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created over 3 years ago | Tagged: |
Hollyhobbie
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Celtic music means many things to many people. Much more than reels, jigs, and sentimental ballads; Celtic music is also unaccompanied singing, virtuosi fiddle tunes, and the driving rhythm of bagged and bellows pipes, a silvery concertina, the heartbeat of the bodhrá, the Mediterranean-born bouzouki, the triple harp and sultry-sounding wooden flute. The heart of Celtic music beats within today's musicians, who hear the tunes and chants of their ancestors and infuse exciting new life and new meaning into the ancient music, freshly conceived. Celtic music truly is World Music
For some inexplicable reason, Celtic music’s increasingly dumped into the catch-all bin labeled New Age, whose “soothing” instrumentals are perceived as kin to Celtic flutes and whistles. Rightly or wrongly, the Irish extravaganza “Riverdance” has long since become a punchline, so… Who’s buying all those Celtic-flavored, New Age-y albums? Consider “Celtic Woman,” a grandly produced collection of Irish perennials (“Danny Boy”), classical faves (“Ave Maria”), pop (Enya’s “Orinocco Flow”) and syrupy compositions by artist/ producer David Downes (a former musical director for “Riverdance”) dressed in the requisite New Age shimmering synths. Its success isn’t on the scale of “Riverdance,” but it’s a mini-phenomenon nonetheless. Celtic Woman is an ensemble of five extremely talented and photogenic young women: single-named vocalists Chloë, Méav, Lisa and Órla and violinist Máiréad. Their album, which was released by Manhattan Records in March 2005, has had a death grip on the top spot of Billboard’s World Album chart for months. It’s spawned a stage show, DVD and popular PBS concert.
