Celtic Music: A Complete Guide

by June Skinner Sawyers

Overview

Celtic music means many things to many people. To some it recalls the Irish rebel songs of the Clancy Brothers, to others the ensemble playing of the Chieftains or Enya's ethereal vocals. Yet Celtic music is much more than reels, jigs, and sentimental ballads. It is also unaccompanied singing, feverish fiddle tunes, the sweet strains of the Irish uileann pipes. It comes not just from Ireland and Scotland but from Wales, Brittany, the Isle of Man, and Cornwall. It informs the musical roots of Van Morrison and U2, the performances of Riverdance, and the scores for such films as Braveheart and Titanic.Celtic Music explores all aspects of this music—from its roots to the exciting developments on the contemporary scene. Sawyers profiles hundreds of artists, and compiles suggestions for recommended listening as well as the one hundred essential Celtic recordings. Lists of Celtic festivals and publications are also included, together with record outlets, record labels, and music schools, making this book essential for all lovers of the music.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780306810077
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	03/05/2001
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

A native of Glasgow, Scotland, June Skinner Sawyers is an editor and freelance writer. She is the resident expert in Celtic music for the Newberry Library in Chicago and a frequent contributor to the Chicago Tribune.

Table of Contents

Contents
Chronology ix
Preface xv
Acknowledgments xvii
Appendix
Building a Celtic Music Library:
100 Essential Recordings 323
Resources 327
A Pan-Celtic Glossary 339
Further Reading 343
Index 355
Chronology

1014 Brian Boru, the Irish high king, killed at the Battle of Clontarf; ended Viking control in Ireland.
1169 The Norman Conquest.
1366 Statutes of Kilkenny passed, restricting Irish laws, language, and customs. Among other things, the statutes forbade the Anglo-Irish minority, which held power, from intermarrying with the native Irish population.
1601 Lord Mountjoy defeats Hugh O’Neill and “Red” Hugh O’Donnell at the Battle of Kinsale, symbolizing the end of the old Gaelic order and the beginning of a new Anglo-Irish dominance based in Dublin.
1607 Flight of the Earls. Ulster chiefs go into voluntary exile to the safety of the continent.
1615 Mary MacLeod is born on the Isle of Harris.
(circa)
1649 Cromwell arrives in Ireland at the head of a 30,000-troop garrison, takes Dublin, and lays siege to Drogheda.
1660 Roderick Morison, last of the Highland harpers, is born on the Isle of Lewis.
1670 Turlough O Carolan, the last of the Irish harpers, is born in County Meath.
1688 The Glorious Revolution brings the Protestant William of Orange to the English throne.
1690 William defeats the Catholic James II at the Battle of the Boyne.
1691 Flight of the Wild Geese. The last of the Irish nobility leaves Ireland following the signing of the Treaty of Limerick to join French and Spanish armies on the continent.
1695 Catholic Penal Laws go into effect in Ireland, whose purpose is to force Irish Catholics to abandon their religion and accept the Protestant faith.
1707 Act of Union between Scotland and England.
1721 Thomas Percy is born.
1727 Niel Gow is born in Inver, near Dunkeld.
1742 Handel’s Messiah premieres at Mr. Neal’s New Musick Hall in Dublin.
1746 Battle of Culloden. The defeat of the Highland army led to the disarming of the clans and the prohibition of Highland dress.
1759 Robert Burns is born in Alloway.
1760 Joseph MacDonald’s A Compleat Theory of the Scots Highland Bagpipe is published.
1765 The first edition of Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry is published.
1773 Edward Bunting is born.
1773 The Hector arrives in Pictou, Nova Scotia, bringing the first shipload of Highland Scots to Canada.
1782– The first major period of the Highland Clearances, a
1820 Westminster government policy in which the Highland poor were forcibly evicted to make way for more profitable sheep farms.
1786 Robert Burns’s first volume of poetry, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, is published.
1792 Belfast Harp Festival.
1796 Edward Bunting’s General Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland is published.
1798 1798 Rising in Ireland.
1800 Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland. The Irish parliament is abolished.
1802 The first two volumes of Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders is published.
1808 Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies is published.
1810 Sir Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake is published.
1815 Captain Simon Fraser’s The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland is published.
1821 Mary MacPherson is born.
1825 Francis James Child is born in Boston.
1829 Catholic Emancipation in Ireland. Irish Catholics gain the right to sit in the British Parliament.
1840– The second major period of the Highland Clearances.
1854
1843 Scots fiddler James Scott Skinner is born in Banchory.
1847 The worst year of the Irish Famine.
1848 Francis O’Neill is born in County Cork.
1891 An Comunn Gaidhealach (The Highland Organization) is formed in Oban.
1893 Douglas Hyde founds the Gaelic League in Ireland.
1903 Francis O’Neill’s Music of Ireland is published.
1908 Jeannie Robertson is born.
1915 Ewan MacColl is born.
1916– Cecil Sharp spends forty-six weeks collecting folksongs
1918 in Appalachia.
1919 Cecil Sharp publishes English Folksongs from the Southern Appalachians.
1931 The Clarsach Society is formed.
1931 Séan Ó Riada (John Reidy) is born.
1940 The Cape Breton Collection of Scottish Melodies for the Violin is published.
1951 The School of Scottish Studies is established in Edinburgh.
1953 Jord Cochevelou, the father of Breton harpist Alan Stivell, unveils his harp prototype to the public.
1955 Séan Ó Riada becomes musical director of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
1960 Séan Ó Riada commissioned to write the score for the documentary Mise Eire (I Am Ireland) using traditional Irish music as its foundation.
1972 Institute of Cornish Studies established at the University of Exeter.
1972 Planxty is formed.
1975 The Bothy Band is formed.
1975 The Chieftains turn professional.
1983 Sabhal Mor Ostaig, the Gaelic College in Skye, is established.
1983 The Welsh Music Information Centre opens in Cardiff.
1985 The Scottish Music Information Centre, which promotes the works of Scottish and Scottish-based composers of all periods, is founded in Glasgow.
1990 Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh becomes the first institution of higher learning in the United States to offer a bachelor of arts in bagpipe playing.
1990 The College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts opens in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.
1994 Riverdance premieres in Dublin.
1996 Balnain House of Highland Music in Inverness opens.
1998 The Chieftains celebrate thirty-five years together.

Editorial Reviews

The foundations of Celtic Music from early to modern times is revealed in Celtic Music: A Complete Guide, a history of the genre which considers all aspects of the music; from its roots to its contemporary development. From the artists who have produced the sound to lists of Celtic publications and festivals which have fostered its growth, Celtic Music: A Complete Guide packs in a fine history.