Celtic music

The term "Celtic music" encompasses Irish traditional music and traditional musics of Scotland and the Shetland Islands; Cape Breton Island and Maritime Canada[?]; Wales; the Isle of Man; Northumberland (northern England); Brittany (northwestern France); Cornwall; and Galicia (northwestern Spain). The term, though widely used, is eschewed by many traditionalists.

Common characteristic musical forms include jigs[?], reels[?], hornpipes[?], polkas[?], strathspeys[?] (Scotland) and slow airs. Much of the music is typified by strong, repeating melodies in a set rhythm, which reflects a background as music to dance to. Ballads are also common. Largely through the immigration of the so-called "Scotch-Irish", Celtic music was the foundation for traditional "folk" music in the U.S., especially that of Appalachia[?].

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An earlier version of the above article was posted on Nupedia (http://www.nupedia.com/article/short/Irish+traditional+music/). This article is Open Content.

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