Celtic Music Links

• Celtic music links
• Harp links
• Other music links

Celtic music links

Ceolas, the ultimate source for information about Celtic music.

John Moulden, Ulster folk music guru, offers a catalogue of Ulster folk music and song at his Ulstersongs site. And volume 2 of the Sam Henry collection (edited by him) will be out soon!

Larry Sanger is attempting to construct the definitive website on Donegal fiddling. The site gets larger all the time.

Claddagh Records, who put out lots of good traditional music recordings.

A good source for reproductions of early Scottish fiddle collections is Fiddler's Crossing.

Lyre Publications, suppliers of Scottish lute MSS.

Dan Beimborn's mandolin and cittern pages.

CelticMusic.Com e-zine.

Irish Music magazine.

Search the IRTRAD-L archives for the accumulated wisdom of on-line Irish musicians worldwide.

The home page of the Scots-L Scottish music list has archives but no search facilities yet. There's also link collections on Scottish culture and dancing.

Official Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann Web Site for traditional Irish music and culture.

Tommy Peoples is one of Ireland's greatest fiddlers. His new album is a limited edition—it can only be purchased in a few selected shops in Ireland and through his website) There is a real audio section on the site that allows visitors to listen to a sample of the music contained on the album and the track listing page explains his reasons for writing the tunes.

Every musical Celtic thing on the Web.

The ReelMusic site has lots of Celtic MIDI files, and more.

Tulloch Gorm is "a web site dedicated to the preservation, performance and appreciation of the traditional Celtic music of Scotland, Cape Breton, and the United States", and nicely done too.

You hear a lot about Scotland and Ireland. Here's where you can get information about the third Gaelic country, the Isle of Man.

The Folksy Links page attempts to list all folk artists in every European country, including many from minority language groups that don't have their own spot on the map (but he has a flag for each one!). Some non-European as well.

More links:

• Bruce Olson's Roots of Folk: Old English, Scots, and Irish Songs and Tunes
• The website for Scottish singer/guitarist Dick Gaughan contains, among other things, the words to a lot of songs that he has recorded.
• Jim Maginn's Dacent Folk site has some excellent photos of traditional Irish musicians.
• Rambling House—in every district in Ireland there used to be a house where travelling musicians, storytellers and dance masters knew they would find hospitality. This was known as the Rambling House.
• irishmusicweb has a number of interesting articles.
• Home page for Fernhill, a fine Welsh group we heard in—of all places—Blackpool, on our honeymoon. (Note: we were just passing through; we didn't actually spend our entire honeymoon in Blackpool, even if it is "noted for fresh air and fun"!) I think the band name comes from a poem by Dylan Thomas. At any rate, we enjoyed the concert.
• Ancient music of Ireland site has a lot of Irish MIDI files (presumably the HTML is written in ogham rather than ASCII) and a good selection of links
• Lesley Nelson's Folk Music of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and America: Lyrics, Tune Information, Historical Background, MIDIs and Tune Related Links
• The Northumbrian Traditional Music site examines the traditional music of Northumbria, an area encompassing the modern counties of Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland. The site includes sheet music, guitar tabulature, ABC notation and MIDI files. Northumbrian music is, of course, closely related to that of the next-door neighbours in Scotland, but has its own unique stylistic approach.
• The Musical Tradition site is highly recommended. Some very interesting articles and even on-line books!
• Dublin City University Traditional Music Society is "a group of highly-dedicated, fun-loving traditional musicians who study at Dublin City University". Their website contains information on the music, and also the following useful resource:
• Tradsearch Irish Music Search Engine, promises "There are thousands of pages on the net that are about irish traditional music but searching for these pages on the usual search engines can be frustrating, often resulting in links to pages that are in no way related to Irish traditional music. With this in mind this search engine was set up. All of the pages in our database are about Irish traditional muisc, singing , dancing or other closely related topics."
• Ceol, the Irish Traditional Music Centre at Smithfield Village (Dublin). It's a sort of museum with interactive displays and a movie theatre, from the sound of it. The website has an on-line video and some nice graphics. "Videos showcase great performances. A state-of-the-art sound system throughout puts you right in the middle of each session." It seems a little unnecessary, since getting right in the middle of a session when you're in Dublin is not particularly difficult (except finding somewhere to sit). Perhaps this answers the question of those ubiquitous Germans with video cameras who have become a feature of the pub session in Ireland—here is where all those videotapes have ended up!

  Smithfield Village seems to be an odd sort of place, featuring "a selection of bars, restaurants and vibrant shopping core". There's a Chief O'Neill's Hotel. The restaurant features dishes the likes of "Steamed mussels with tomato, coriander & chilli sauce", and "B.B.Q. pork belly with blue cheese, watercress & beetroot salad". Not a rasher in sight. Would Denis Murphy have eaten here? Sounds like an attempt to cash in on the Riverdance market. Possibly some Dublin resident can provide more insight.

Harp links

• The American Harp Page .
• The Harp List Archives, the repository of the collected wisdom of on-line harpers worldwide.
• The European Harp Page.
• Trad@harp, Irish site for traditional harp.
• ISFHC, the International Society of Folk Harpers and Craftsmen.
• The Scottish Harp Society of America
• Lesley Henneberger's Carolan page.
• The Ancient Music of Ireland site has MIDI versions of music from the Bunting collection.
• Handmade harps and psalteries from WM Rees Instruments.

The harping pig will take you to Harpers' Hall and Culinary Society, the folk harp society in the South Bay. These people believe that good food is almost as important as harp music!

Other music links

• Australian folksongs.
• From my birthplace of Canberra, a site dedicated to Australian dance music.
• Fiddler magazine.
• The Digital Tradition folksong database. On-line search of thousands of folk-songs.
• For fans of British folk-rock, check out the Steeleye Span website.
• Stompin' Tom Connors' home page. Here's a real piece of Canadiana. Canadian radio won't play him because he doesn't sound American enough. I remember seeing this guy at the Mariposa Folk Festival when I was just a wee lad.
  I'm Bud the Spud from the bright red mud ...

Also:

• The Fiddle Tradition of the Shetland Isles by Peter R. Cooke. Recent fieldwork provides the basis for this comprehensive description of one of the most exciting fiddle-playing traditions in the world. The repertory and playing styles of the different communities of fiddlers are traced to reveal how a distinctive Nordic musical tradition has become increasingly Scottish.

Book reviews lifted from relevant newsgroups

Scotland's Music:
A History of the Traditional and Classical Music of Scotland from Early Times to the Present Day
by John Purser
Published by Mainstream, 1992. (7 Albany Street, Edinburgh, EH1 3UG)
ISBN 1-85158-426-9
311 pages; 225mm x 285 mm, hardback, 25 pounds (and worth every penny)

I got this book after seeing a lecture given by the author, now Dr. John Purser. This groundbreaking award winning book evolved from John's BBC radio series (covering 45 hours). The book covers the whole of Scotland's music—from 8th Century BC to the present day. The book covers both classical and traditional music individually and the links between them. Includes early Celtic plainchant; ballads in Scots and Gaelic; Renaissance music; music for lutes and virginals; music today: operatic; symphonic; Gaelic; folk revival and pop.

Chapters include:

• The Scottish Idiom
• Bulls, Birds and Boars (800BC - AD400) Briton, Pict and Scot (600-800)
• The Bell and the Chant (500-1100)
• Cathedral Voices (800-1300)
• Ballads, Bards and Makars (1100-1500)
• Gaelic bards, bagpipes and harps (1100-1600)
• The Golden Age (1490-1550)
• Reform (1513-1580)
• The two Maries (1540-1590)
• At the courts of the last King (1570-1630)
• Music of the West (1530-1760)
• From Covenanters to Culloden (1630-1750)
• From Rome to Home (1660-1720)
• The Temple of Apollo (1740-1770)
• The Scots Musical Museum (1760-1850)
• The Withdrawing room and the concert hall (1820-1920)
• Sea, field and music hall (1820-1910)
• The classical takes root (1910-1970)
• A new accommodation (1950-)

Also includes: select bibliography; select discography; libraries and archives; glossary of Scottish musical terms; plates in colour and black and white; over 200 musical examples; full index.

An absolutely brilliant work, meticulously researched, magnificient in scope and beautifully presented. A must for anyone interested in learning in depth about one of Europe's most musical cultures.

A double CD set was also issued, (1) including one track of particular interest to soc.culture.scottish: "Calgacus", by Edward McGuire (for orchestra + pipes), performed by an unnamed piper and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Can anyone name the piper? George McIlwham, perhaps? (1) "Scotland's Music" (Linn Records 1992, LINN CKD 008; Linn Products Ltd, Floors Road, Eaglesham, Glasgow G76 0EP).

Musica Scotica

A new series of scholarly editions of Early Scottish music, edited by Dr Kenneth Elliott of Glasgow University. The series is being published in stages. Titles planned include: The Complete works of Robert Carver, The Complete Sacred Music of Robert Johnson, 16th Century Scots songs for voice and lute, 17th Century Scots songs for voice and lute/harpsichord, The Cantatas of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, Early Scottish Music for Keyboard, Early Scottish Psalm-settings

For more information, contact

Dr Kenneth Elliott
General Editor, Musica Scotica
Department of Music
University of Glasgow
Glasgow
G12 8QQ
Scotland
Tel: 0131 339 8877 (extn 4094)
Fax: 0141 307 8018
E-mail kenneth@music.gla.ac.uk

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