Celtic Mouth Music As firmly rooted in Celtic consciousness as the blues are in America's South, mouth music is vocal music made for dancing when there aren't instruments or trained musicians around. Imitating fiddles, accordions, bagpipes and Jew's harps, mouth musicians developed fantastic vocal effects, creating a rhythmic, tuneful music unlike any other. For generations, mouth music made it possible for Irishmen, Scotsmen, French Canadians, Acadians and people in Appalachia to have "a bit of a birl" when good times couldn't otherwise be found. Known by colorful names like "diddling" and "lilting," celebrated for its bawdy or nonsensical but always playful lyrics, mouth music has found its way into ambient and pop music by groups like The Cranberries. But such efforts only hint at the sounds mouth musicians are capable of. In addition to 37 tracks of this wild and beautiful music, Celtic Mouth Music contains many stories about the phenomenon and its practitioners, both legendary and real. It even holds a lesson on how to make your own mouth tunes. With contemporary and archival tracks from Ireland, Scotland, the U.S., Canada and France, Celtic Mouth Music will expose you to a traditional marvel that's been overlooked for too long. -for all its names both beautiful and strange, mouth music's a very basic phenomenon. Built on favorite old melodies and rhythms, on the quips that slip out of folks when they're frisky or drunk, mouth music is for making music especially for dancing when there aren't instruments around. Though found in various forms throughout the world, mouth music is highly developed among the Gaels. The mesmerizing rhythms of mouth tunes made them a kind of Celtic street-corner soul music centuries ago, a tradition that has gained too little attention. Known as diddling, lilting, jigging and port-a-beul ("porsht-uh-bee- ul") in Great Britain and Ireland, mouth music became part of the musical baggage of Scots and Irish emigrants-driven abroad by poverty or persecution, and forced to travel light. It accompanied them to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, where it was absorbed by Acadian and French-Canadian culture, and down into the southern Appalachians. "Mouth music" is likely a translation of the Scots Gaelic port a beul ("tunes from the mouth"), the genre's richest form. But whether from the mouths of practiced singers or tinkers, whether sung in English, Gaelic, the Doric of northeast Scotland or meaningless syllables, mouth tunes share cer- tain irreducible traits: sexual frankness, delight in the absurd and-above all- the word-wizardry that propels their compound rhythms. Though not all mouth music originates in dance (listen to Talitha MacKenzie's rendition of "The Cave of Gold," track 21 on the enclosed CD), it always swings. Sung with the sparse addition of bones, bells or jew's harps, if accompanied at all (in unison, traditionally, not harmony) mouth music continues to offer ground for experiment, and a reminder-in a time of increasingly sophisticated music production-of the power of the human voice. The most colorful story of Scottish mouth music's origin suggests it was born when the bagpipes were banned after the second Jacobite rising against the British crown in 1745. Nonsense lyrics were fitted to precious pipe tunes, helping players recall the intricate quavers that gave the originals "lift." The method ensured the classical body of bagpipe music was not lost. Mouth music, howev- er, soon developed a life of its own, with practitioners contriving new tunes for dances, enlivening gatherings where instruments weren't to be found. Like lots of good stories, this one smooths history's rough edges, and contains various contradictions. The bagpipes weren't ever banned, for one thing, though a man was hanged for possessing a set in York in the 1740s (disincentive enough!). A more complex memory system called canntaireachd, which bagpipers use to teach each other tunes, had long existed-and lilting a tune to teach the melody is a universal practice. Song and dance are also, of course, intimately connected; in some form, mouth music is undoubtedly ancient (the gigue form, on which much mouth music's propounded, has existed for over four hundred years). And mouth music, finally, has various precedents-Scots musical culture carries a wealth of imitative song forms, as Annie Johnston's exquisite bird songs on this album (track 25) demonstrate. Singing to accompany the rhythm of work activities, including rowing, reaping, spinning, milking and "waulking," or shrinking wool, is also a highly developed feature of Scottish culture. Scottish mouth music's greatest period of growth came during late nineteenth century religious revivals, when Calvinist ministers forbade indigenous music. Church hostility to traditional pleasures-which sometimes saw violins, pipes and harps thrown onto bonfires-continued to this century. Though the Catholic Church was also sometimes hostile to traditional music, Ireland's long periods of poverty are more central to mouth music's development there. In thousands of isolated villages well into the 1950s, lilting offered an opportunity to dance when the day's labors were done, and instruments or musicians with sufficient skill and repertoire to keep the company dancing-were scarce. The great singer Margaret Barry said Ireland's County Wexford was once "great country for diddling, or 'doodlin,' as they called it there." Paddy Tunney says "scrapy ould fiddlers were helped along" during Donegal dances by lilting from the crowd. Singer and flute player Micho Russel of Clare says young women were "picked out specially" to lilt at weddings, often in groups of three- a pretty sight, one imagines, and a joyful noise. "Everyone could lilt in them days," says 84-year-old fiddler and singer Tommy Gunn of his youth in Derrylin, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. In Derrylin there were these two fellows, the Gilroys. Tommy lilted, and Johnny was the best dancer you ever saw. They'd come out on the floor in the Owens' parlor Tom, John and Mary, John's dancing partner, and Tommy would kinda get down on one knee. Then he'd start to lilt. He'd start off nice and steady-Doodle aiddle doodle aiddle doodle aiddle did- dle dee dum... and John and Mary would commence to dance a reel. John wore hob-nail boots, y'see, and Mary had a pair of clogs with steel strips 'round the bot- tom. Between the lilting and dancing it made a great sound. Two of the Owenses were flute players; two were fiddlers-they hosted the country dances. None of them married anyone in his life. The only interest those people had was music-they'd play all night in order to get a tune right, and sometimes they woke the whole village fighting about how to play a reel. I was only a young lad, fourteen or fifteen. One day a neighbor was making hay and went over to the Owens' for a rake-this is a gospel story I'm telling you. John Owens-he was one of the fiddle-playing Owenses-was digging a hole in the floor; he had dug up all the flagstones in the parlor! This fellow the neighbor looks down at John. "I'll tell you one thing, John," he says, "when you die they won't have to carry you far to bury you." "Would you like to know what I'm doin'?" John asks. "Do you see that great earthenware pot outside? I'm gonna bury it here and put the flagstones over it. And when John and Mary dance, the rhythm'll be like a kettle drum 'neath their feet!" Sure enough, it made an incredible sound. I used to lie in bed and listen to the music and dancing coming from the Owens' house. You could hear it all over the village, way out in the country... TOMMY GUNN Lilting's part of a larger tradition, called the séan nos, or "old style" in Ireland, which emphasizes subtle ornamentation and embellishment in song. Fine séan nos singers like the late Joe Heaney from Carna in western Ireland could hold listeners spell- bound with song and story for hours on end. In his turn, Heaney remembered lilters who had just one tune to their names, but who lilted that tune so well they kept villages dancing all night! With economic development, lilting declined. Mouth music's seldom used for dancing now, and is sometimes viewed as an anachronism, even a sport, used by singers to show off their voices at Scotland's Gaelic Mòd or the All-Ireland Championships. Great lilters are now scarce, according to long- time watchers of the traditional scene. "When you hear a great old-style lilter," says Harry Bradshaw, senior producer at RTE Radio One in Ireland-"you know it." A GLASS OF RUM PUNCH There once was a man had three daughters. Their mother, God bless her, was dead. The father was the apple of his daughters' eye, they the apple of his. One night the father came home sorta lame lookin'. He didn't feel good, and he went up to bed. The daughters put their heads together. "What can we do to make daddy happy? We have to do something," they said. They decided to make him a glass of strong punch. They got a big glass and filled it up with rum, adding cloves and hot water. They put sugar in it, and took it up to his bedroom and gave it to him. The following morning their father was jumping on the landing! The oldest daughter came up and asked, "Did the rum do?" "Did the rum do?" he laughed. The second girl came up and asked, "Did the rum do, Da?" "Did the rum do, indeed!" he laughed again. The youngest came in and asked, "Did the rum do, daddy?" Their father looked at them. He started to tap his foot and began to sing, "Didderumdo, o didderumdo, o didderumdo dad-dy? Didderumdo, o didderumdo, o didderumdo, me daughters..." STORY OFTEN RECITED BY JOE HEANEY (courtesy Ethnographic Archive, University of Washington) They have a great genius for music.... Several of both sexes have a quick vein of poesy, and in their language (which is very emphatic) they compose rhyme and verse, both of which powerfully affect the fancy.
MARTIN MARTIN A DESCRIPTION OF THE WESTERN ISLES OF SCOTLAND (CA. 1695) Puirt-a-beul singing is perhaps the most exquisite of mouth musics, a practice requiring rhythmic precision and Gaelic fluency. But despite the demands that such tunes make on singers, experts like Kenna Campbell insist puirt-a-beul aren't songs at all, but instrumental tunes whose lyrics power their rhythms. "A Nova Scotian friend once proved this for me," says Campbell, "by chant- ing the words of some puirt-a-beul tunes without the music. My feet began to itch immediately-I couldn't help moving! The words are fitted so neatly for their rhythm, they perfectly match the steps of the dance. You really don't need the melody at all, we realized, the rhythm is held so securely by the words." Great puirt-a-beul singing often travels in families. The Campbells hail from a long line of pipers from Greepe, on the Isle of Skye. "Most of the puirt we sing are also played on the pipes," says Campbell, whose two brothers, two sisters and two daughters are adept puirt singers like her father's family, from whom they learned the skill. "Our singing's strongly informed by the pipe's sound." As with other Celtic music, stringing together two or three puirt-a-beul in a satisfying set is an art in itself. "Ideally, you go for a related key in moving from one to the next," says Campbell. "But sometimes the tessitura-the combined range of pitch-is too wide. Then you must hunt for something else that works." Occasionally, puirt-a-beul contain vocables (the "hollow" or nonsense syllales one finds in thousands of songs, which form the meat of lowlands Scots did- ling and Irish lilts). Generally, however, they have lyrics, as in this song of Ewen's oracle, or boat, part of a class of puirt-a-beul probably devised for children: O look at Ewen's coracle With twenty-five white oars! Look at Ewen's coracle Passing the White Point. Ewen, Ewen Ewen will be skipper of her Ewen, Ewen Passing the White Point. "It would be fascinating to know the circumstances in which these tunes rose, for the words are very clever," says Morag Macleod, a lecturer in Gaelic ong at Edinburgh's School of Scottish Studies. "For the most part we don't now their origins or who made them." This translation of one, addressed to a re that's slow to start, offers a hint of their whimsical qualities: "Quite a lot of them had bawdy texts," says Macleod. "When field historians first set out to collect them, people simply wouldn't sing them." The meaning of many puirt-a-beul tunes is obscure. Some may have constituted a kind of insider speech. The lyric to one popular puirt-a-beul-"The ewe with the crooked horn has a full udder"-meant "the whiskey still is full," according to Macleod. Great puirt-a-beul singing wants intensive practice. "Finding breathing spots is also an art," says Campbell, "something that must be worked out in advance." Often, such openings come nowhere near the end of a line, but in oxygen-afford- ing hollows in the body of the tune. You have to assume the music will be danced to, and sing with the absolute precision of instrumental music. You can't just break off and have a breath and a pie and a pint at the end of the phrase-if you do, someone's left with a leg up in the air! KENNA CAMPBELL Once, while I was traveling through the Irish Gaeltacht-way back in the early '60s when the women were still wearing their shawls and the old men their bainín (the white homespun trousers made by local weavers), I stopped in a pub in a little coastal town called Spiddal. When the people learned I was a singer, they asked me to come home with them and give them some tunes. We drove to a lonely farm out in the hills. We went inside, and there was an old woman seated by the fire. She had a rag in one hand and a snuffbox in the other. They asked would I sing, and I replied that the custom, as I understood it, was a song from the host first, then singing till dawn from the guest. The old woman nodded; she appreciated my awareness. But she wouldn't begin unless the flute player held her hand-an old custom-to draw energy from him. The first song that I sang was "Molly Bawn." Almost immediately the people began to shout, "My love on your voice!" and "Get it out well!" in Gaelic. When the Irish encourage you, you really get a boost. I took off! I started to sing some mouth music, and they got excited. Stop, they said, stop! They hadn't heard that sort of music in thirty years. I waited while they laced up their heavy-studded boots, pulling their caps tight 'round their heads, then they made me start again. I sang for hours. Every time I stopped they cried "Aris!" ("Again!") They were step-dancing like fury-in the old style, their whole bodies moving on the flagstone floor. I tell you, the sparks really flew. NORMAN KENNEDY
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Celtic music in a all its many guises carries enormous sway all over the world. The sad nature of Irish history is such that emigration has been a major factor for Irish life over the last two centuries with the result that there barely seems to be a nation on the planet that doesn't have a cluster of its population with Irish blood. The success of the shows Riverdance and Lord Of The Dance during the 1990s triggered an amazing upsurge in the popularity of all types of Irish culture. People in the unlikeliest far-flung outposts started looking into their history and discovering Irish ancestry. Celtic theme bars sprang up everywhere from Bradford to Beijing and after so many years of being ignored and even ridiculed as a musical backwater, Ireland was suddenly elevated to a position of international cultural eminence. There are now outstanding Irish musicians living all over the world. especially in America - where Irish immigrants effectively kept traditional music alive when it was dying on its feet at home - but you also get a lot of aberrations masquerading in the name of Celtic music. So for the real Irish musical soul you have to go to... Ireland. Tourism and an economic boom fuelled by the Celtic tiger have brought prosperity and radically changed the face of Ireland - but not its soul. The music the real music found in the remoter areas of the country is as rich and proud and passionate and sad and beautiful and inspiring and joyful and heartfelt as it ever was. The here are many great instrumental traditions throughout Ireland - from the legendary old fiddle players of Sligo to the travelling uilleann pipers, Galway ceili bands and the magical traditional music embedded in the Gaeltacht Irish speaking areas of Connemara, Waterford and Donegal. Such is the treasure chest of instrumental virtuosity, in fact, that the wonderful singing tradition of Ireland is often overlooked. Unlike their ancestors. who often never left their villages, let alone their county or country, the singers of today are exposed to and influenced by other cultures. Television and radio have seen to that and the spread of travel to and from Ireland has accelerated it. Yet the best of the modern generation of singers understand and draw on the spirit of those old singers to whom music was an instinctive and integral part of their social being and whose songs reflected the joy, sorrow, hardship and sense of fun that has always been such a telling part of the fabric of Irish rural life. They certainly don't come much better than Dolores Keane, whose upbringing by her aunts Sarah and Rita Keane - both legendary traditional singers in the small farming community of Caherlistrane, Co. Galway invested in her a deep, empathy with the music and the history that had shaped it. There are many who believe that Dolores Keane is the greatest singer ever to come out of Ireland, a view that gains much weight when you hear her tackle Galway Bay, a populist song done to death down the years but given such earthy depth by Dolores it surely counts as the definitive version. Sinead O'Connor, too- who talks of the characters who populate her songs as 'ghosts' is one of the greats. Such attention is focused on her media persona and the various controversial events surrounding her life that her uniquely intense way of getting under the skin of a song is usually overlooked. Maura O'Connell is another with a fantastic pedigree-establishing her reputation as a feisty young singer with one of the finest Irish bands of them all. De Dannan, before heading off to Nashville to conquer new fields, geographically and musically. But while you can take the singer out of Ireland and Wall Around Your Heart' is a beautiful song by the fine American singer songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter - you clearly can't take Ireland out of the singer. And nor would you want to. Not when it produces majestic performances by the likes of the Gaelic singers Maighread Ni Dhomnaill (whose brother and sister were founding members of the great Bothy Band) and Aoife Ni Fherraigh from Donegal, whose 'Seacht Suailci is effectively a hymn. The thrilling accordion player Sharon Shannon-who originally made her name as a member of The Waterboys has taken Irish traditional music into previously uncharted territories, but 'Queen Of The West- from her very first solo album in the early '90s shows her at her best playing pure Irish music, Shannon's band also provided an early showcase for the highly inventive singer/fiddle player/folklorist Maire Breatnach, who was also one of the early members of the cast of Riverdance and a member of Donal Lunny's supergroup Coolfin. Aine Ui Cheallaigh also starred in Riverdance and has worked with the great Galway box player Mairtin O'Connor. Donegal singer and fiddle player Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh is now rightly regarded as one of the supreme figures in modern Irish music as the focal point of the band Altan, but the track included here catches her fresh style at an embryonic stage before she and her late husband, the flute player Frankie Kennedy, launched Altan together. At the extreme we get the harpist and singer Mary O'Hara performing Morning Has Broken' when she was making a comeback having previously given up music to become a nun following the sudden death of her young husband. American Eva Cassidy performs one of the songs that made her a posthumous star. 'Fields Of Gold', originally written by Sting, but which has now embarked on a new life as part of the furniture of Irish folk music. Niamh Kavanagh - who appeared in The Commitments and sang at the Grammys performs the song that won her the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest while Newfoundland singer Pamela Morgan shows what she can do without Figgy Duff, the pioneering Canadian Celtic band she fronted for 19 years. At the outwardly commercial end. one of Ireland's biggest names Mary Duff and who regularly performs with Daniel O'Donnell sings one of her best known recordings 'Silver & Gold, Loretta Sullivan does the Carpenters, Rose Marie bravely tackles one of Ireland's most celebrated pub singalongs and Ryan & Rachel O'Donnell, fresh from their 300,000 units selling 'Celtic Chillout Album' do their Titanic impression. Irrepressible, the lot of 'em. COLIN IRWIN, September 2003 Celtic music has captivated the ears and hearts of people around the world over the past decades. It offers a vast wealth of tunes for dancing and listening, and songs for work and play, reflecting both joy and sorrow. Traditional Celtic instruments emulate the most human expressions - fiddle, flutes and harp give voice, and the bodhrán is at the heart. Musically speaking, the modern Celtic world stretches from Ireland, Scotland and Wales, to Brittany (France), Galicia and Asturias (Spain), and across the Atlantic to Canada and parts of the United States (a result of massive French, Scottish and Irish immigration to the Americas). It essentially parallels the lands of the six Celtic languages: Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Manx (no longer spoken as a 'first language' in the Isle of Man), Welsh, Cornish and Breton. More than 2000 years ago, Celtic-language speaking people lived throughout large parts of continental Europe. Celtic cultures survive to this day in those parts of Europe that the Romans were unable to or uninterested in conquering. The term 'Celt' comes from the ancient keltoi, which was used by the Greeks to refer to 'barbaric' tribes from these regions. If only they had listened more closely to the music! The modern Celtic music revival was triggered, in large part, by the folk movements that grew around the world in the 1960s. While Celtic music was alive and well in some places (such as the pubs of Ireland, or the fest-noz celebrations of Brittany), it had to be recreated in others. In Wales, many of the Celtic traditions were lost during the Nonconformist movement in the eighteenth century, and musicians have had to reconstruct traditional works. By contrast, in Galicia and Asturias in Spain, Celtic languages have not been spoken for centuries, but the traditional music has Celtic roots. Over the past four decades, the movement has exploded literally in all directions, as groups like Kila, Shooglenifty and Capercaillie seamlessly incorporate jazz, rock, R&B, electronica and elements of world music with traditional Celtic sounds. Celtic music has reached new levels of popularity in virtually every corner of the globe (indeed, there are now more than 400 Celtic music festivals worldwide). This collection includes both traditional and contemporary music from all of these regions, as swirling fiddles, flutes and pipes meet the melodic trills of the harp, while guitars and mandolins are underpinned by the heartbeat rhythm of the bodhrán. It is a Rough Guide to the very best musicians creating Celtic music today. DERVISH - With a combination of virtuosic instrumentation, touching vocals and energetic arrangements, Dervish has deservedly become one of the most popular Irish folk ensembles. This Sligo-based line-up has a mesmerizing effect on audiences around the globe, who seem captivated not just by Dervish's timeless music, but by singer Cathy Jordan's remarkable stage presence and stories about each song. 'Jig Songs' is a set of three classic jigs, with the humorous and lilting lyrics associated with infant dandling songs. The legendary blind harper and troubadour Turlough O'Carolan wrote the third jig. Although the author of the lyrics is unknown, the name of the tune is said to honour the young boy who would open the gate when O'Carolan was visiting his sweetheart, Bridget Cruise! KILA-Dublin-based Kila are a large and playful musical outfit based around the three brothers Ó Snodaidh: Rossa, Rónán and Colm. They mix funky beats and artful percussion, classic psychedelic rock sounds and singer Rónán's guttural Gaelic rap vocals with the fiddles and uillean pipes of traditional Irish music. The result is music of epic scope and maximum danceability. The band has earned legions of rabid 'Dead-head-style fans around the world - over the last few years they have played in twenty-five countries on four continents (including four WOMAD festivals), and have seen their albums achieve gold and platinum sales status in Ireland. MERCEDES PEÓN - Mercedes Peón hails from Galicia, where she is part of a generation of feisty young women who are driving Spanish Celtic music in exciting new directions. Her vocal prowess is impressive and expressive: on one song she gently croons a lullaby, while on the next her raptor-like shriek pierces the air and stands your hair on end. Although she blends electronics into her mix, her love for the deep traditions of Galician vocal music is evident in the careful way she captures the sound, spirit and essence of the great female vocalists who have come before. CAPERCAILLIE-Over the past two decades, Capercaillie has woven an intricate blend of traditional Scottish melodies on fiddles, whistles, pipes, accordion and bouzouki, and popular music with touches of African, Latin and Arabic rhythms. Add the exquisite vocals of Karen Matheson and, boom, it is a sound that has captivated audiences worldwide. In recent years the band seems to be popping up everywhere. There was the soundtrack to Rob Roy, the collaboration with Equatorial Guinea's 'Hijas Del Sol' ('Daughters Of The Sun'), and even the first Gaelic single to hit the Top 40 in the UK. Matheson began singing by listening to her grandmother, a singer from the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. That is where she learned the puirt-a-beuls (Celtic mouth music) and 'waulking songs' (music sung traditionally to the beating of wool cloth into felt). Her vocal range is simply remarkable- as is her list of loyal fans, who include 007 himself, Sean Connery. NATALIE MacMASTER-Celtic's musical roots extend on both sides of the Atlantic. On Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia, Canada), half of the population is of Scottish ancestry, and one of that province's greatest stars is Natalie MacMaster, who has been wowing audiences with her incendiary fiddle playing and step dancing since she was a child. Natalie first picked up the instrument at the age of 9, and began performing publicly when she was a teenager. Since then, her tours have taken her from Alaska to Antarctica. Her skills are always in demand, and she has performed with international talents as diverse as The Chieftains, Alison Krauss, Paul Simon, Carlos Santana and Luciano Pavarotti. SKOLVAN - The title of this song, 'Bal Plinn Du Vertige' ('The Vertigo Plinn Ball'), refers to the imagined wooziness of dancing a spirited plinn high on the ramparts of a central Breton chateau. One can only imagine why! In this tune we hear the original Skolvan line-up of Youenn Le Bihan (a brilliant player of all kinds of pipes), Gilles le Bigot (guitarist and sometimes member of Kornog), Fañch Landreau and Yann-Fañch Perroches. The album Swing And Tears was awarded the critics' choice for Album of the Year by both Trad magazine in France and the UK's fRoots in 1994. OLD BLIND DOGS - Contrary to what this band's name suggests (elderly, optically challenged musicians), the Old Blind Dogs are in fact a dynamic group of young Scots at the heart of the modern Celtic revival. Their trademark sound is centred around the gritty fiddling of founding member Jonny Hardy and Jim Malcolm's moving vocals. In 2004, Malcolm was named Songwriter of the Year at the 2004 Scots Traditional Music Awards. The line- up also includes Rory Campbell (small pipes), Aaron Jones (bouzouki, guitar, bass) and Fraser Stone (percussion). The group is rooted in Aberdeenshire on Scotland's northeast coast, a region rich in folk songs and fiddle traditions. 'Monymusk Lads' is a traditional night-visiting song. KORNOG-Kornog has been creating exemplary Breton Celtic music since 1980. Two things set this band apart from the pack: the band was created by ex-Battlefield Band singer and bouzouki player Jamie McMenemy, who brings his uniquely Scottish influence; and the group has always focused in large part on mid-tempo tunes and ballads not intended for dancing, in contrast to most Breton music, whether it is played by smaller ensembles like Skolvan or huge fest-noz bombarde, binou, large-pipe and drum bands. That said, the lively plinn (a traditional dance from Brittany) here is in fact a dance tune. Kornog is the Breton word for 'west', and this piece comes from the anagrammatically titled album Korong, named for the river that runs through Brittany. LLAN DE CUBEL-Launched in 1984, Llan de Cubel is one of the leading exponents of traditional Asturian folk music (a Celtic region neighbouring Galicia in northern Spain). The band's songs are predominantly acoustic, with bagpipes, fiddle, wooden flute, Asturian drums, accordion, acoustic guitar and bouzouki. The group has carried out extensive research into the ancient folk music of Asturia, through both field research and archival work. These form the basis of their repertoire, which includes alboraes (dawn) tunes), marches, religious music, vaqueiraes (mountain songs) and villancicos (carols). CELTIC FIDDLE FESTIVAL -The liner notes to Celtic Fiddle Festival's ground- breaking album Rendezvous begin: 'A Scotsman, an Irishman, and a Frenchman walked into a bar...' There isn't a punchline about the trio's sexual exploits. That trip to a pub, in fact, led to a brilliant collaboration between three talented fiddlers: Kevin Burke (Ireland), the late Johnny Cunningham (Scotland) and Christian LeMaître (France, also of the group Kornog). Celtic Fiddle Festival seamlessly bring together the regional folk repertoires of three lands, and unite them with magnificent precision to create a pan-Celtic, border-defying tour de force. 'Laridé/Gavotte' is a fast-paced Breton dance from Pontivy. BOHOLA-Bohola is a wonderful Irish traditional group from Chicago. Led by accordionist Jimmy Keane, the band displays a particular talent for creating challenging and unlikely sets that stray outside of the common 'all- jigs' or 'all-reels' mould. A typical Bohola set may start with an air or slow reel followed by a ballad, then morph into a hornpipe and finish with a jig. This short song is pure nostalgia for the simple life of 'old' Ireland, a place that knew nothing of today's digital infrastructures and new money. It's worth seeing a Bohola show for Keene's acerbic wit and the band's between- song banter alone! TEADA - Téada (the word means 'strings' in Irish Gaelic) is a young band of musicians who have quickly established themselves as leaders in the traditional Irish session scene. Bandleader Oisín Mac Diamarda learned his fiddling in County Clare and in Sligo, integrating the best of both traditions into his deft and lyrical style of playing. He also holds an honours degree in Music Education. The group has received multiple nominations and awards from Irish Music Magazine and keeps a busy touring schedule NIAMH PARSONS-When Ireland's Niamh Parsons sings, her captivating voice demands immediate and rapt attention. As a balladeer, she is in very select company, enjoying frequent comparisons with June Tabor and Dolores Keane. This traditional-style song, written by Joseph Campbell (1879-1944), is a more recent addition to the Irish ballad repertoire. Although she is spectacular when her voice is given sparse accompaniment, one should also explore Parsons' work with her band The Loose Connections. Her duet version of Tom Waits' 'The Briar And The Rose', featuring Fran McPhail, is simply not to be missed. FFYNNON-Ffynnon is one of the leading exponents of Welsh Celtic music. Drawing upon research into Welsh music as far back as the seventeenth century, this haunting trio fuses ancient with modern in their stark arrangements (accordion, keyboard, guitar, bodhrán) and a touch of jazz. 'The musical tradition in Wales is extremely robust,' they explain. 'After all, this is the "Land of Song" and that's a label which developed during the religious period, when the Welsh realized that they could beat the English at major singing competitions in London, and in the mid-1870s there were 40,000 singers (mostly choral) competing at the Llanelli National Eisteddfod [National Arts Competition]!" ALAN STIVELL- Alan Stivell was born Alan Cochevelou in 1944, in Gourin, Brittany. His interest in Celtic music was sparked when his father. reconstructed an ancient Celtic harp in 1953. As a teenager, he began learning the Breton language, and also several traditional instruments from the region, including the bombarde (a double-reeded wind instrument) and the Breton bagpipes. By the mid-1960s, he began experimenting with modern music. His recordings became mega-hits: for example, a live recording at the Olympia in Paris in 1972 with Breton compatriots Dan Ar Braz and Gabriel Yacoub sold 1.5 million copies. As the folk revival began to fade in the late 1970s, Stivell moved more towards electronic music. 'Cease Fire' is from his album Brian Boru, which was dedicated to the legendary Irish chieftain who defeated the Vikings. THE POOZIES -The Poozies are an ever-evolving pan-Celtic outfit originally formed by two electro-harpists, Patsy Seddon and Mary McMaster (aka Sileas), along with vocalist Sally Barker. For a short while, the group also boasted the voice of folk megastar Kate Rusby. The current line-up includes Seddon and McMaster with accordion player Karen Tweed and fiddler Eilidh Shaw, all of whom are busy with various solo and side-projects. The Poozies: are known for glorious vocal harmonies, a widely varied repertoire (which includes music from across Europe) and a free-spirited approach to arranging. FLOOK-Flook burst on to the scene in 1999 with a stellar debut album called Rubai, featuring an unlikely pair of lead instruments: two flutes. The award- winning Anglo-Irish quartet (from Manchester, England) is known for spontaneous and energetic live sets in which band members shift effortlessly between guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, accordion and bodhrán, and audiences always end up on their feet. In particular, band founder Sally Allen is renowned for her jaw-dropping stamina and agility in concert. SHOOGLENIFTY- Scotland's visionary Shooglenifty has created a genre of a electronica-inspired acoustic music that stands alone. The self-proclaimed 'acid-crofters' are musical alchemists who take as much influence from electronica and progressive rock as they do from traditional Celtic music. What a heady blend it is: hypnotizing rhythmic underpinnings, brilliantly subtle thematic segues, and stellar playing by all. There's nothing like a Shooglenifty show to turn even the most inveterate wallflower into a sweaty, grinning, whirling dervish on the dancefloor. The track 'Glenuig Hall' comes from the band's fourth studio album, The Arms Dealer's Daughter. Philly Markowitz is a broadcaster whose world-music programme Roots and Wings has been heard across Canada on CBC Radio since 1992 (http://cbc.ca/rootsandwings). She is also a print journalist, concert promoter, event emcee, DJ and songwriter. Philly lives beside the Saugeen River in Grey County, Ontario, with her husband and their two free-range kids. Dan Rosenberg has crisscrossed the globe in search of regional folk music traditions. To date, he has been to more than forty countries, and has lugged back an eclectic collection of recordings and musical instruments to Toronto, Canada, where he works as a journalist for fRoots, the Rough Guides, Outpost and Afropop Worldwide Radio. The Rough Guide To Celtic Music Over the years rough fragments of ancient Irish stories and melodies have been polished into brilliant gemstones of song by a small group of dedicated musicians, and today virtually the entire body of Irish song has been collected, annotated and published. Most famous of all collectors was Thomas Moore (1779- 1852), who wrote hundreds of poems and set them to mostly Irish melodies. Yet it was left to George Petrie (1789-1866) to discover in 1855 the most famous of all Irish melodies: The Londonderry air. This has been set by a host of poets, the best known version being Danny Boy. Petrie's collections were augmented by several large volumes by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852- 1924), professor of composition at the Royal College of Music from 1887 until his death. His work was thought to be the last word on the subject. Smaller collections were published by Nathaniel Clifford Page (b. 1866), Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830- 1883), and Timothy D. Sullivan (1827-1914). James Lynam Molloy (1837-1909) both collected and composed, his most famous original
works being Love's old sweet song, The Kerry dance, and Bantry Bay. The earliest dateable Irish melody is I am a girl from beside the River Stur (c. 1580), best known today as the tune of The croppy boy. Up until 1840, the proportion of anonymous Irish melody was always greater than that attributed with certainty to professional composers. Ireland's first composer of truly international stature was probably John Field (1782-1837). A pupil of Giordani and Clementi, Field invented the Nocturne. Field had no direct successor, but the next generation provided Michael William Balfe (1808-1870), a man of comparable reputation and popularity whose operas were a huge success in Italy, France and England; The Bohemian girl (1843) could be heard everywhere from San Francisco to St. Petersburg. However, so strong was social prejudice against opera in English that it might have been better for Balfe had this work had an Italian text! A contemporary of Balfe was William Vincent Wallace (1812- 1865), composer of Maritana(1845). These two operas, along with Benedict's The Lily of Killarney, were long known as "The English 'Ring"". At this time Ireland west of the Shannon was so remote as to seem almost another country. From here came the collector Patrick Weston Joyce (1827-1914), who produced an edition of 843 songs, while the Country Clare circus clown Johnny Patterson (c. 1840-1899) was thrilling audiences with The garden where the praties grow, and The ould turf fire, both his own original compositions, words and music. Best known for western subjects was Percy French (c. 1854-1920), who will always be remembered for Phil the fluter's ball. The area which now constitutes Northern Ireland became famous for the music of Sir Hamilton Harty (1879-1941), composer, and longtime conductor of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester. Helen Selina Sheridan (1807-67), a daughter of the playwright, (on marriage, Baroness of Dufferin), became famous for the words of The Irish emigrant, and Terence's farewell to Kathleen (both 1846). The most important Belfastman represented here is the collector Herbert Hughes (1882-1937), whose four large volumes were published by Boosey between 1909 and 1936; he is heard as an accompanist on this record. A man of very special status was Samuel Lover (1797-1860); here was the Irish equivalent of Francis Bacon - the complete man. He combined the careers of singer, poet, composer, conductor, impresario (of vast schemes and productions) and finally, after his sight disappeared, loveable raconteur. His best known works are Molly Bawn, which is an aria from his opera Il Paddy Wack in Italia, and The low back'd car. Perhaps the best known personality amongst Irish singing actresses is Barbara Mullen (1914-1979), still affectionately remembered for her portrayal on television of the housekeeper Janet McPherson in the long-running and acclaimed drama series Dr. Finlay's Casebook. However, she had long before made her mark as soprano, dancer and romantic female lead on both stage and screen. Her first rise to prominence came in the film Jeannine of 1942. Her earnest and sweet-natured temperament are here reflected in a most distinguished group of Irish poems and melodies. The singing combines verbal naturalness with comfortable vocal placement. During the inter-war years two Irish baritones were thrust into world prominence. James McCafferty was the protégé of Herbert Hughes, and the older man taught him how to discover the true heart of a song, giving him a complete understanding of the balance between words and music. McCafferty enjoyed a wide success both on record and concert hall, as did his great contemporary, Robert Irwin (b. 1900). Following his US début on 14 March 1937 in New York, Irwin became in demand all over the world for his cultivated yet spontaneous personality, and superb lyric voice. The two very different songs presented here are instructive. The Palatine's daughter shows how to sing a humorous Irish song. Quilter's Go, lovely rose on the other hand is a superbly fluent and moving interpretation of this deeply-felt romantic ballad. The most distinguished Irish soprano of all was Margaret Burke Sheridan (1889-1958). Born in Castlebar, Co. Mayo she studied in London and Italy with Alfredo Martino, making her début during 1918 in Rome singing in La Bohème. A great favourite of Toscanini and Puccini she sang at La Scala, Covent Garden, and the Teatro San Carlo, Naples. Her beautiful personality shines through a truly massive voice and a technique which was surpassed by few other dramatic sopranos, yet there always remains a gentleness which often leaves a male listener wishing that she were his sister. She is a dearly loved artist. The other soprano in this compilation is the pleasing Delia Murphy (b. 1903), wife of the Irish ambassador to Britain. She is remembered principally for the fine series of songs she recorded for HMV in the late 1930s. The tenor Cavan O'Connor-at the time of writing happily still with us, well past his ninetieth year - was an unashamedly popular artist who sang in concert halls, pubs and clubs. He recorded extensively, and the example included here makes it easy for us to understand why he was so well-liked: grace, charm and lightness of style. The Irish-American baritone Dennis O'Sullivan enjoyed global fame during his lifetime. Born in San Francisco in 1868, he had a glittering career. After studying with Vannuccini in Florence and Sir Charles Santley (1834-1922) in London, he made his début there on 6 March 1895. On 2 March 1896 he sang in Stanford's opera Shamus O'Brien at the Opéra-Comique in London. O'Sullivan was also a straight actor, performing the plays of Boucicault. Tragically, O'Sullivan died in Colombus, Ohio in 1908 at the age of 40. The bass-baritone Patrick Colbert was born in Waterford in 1897 (died London, 1971). He made his début at an early age with the O'Mara Opera Company. Moving to England, he joined the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, toured the USA and Canada with them in 1927, and left them shortly thereafter. Colbert was subsequently a member of the Carl Rosa Opera Company. Sir Compton Mackenzie admired him greatly. Phil the flutter's ball was the song most closely associated with Patrick Colbert, and he used it as a sort of signature tune. As can be heard here, it is a wonderful vehicle for displaying his sonorous dark timbre and impeccable diction. Phil the fluter's ball is the true story of a penniless man who decided to face his poverty by throwing one last dance in his barn. The barn still exists, and is a tourist attraction today, particularly as its dimensions are no larger than an average modern living room. William F. Watt, born in Waterford c. 1895, is known almost exclusively today from his recordings, which were made for Panachord, Columbia and Irish HMV between 1923 and at least 1932. He is here heard in a very pleasant rendition of Moore's almost mystical No, not more welcome. Denis O'Neil, however, had a career of some 35 years, making his records for Gramophone and Typewriter, Panachord, and for Edison Bell. Another well-known tenor represented here is Thomas Aspinall Burke (Tom Burke). Born in Leigh, Lancashire (of Irish descent) he was first employed as a coal miner, before it was discovered that he had a voice. He studied at the Manchester College of Music & the R.A.M. in London before going to Italy to study under Ernesto Colli and Fernando de Lucia, the great Neapolitan tenor. His début was at the Dal Verme in Milan in 1919 as the Duke in Rigoletto. This was followed by seasons at Covent Garden 1919, and 1927-1928. Puccini said of him "I have never heard my music sung so beautifully". Tom Burke (1890-1969) sang in the first English performances of Gianni Schicchiand Il tabarro. The Minstrel Boy was his encore, and that is why it is included here. In that rousing old warhorse Excelsior! Burke is partnered by the fine baritone Foster Richardson. An early star in the firmament of great Irish singers was the famous baritone J.C. Doyle, of whom James Joyce wrote in Ulysses that he would be hearing that night "J.C. Doyle. The best". The novel is set in Dublin on 16 June 1904, "Bloomsday". Doyle was a veteran of the recording industry, and his records are avidly collected. Another artist of the highest international reputation was Harry Plunket Greene (1865-1936), a baritone (sometimes listed as bass baritone) who once heard can never be mistaken. Born at Old Connaught House, County Wicklow, he was only 17 when he went to Stuttgart to study with Hromada, travelling a year later to Florence for further tuition with Vannuccini. After his Covent Garden début in 1890, he soon went on to create many Parry works, also The Dream of Gerontius (1900). He married Sir Hubert Parry's daughter Gwendolen, and then alternated his career between England and the USA. Noted for his fine enunciation, he made a great impression overall. Greene opens with Off to Philadelphia, which must surely rank as one of the most deeply tragic songs in the English language. It was arranged for Greene in 1889 by Walter Battison Haynes, at the special request of Arthur Boosey. There follows The garden where the praties grow, a song much associated with McCormack; in this interpretation the song's unpretentious charm is just as much in evidence, but it is evinced in a rather different way. We conclude this anthology, and Greene's contribution to it, with Poor old horse, his most famous recording and an unashamed tear-jerker if ever there was one. STEPHEN O'CONNOR It would be expected that a program of Irish music would fill the spacious cavern of Carnegie Hall on the night of St. Patrick's Day, after a parade up the gusty lengths of Fifth Avenue. And it would also be expected that a pretty girl would add to the attraction, the Irish eye being what it is. But Carmel Quinn's appearance there on that night in 1955 caused such a crowd and a crush of Irish and non-Irish alike that there was almost a brannigan amongst those who could not get in. Along with all this, her first collection of recorded songs was just out, and reaching astonishing sales peaks, dropping only slightly after the holiday and keeping up an unusual pace all year. None of this was surprising to the fans who had followed Carmel Quinn's career on the Arthur Godfrey program and on records, and it is in response to their fervent demands that this second collection of Irish songs is being released.
It would probably be enough to say that Carmel Quinn is Irish, and let her peculiar and lasting charm go at that, but it goes deeper, too. After all, other lassies have tilted their heads and provided periods of song, but what sets Carmel apart is a voice of uncommon appeal and warmth, and her uncanny selection of material. Only occasionally does she sing an Irish "standard"; rather, she sings the lesser-known and in many cases more beautiful ballads that she has brought with her from Ireland. Often she has had to search deeply into publishers' stock for sheet music to songs she wishes to present, and often she has scoured New York City and other American centers for copies of music that is fresh, unhackneyed and altogether delightful. Naturally, when she sings the unfamiliar music so charmingly, her audiences ask her to sing their old favorites, and naturally she complies, in- vesting them with her own personal ap- proach. But she is happiest introducing less well-known ballads from the Ould Sod, and it is her evident pleasure in her singing that helps to make it so engaging. The natural poetry of Irish speech is intensified in these songs, and enhanced by the alternately mournful and merry moods of the music. As the Irish are fond of pointing out, some of the greatest masters of the English language-Sheridan, Wilde, Yeats, It would be expected Irish music would fill the Carnegie Hall on the Day, after a parade up Joyce, Shaw-have had strong currents of Gaelic blood running in their veins, and the rhythms and cadences of Gaelic itself flows over into whatever an Irishman writes or says. The celebrated emerald green of the countryside itself, with its lights and shadows, seems almost to color the music, and one must not forget the wide collection of other-worldly creatures that inhabit Irish legend, not only the little men but the great heroic giants and the lovely Irish heroines. With so vivid a folklore, it becomes impossible to draw the line between the creations of yesterday and those of today, and the result is a richer and more fascinating treasury of song. Since her arrival in this country only a little more than a year ago, Carmel Quinn has brought us many of those wonderful songs. Of those she sings in this collection only a very few will be familiar, but all of them deserve to be heard more often. Any- one whose knowledge of Irish song is limited for the most part to "Mother Machree" is in for a handsome surprise, and those who have avoided many similar songs because of bleating tenors will find in Miss Quinn's voice an instrument fit to sing with the harps of the minstrels. Born in Dublin, Carmel Quinn had a musical background, engendered by her father, an excellent violinist. Upon completion of her early schooling, she entered college with the intention of becoming a teacher, but soon thereafter took a chance on an audition for singers at the Dublin Theatre Royal. She won a week's engagement, and went from there to the Crystal Ballroom, for two months. Another audition won her a permanent spot singing with Johnny Devlin's Orchestra, and other orchestra and theatrical engagements followed. At length she went to London and made her radio debut over the BBC. In March of 1954, she crossed the ocean" to America, and a few months later-on October 18-she appeared on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts program, making a simultaneous debut on radio and television. She won handily, moved into the Godfrey troupe, and swiftly became one of the best- loved new stars of recent years. In this pro- gram, her shining talents are admirably demonstrated in the kind of songs she loves best, and the result is an endearing addition to the shelf of melodious Irish music. The set list of songs. The Old Rustic Bridge by the Mill Johnny Gray Loch Lomond Asthoreen Bawn The Magic Piper Down by the Glenside Handsome Johnny Flynn The Claddagh Ring Ballyhoe The Old Boreen (Kate Muldoon) Bright Silvery Light of the Moon The Pretty Girl Milking Her Cow Aghadoe sheet music and tin whistle notes. Recorded by Liam Clancy. Key of G.
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Martin DardisIrish folk song lyrics, chords and a whole lot more Archives
November 2024
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