Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Western Europe. It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded music and the styles vary considerably to include everything from "trad" (traditional) music to a wide range of hybrids.
Sir Granville Ransome Bantock was a British composer of classical music.
Wales has a strong and distinctive link with music. Singing is a significant part of Welsh national identity, and the country is traditionally referred to as "the land of song". This is a modern stereotype based on 19th century conceptions of Nonconformist choral music and 20th century male voice choirs, Eisteddfodau and arena singing, such as sporting events, but Wales has a history of music that has been used as a primary form of communication.
Alabama has played a central role in the development of both blues and country music. Appalachian folk music, fiddle music, gospel, spirituals, and polka have had local scenes in parts of Alabama. The Tuskegee Institute's School of Music, especially the Tuskegee Choir, is an internationally renowned institution. There are three major modern orchestras, the Mobile Symphony, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra; the last is the oldest continuously operating professional orchestra in the state, giving its first performance in 1955.
Cornwall is a Celtic nation and a county of England. Strengthened by a series of 20th century revivals, traditional folk music has a popular following. It is accompanied by traditions of brass and silver bands, male voice choirs, classical, electronic and popular music.
Shanachie Records is a New Jersey-based record label founded in 1975 by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins. The label is named for the word Shanachie, an Irish storyteller.
Alan Stivell is a Breton and Celtic musician and singer, recording artist, and master of the Celtic harp. From the early 1970s, he revived global interest in the Celtic harp and Celtic music as part of world music. As a Bagpiper and bombard player, he modernized traditional Breton music and singing in the Breton language. He was the precursor of Celtic rock. He is inspired by the union of the Celtic cultures and is a staunch defender of the Breton culture as Eurominority.
Celtic rock is a genre of folk rock, as well as a form of Celtic fusion which incorporates Celtic music, instrumentation and themes into a rock music context. It has been extremely prolific 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.
Jackie-O Motherfucker is an American experimental music group that formed in Portland, Oregon in 1994.
Celtic punk is punk rock mixed with traditional Celtic music. The genre was popularized in the 1980s by The Pogues, a band of London Irish punk musicians in London who celebrated their Irish heritage. Celtic punk bands often play covers of traditional Irish, Welsh or Scottish folk and political songs, as well as original compositions. Common themes in Celtic punk music include politics, culture, religion, drinking and working class pride.
Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was founded in 1987 after the family of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways Records, donated the entire Folkways Records label to the Smithsonian. The donation was made on the condition that the Institution continue Asch's policy that each of the more than 2,000 albums of Folkways Records remain in print forever, regardless of sales. Since then, the label has expanded on Asch's vision of documenting the sounds of the world, adding six other record labels to the collection, as well as releasing over 300 new recordings. Some well-known artists have contributed to the Smithsonian Folkways collection, including Pete Seeger, Ella Jenkins, Woody Guthrie, and Lead Belly. Famous songs include "This Land Is Your Land", "Goodnight, Irene", and "Midnight Special." Due to the unique nature of its recordings, which include an extensive collection of traditional American music, children's music, and international music, Smithsonian Folkways has become an important collection to the musical community, especially to ethnomusicologists, who utilize the recordings of "people's music" from all over the world.
Omnia is a self-described "neoceltic pagan folk" band based in the Netherlands and whose members over the years have had Irish, Dutch, Cornish, Belgian, Indonesian and Persian backgrounds. Their music takes on the form of various cultural routes, from places around the world such as Ireland, England, Cornwall and Iran.
The pedal harp is a large and technically modern harp, designed primarily for art music and may be played either solo, as part of a chamber ensemble, or in an orchestra. It typically has a range of six and a half octaves, weighs about 36 kilograms (80 lb), is about 1.85 metres high, has a depth of 1 metre, and is 55 centimetres wide at the bass end of the soundboard. The notes range from the C♭ three octaves below middle C to three and a half octaves above, usually ending on G♭. Using octave designations, the range is C♭1 to G♭7. At least one manufacturer gives the harp a 48th string, a high A♭ giving the instrument a range of C♭1 to A♯7.
Vicenzo Zitello is an Italian composer and harpist who specializes in Celtic music. He has released nine albums and composed music for the play The Beat Generation.
The Myst is a studio album recorded by Celtic Harp Orchestra, released by Ethnoworld in 2005. The CD has been released in a limited edition as well, which includes in the cardboard double-box, an empty disc, pre-printed with the original graphics, to allow fans to burn an extra copy of The Myst.
Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
Valerio Meletti is a media monitoring specialist working for the main Italian media monitoring agency since 2006. Managing web and social media monitoring are his main skills.
Furor Gallico is a Celtic metal and Folk metal band that had originated in Milan, Italy. The band was formed by a collaboration among Melissa, Stefano (guitar) and Becky in 2007. The band was formed upon the idea of playing new school Italian folk metal. They have released only one demo album and two full-length album so far. Pagan was later added for vocals and Marco played the drums. Furor Gallico have songs in both English and in Italian, the band members take alternating roles in who writes the lyrics and composes the music in either language. The song Curmisagios was even written in dialetto brianzolo, a lombard dialect spoken in the area of Brianza, in western Lombardy.
