Why do so many more people play music from Ireland than from Scotland, England, or Wales? Or does so-known “Irish music” actually come from all the Celtic regions?
Why not?
The answer is very complicated. Lately it’s just been fashionable to play “irish music” because of certain films and broadway productions, but the biggest reasons are:
It’s a very rich tradition and it is great fun to be a part of it.
The size of the irish diaspora - irish people are everywhere, and they bring their music, dance, and songs with them
Ireland’s status as a relative cultural backwater, particularly in the western parts of the country.
The enclosure movement in Britain, which dislocated rural people who either emigrated or moved to the cities.
The persecution of musicians and secular music in Britain, especially southern Britain in the mid-1600s. The puritans in particular hated secular music and were fond of sending musicians off to workhouses after smashing their instruments. Anyone who had a serious problem with this could take their complaints to Mr. Hangman and his pal, Mr. Noose, or just leave the country.
Calvinism in Scotland had a similarly corrosive effect on scottish music traditions, albeit to a lesser degree.
Persecution of Welsh language and Welsh culture that dates back to Norman times.
Irish music contains a mixture of native tradition plus older english and scottish influences and some influences from continental europe, not necessarily “celtic” ones, either.
Well, to asnwer part of your question “Irish Music” (speaking in traditional scope) is but a subset of what is generally considered ‘Traditional Celtic music’ coming from areas such as Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Asturia, and Maritime Canada, who have a past uniquely influenced by their ancient Celtic cultures.
It seems to me that at least partially from geographic isolation that Irish music is a more intact musical tradition, thusly there is more extant material that has not been adopted into the other cultures that have mingled in other areas of Europe. This is totally conjecture though. I hope a true musical historian will chime in here as this is fascintating to me how music influences culture and vice versa.
Irish is the most accessible of the ‘Celtic Musics’ for some strange reason (partly because of the Broadway/Hollywood influence as just mentioned). I find Breton and Astruian (and Scottish and Welsh) music to be equally enchanting and they like have the same rich tradition Ireland does, I just haven’t discovered them in their fullness yet…
Regards,
- Ryan
Certainly music from Scotland, Brittany, and
Canada is being covered more, e.g. Chris Norman.
Also so many Irish came to the USA.
“Celtic Music” is just a MARKETING FORMULA, a catch all for everything from gimmicky, easy-listening pop music with varying amounts of traditional and modern influences to the most obscure pure drop field recordings.
There WERE tribes of people who lived in NW Europe whose descendents share some common linguistic traits, and we call them Celts nowadays . THEY NEVER CALLED THEMSELVES THAT, NOR DID THEY EVER HAVE ANY LASTING SENSE OF NATIONAL IDENTITY BEYOND THAT OF THEIR IMMEDIATE TRIBES. We don’t know what their music sounded like.
The instruments in use today are just 18th and 19th century developments of older concepts that are not the sole property of “celtic” people. Even the bagpipes were invented in the Middle East.
Breton, Galician, Irish, and Scottish music might appear to have a lot in common, but it’s a huge leap to say that they’re the same thing. They are distinct expressions of particular rural ethnic groups who live on the periphery of europe and share some distant linguistic kinship, and that’s about all you can say. Which is still pretty cool, but to blow it out of proportion with marketing hype is distasteful to my curmudgeonly way of thinking. harrumph. 
Good post Pat!
That´s about the way I understand the subject also.
/Peter
My family is (back a few generations) mostly from Scotland and England, and my only biological connection to Ireland is through marriage. I first got hooked on “celtic” music through Silly Wizard, a band whose members actually were from Scotland. When I looked around for “my” roots music, what was available locally was mostly Irish music. (In DC area, 9+ Irish sessions a month – more if you drive to Anapolis or Baltimore and 1 Scottish session).
However, at most sessions I’ve gone to, there’s been liberal playing of tunes from Scotland, Cape Breton, etc.
I personally don’t care where a tune is actually from if I like it (though whether anyone else might know it in a session can be an issue). Give me a tune in a mixolydian or dorian mode with a catchy melody and I’ll play it if it’s from Mars. I know this attitude differs very much from the true traditionalists out there. So of course, Your Mileage May Vary.
– Florrie
Well Pat, the need to generalize is sometimes neccessary to get a general cultural perspective of an area as culturally diverse as Europe. Marketing hype or no, the ‘Celts’ were migratory decendants from the Galatians of biblical times and while they may not have referred to themselves as such - it is a useful starting point to classify a general region and cultural/musican influences.
I agree that 90% of the recorded ‘Celtic Music’ out there is crap and has so little influence from traditional Celtic culture as to even be called ‘Celtic’ is a stretch. But, you can’t discount ‘Celtic music’ because of what the music industry has done, or you’d have to discount all music, for if it hasn’t been exploited by business, it will be…
Regards,
- Ryan
Don’t get me started on the whole capitalism vs. art thing. 
40% of American’s can trace at least part of their ancestorage back to Ireland and quite a lot of them are newer to the US than Scotts or other Celtic ancestorages. While Scotts did come to the US, they just didn’t come in the same numbers. I’m unaware of many Bretons, Manx, etc… who’ve come here. Additionally, River Dance and the Lord of the Dance groups have turned alot of people on to Irish dancing which requires Irish music. Any other ideas out there?
It would be interesting to do a survey of the origins of the tunes people play in Nova Scotia and vicinity in Canada. Quite a lot of people emigrated there from Scotland. At this point what predominates there is the Cape Breton style, with a lot of quite different tunes, many of them newer. I’m not really sure if you track that style back a few hundred years what origins you come to. Some of the artists would be Jerry Holland, Brenda Stubbert, Natalie McMaster.
Anyone good at this analysis stuff want to weigh in?
Good question. Do we have any maritimers on the board who might shed a little light on this?
This is my understanding of events, but take it with a grain of salt until someone can confirm it:
Most of the people of Nova Scotia (“New Scotland” in Latin) are descended from predominantly Scottish highland people who were planted there in the latter half of the eighteenth century. There were tough times in Scotland after the failure of the Jacobite rebellion, very tough, so many Scottish people were looking for a better life away from punishing laws and taxes that followed in the wake of Prince Charlie. The Hanoverian kings were only too pleased to send them away where they might be less trouble.
Thank you, everyone who replied. I think I understand a little better now.
Yeah, duh. It’s simply the best now. 