Gaelic folk music or Gaelic traditional music is the folk music of Goidelic-speaking communities in Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, often including lyrics in those languages. Characteristic forms of Gaelic music include sean-nós and puirt à beul singing, piobaireachd, , reels, and strathspeys.
Relation with Brythonic music
The six Celtic nationalities are divided into two musical groups, Gaelic and Brythonic,
[Skinner Sawyers, J. (2001). Celtic Music: A Complete Guide, Da Capo Press, ] which according to
Alan Stivell differentiate "mostly by the extended range (sometimes more than two octaves) of Irish and
Scottish people melodies and the closed range of
Breton people and Welsh melodies (often reduced to a half-octave), and by the frequent use of the pure pentatonic scale in Gaelic music".
[translation by Steve Winick]
Gaelic music in the Americas
The emigration of Scottish
Gaels to Cape Breton has also resulted in a unique strain of Gaelic music evolving there.
[National Geographic: Cape Breton Traditional Music, ][Boston Irish Reporter: Remembering Gaelic Roots, http://www.bostonirish.com/arts/bcmfest-remembering-gaelic-roots] A number of fiddle tunes of Irish and Scottish Gaelic origin have entered the American
bluegrass music and
country music repertoires.
Performance
The session is a common setting for Gaelic music, where musicians from a given locality gather to play music in a public setting. Gaelic music is also commonly heard at folk festivals, by
pipe bands and at competitions such as mods and the
Fleadh Cheoil.
Keys and modes
In Traditional Gaelic music, the
Ionian mode,
Dorian mode,
Mixolydian and
Aeolian mode modes dominate,
[Intermix: Modes and Scales, [1]][Scales and Modes in Scottish Traditional Music, http://www.campin.me.uk/Music/Modes/Modes-hepta.abc] with the keys of D Ionian, G Ionian, A Dorian and E Dorian among those popular with session musicians.
[Flatpicking Irish and Scottish Music on Guitar, http://www.danmozell.com/guitart.htm]
Harmonization
Unlike
Classical music and
Jazz music music, modal harmonisation avoids diminished chords, as seen below for the seventh scale degree of the major scale.
["Chord Scales" and accompanying Irish dance music, http://www.xs4all.nl/~hspeek/dadgad/theory.html] Seventh chords are generally limited to the II and the V positions of the chord scale.
