The friendly notion would take a tune title like ‘The Glenside Cottage’ to describe the house, a line from Séamus Ennis’ translation of ‘The Dark Woman of the Glen’ is probably more apt:
My house is over there,
with its roof in bad repair..
Oh God, really??? Perhaps it’s my age. I just find that ugly, and a dreadful synthesis of things that simply don’t go, accompanied by … what? … such a hodge-podge of generally “Celtic” and specifically non-Celtic symbols … well, the whole thing just makes me feel seasick. Saccharine and unlistenable as I find Rieu’s stuff, I think I’d rather have his than this. Ugh!
Well, at least the vocalization style doesn’t pander to Metal’s tired cult of the guttural shriek. It’s almost polite. I could actually understand the words … well, maybe: at around 2:22 I think she’s saying, “I need the flies over me.” Ew.
As to the whistles: Meh. Let everyone paint themselves blue and rave in the twilight of Gondor or some such nonsense. It’s a safe bet that the Elves will gratefully have other things to do.
It’s a costume party based on the premise that one impressionistic budget fantasy is as good as any other. Myself, I would have liked it better if they were prancing about half-naked in shaggy goat legs with horns on their heads. Much better production value.
Heck, I’m pushing 60 and have just gotten bitten by the Eurometal bug in the last few years. The thing I love about it is that it’s an evolution of progressive rock, which with traditional and classical music makes up my holy trinity.
The album is the story of a Viking king, so no attempt at Celtic (I’m commenting on the album; I pay no attention to videos, just posted this one because the Swayne whistle is so patent). There are also a couple of tunes on the album with a hurdy-gurdy. I’ve wondered if it’s supposed to take the place of a nyckelharpa, the way that Steeleye Span used John Kirkpatrick’s accordion to stand in for pipes on Montrose.
In that case, why do they have “Celtic” references in both the music and the video? It’s unthinking, insulting, trash. Most of this “euro-metal-folk” is.
“Fantasy” being the operative word, although the helmets definitely look Anglo-Saxon to me, as well. That’s about the only attempt at authenticity in the whole wardrobe. I thought the wrist bands lent a nice touch of kink to all that black leather, though - but then where are the whips? A most disappointing omission.
I think all one really needs to take away from this is “Andre Rieu” and “cringe-worthy.”
My favorites were the couples clutching each other heartwarmingly as if watching their long-suffering chronically-ill child finally walk for the first time to go up and accept that Nobel Peace Prize or something.
Sure. I love Amazing Grace and the GHB as much as the next guy, and I won’t lie, GHB can move me to tears. (okay, I admit it, I like Highland Cathedral) It’s just that Rieu tends to enjoy putting on a show of romanticism (I’ve changed it from a word that might be seen as more offensive by those who like what he does) that doesn’t work for me. I’m a sentimental git but even I draw lines somewhere. (Look, I won’t say the guy’s not 10 times better at playing violin than I am-- though that’s not a very high bar-- or that he doesn’t make a hell of a lot more money than I do, but that doesn’t mean I have to want to buy what he peddles. Some people do and that’s fine, but I imagine it’s unlikely to be people who know very much about Irish or Scottish music?)
Although I desperately don’t want to be branded a nitpicker, I still cannot abstain from pointing out the typo that should read “Stabat Mater”. "Staber Mater" makes me think of snails: