Traditional Irish Celtic

Celtic music originated in Scotland, Ireland and Wales in the 1600s and is still a popular style of music to this day. Celtic music also grew in popularity in Canada and the United States after two major events.

The first happened in Scotland in the late 18th century, when the government attempted to eradicate Scottish culture, which led for Scottish people to flee to neighbouring countries, Canada and the US.

The second was in 1845 - 1851, when the great famine occurred after fungus had killed potato plantations, which also led for people to flee the country.

Celt people created this music using traditional instruments such as the flute, lute, violin, bagpipe, harp, Fiddle, Bodhrán, the Tin Whistle and many others. Celtic music is best described as folk music with a dinstricitve style of music and lyrics. Celtic music is a style of music that can be danced to which is called a Ballad. Some famous Celtic musicians are Clannad, Enya, The Chieftains and The Corrs. Celtic music is typically played in unison, not in harmony and the music tends to repeat many times. Since the music is quite repetitive, musicians ornament the music using the Fiddle, Tin Whistle or the Uilleann pipes and other typical instruments. The use of microtonal bends are familiar in Celtic (heart in Blues and Arabic music as well) along with the use of Mixolydian and Dorian modes and pentatonic scales. (Forsyth, n.d.)