoire” is the dance music of the 18th and 19th and 20th centuries.
If you were to ask, now deceased, Supreme Court Associate Justice Potter Stewart to define “Celtic Music”, he might have said something like: “I know it when I hear it”.