The influence of the Celtic music on the development of modern musical genres

Mary Martynova

„The influence of the Celtic music on the development of modern musical genres”

Music nowadays is one of the most interesting topics to speak about. I’d like to devote my report to the Celtic music and its influence on the modern musical genres. Today we can observe new music genres, which appear almost every day. But music motives of our ancestors do not disappear and influence on the new music genres greatly. The same thing has happened with the Celtic music.

Celtic music is a term utilised by artists, record companies, music stores and music magazines to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe. As there is no real body of music which can be accurately described as Celtic, but the term has stuck and may refer to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded popular music.

Celtic music means two things mainly. First, it is the music of the peoples calling themselves Celts (a non-musical, primarily political definition). It is also can be called "German music" or "English music". Secondly, it refers to the qualities which may be unique to the music of the Celtic Nations (a musical definition). Often, the term Celtic music is applied to the music of Ireland and Scotland because both lands have produced well-known distinctive styles which actually have genuine commonality and clear mutual influences; however, it is notable that Irish and Scottish traditional musicians themselves avoid the term "Celtic music," except when forced by the necessities of the market. The elements of Celtic music are actively penetrated in the most different types of modern music. Spectrum of musical genres containing Celtic reasons is accepted to be designated with the term “Celtic Fusion”. One of the eldest genres absorbing in it Scottish, Irish, English and African traditions is American folk music (“roots music”, “old - time music”).

Celtic rock is a genre of folk rock and a form of Celtic fusion which incorporates Celtic music, instrumentation and themes into a rock music context. It has been extremely productive since the early 1970s and can be seen as a key foundation of the development of highly successful mainstream Celtic bands and popular musical performers, as well as creating important derivatives through further fusions. It has played a major role in the maintenance and definition of regional and national identities and in fostering a pan-Celtic culture. It has also helped to communicate those cultures to external audiences. The style of music is the hybrid of traditional Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Breton musical forms with rock music. This has been achieved by the playing of traditional music, particularly ballads, jigs and reels with rock instrumentation; by the addition of traditional Celtic instruments, including the Celtic harp, tin whistle, uilleann pipes (or Irish Bagpipes), fiddle, bodhrán, accordion, concertina, melodeon, and bagpipes (highland) to conventional rock formats; by the use of lyrics in native Celtic languages or dialects and by the use of traditional rhythms and cadences in otherwise conventional rock music. 

Celtic punk is punk rock mixed with traditional Celtic music. The genre was founded in the 1980s by The Pogues, a band of punk musicians in London who celebrated their Irish heritage. Celtic punk bands often play covers of traditional Irish folk and political songs, as well as original compositions. Although the plight of the Irish people is often a topic of their songs, it's not considered an overtly political genre. Prevalent themes in Celtic punk songs include Ireland, Scotland, Irish Republicanism, Scottish Independence, Scottish Diaspora and Irish Diaspora, drinking and working class pride. The typical Celtic punk band includes rock instrumentation as well as traditional instruments such as bagpipes, fiddle, tin whistle, accordion, mandolin, and banjo. The term Celtic punk is usually used to describe bands that base their music in Irish or Scottish traditional music. It is considered part of the broader folk punk genre, but that term tends to be used for bands that use English, American and other forms of folk music as inspiration. 

The first Celtic-identified hip hop group to gain mainstream notoriety was House of Pain, a Los Angeles based hip hop group which incorporated rhymes about the Irish-American experience into their music. With a few exceptions, however, their actual instrumentation did not incorporate traditional "Celtic" instruments, though they did use time signatures typical of with Jigs on several songs - a major deviation in a hip hop market where virtually everything is done in 4/4 time. Marxman, an Irish-Jamaican hip hop group, whose explicitly nationalist and Marxist politics gained them notoriety and infamy in the United Kingdom in the 1980s, incorporated traditional instruments into several songs on their first album, but largely abandoned them on their second album for a more electronic- and blues-oriented sound that would later form the basis for the emergence of trip hop. Sinéad O'Connor contributed vocals to several of Marxman's songs and even tried her hand at rapping on her 1994 album Universal Mother with a track about the Great Irish Famine (1845-1849).

Celtic Jazz. The English word Jazz is actually derived from the Irish Gaelic T'chass, which means "fiery and full of life". The word first entered the English language as slang and was used to describe anyone who was giving a passionate performance, primarily athletes at first. It was only later that the spelling was standardized as Jazz and it became associated with a specific musical Genre. The music we call Jazz today originated in African American communities and evolved out of American Roots music and the Blues and often included instruments like Fiddle and Mandolin that are now more commonly associated with Folk or Roots music. Modern acts such as Clannad, Nightnoise, and Raggle Taggle or Roland Becker (in the eighties) combine Celtic music with jazz. The jazz can range from the big band swing style to the smooth jazz style.

So, in this work is shown the large influence rendered by Celtic music on development of modern musical genres. Music with the elements of Celtic tunes is very popular and original. The elements of Celtic music are inculcated practically in all musical genres. In this work the most popular of them were examined: the Celtic fate, Celtic punk, Celtic hip-hop, Celtic New Age and Celtic jazz. Performers, playing songs in these styles, come forward as the keepers of the Celtic culture.