Celtic Female singers
Rene de Vreng
Recently I got interested in Celtic music and noted that lyrics of
lovesongs about a girls often are sung by women. "She mooves thrue the
Fair" for instance, I have only heard sung by female singers. But there
are more female singers singing songs where the "my love" is a girl.
Is there maybe a special tradition for this, or is it just coincedence.
Rene
Craichead
Rene de Vreng wrote:
Rene,
I don't think there is any special tradition, it is just that most of
these old love songs were written by men. There are also more than a few
songs written from a woman's point of view and sung by men ("Old Maid in a
Garret" recorded by the Clancy Bros., for example).
If I'm wrong about this, I'm sure someone will correct me!
Cheers,
Steve
Blessed are the music makers, for they fill our hearts with joy!
Marlowe
It seems that Irish aren't worried that someone'll laugh at them for
singing the "wrong" gender song.
I think the theory is, if it's good, sing it.
-Marlowe-
anuna
Craichead <crai...@aol.com> wrote in article
<54o0pv$f...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>...
> Rene de Vreng wrote:
>
> >Recently I got interested in Celtic music and noted that lyrics of
> >lovesongs about a girls often are sung by women. "She mooves thrue the
> >Fair" for instance, I have only heard sung by female singers. But there
> >are more female singers singing songs where the "my love" is a girl.
>
> >Is there maybe a special tradition for this, or is it just coincedence.
Most definitely there is not - there seems to be a bias against Celtic Male
vocalists - they either have to be quasi rock or very folk - check out
ANÚNA for male vocals - I think the ethereal thing is not long for this
world -
Michael McGlynn
Director Anúna
Aafarrell
Michael McGlynn wrote:
<<Most definitely there is not - there seems to be a bias against Celtic
Male
vocalists - they either have to be quasi rock or very folk - check out
world ->>
Michael,
I couldn't agree with you more. One of my current favorite celtic voices
is that of Ronan O'Snodaigh from Kila and I agree that there is definitely
a bias agains male vocalists in the celtic milieu on the whole. The
voices that you've put together in AN NA are a wonderful example of the
power of the male voice combined with its sweetness and light at the same
time. I was amazed at some of the male voices that I heard this summer in
Miltown and hope that the decade of the male celtic singer is soon to
come!
Alice Farrell
Craig Cockburn
Ann an sgriobhainn <01bbc834$e18895a0$573c...@anuna.iol.ie>, sgriobh
anuna <an...@iol.ie>
>
>
>Craichead <crai...@aol.com> wrote in article
><54o0pv$f...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>...
>> Rene de Vreng wrote:
>>
>> >Recently I got interested in Celtic music and noted that lyrics of
>> >lovesongs about a girls often are sung by women. "She mooves thrue the
>> >Fair" for instance, I have only heard sung by female singers. But there
>> >are more female singers singing songs where the "my love" is a girl.
>>
>> >Is there maybe a special tradition for this, or is it just coincedence.
>vocalists - they either have to be quasi rock or very folk - check out
>world -
>
Have you heard Art Cormack?
http://www.gael-net.co.uk/music/arthur1.html
--
Craig Cockburn ("coburn"), Du\n E/ideann, Alba. (Edinburgh, Scotland)
http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/~craig/
Sgri\obh thugam 'sa Gha\idhlig ma 'se do thoil e.
Jim Collier
I think that the soprano sound of a women's voice work's best in
Celtic music when in minor modes with a slow beat as one would find
in melancholic or introspective songs eg: Loreena McKennitt.
For rousing up beat major scale jigs, men's voices work best.
eg: Van Morrison and the Chieftens.
Jim Collier
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada
Henrik Norbeck
Jim Collier <col...@mbnet.mb.ca> wrote:
>I think that the soprano sound of a women's voice work's best in
>Celtic music when in minor modes with a slow beat as one would find
>in melancholic or introspective songs eg: Loreena McKennitt.
>
>For rousing up beat major scale jigs, men's voices work best.
>eg: Van Morrison and the Chieftens.
What? I love both slow and fast songs, both "minor" and "major", sung
by both men and women. Good examples of recordings of songs that don't
match what you said you prefer, but might make you change your mind:
Joe Heaney: The Rocks of Bawn (slow song, major key, male singer)
Paddy Tunney: The Green Fields of Canada (slow song, minor key,
male singer)
Eithne Ni/ Uallacha/in (La/ Lugh): Liosta/il le Sa/irsint (fast song,
minor key, female singer)
Cathy Jordan (Dervish): The Ploughman (fast song, major key,
female singer)
Van Morrison is a rock singer. Just because he did a thing together
with The Chieftains doesn't make him "Celtic". Then Mick Jagger would
also be a "Celtic" singer.
Henrik Norbeck, Stockholm, Sweden
henrik....@mailbox.swipnet.se
http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/1789/ Irish & Swedish Tunebook
k.wi...@worldnet.att.net
ghost
>Jim Collier <col...@mbnet.mb.ca> wrote:
>>I think that the soprano sound of a women's voice work's best in
>>Celtic music when in minor modes with a slow beat as one would find
>>in melancholic or introspective songs eg: Loreena McKennitt.
Its that lingering "Joan Baez effect" you're in the thrall of, not any
particularly Celtic (or British) thing. And what she was doing was a
trad-Spanish type of high women's singing, I now know from listening to some
Spanish trad singers. Tish Hinojosa, for instance, sounds very like Baez,
but I doubt she is copying her. She comes from a very traditional
Mexican-American background. Sephardic Jewish singer Judy Frankel
sounds somewhat Baez-ish, & she's consciously trying to transmit the sound
of a foreign culture, not imitate a hit recording artist.
(I know Baez says she knows no Spanish language, but I'm talking about
singing style, not language here. She must have hung out with her
fathers' Mexican relatives a bit, the whole family was living in Spain for
part of her formative years, she spent most of the rest of the time in a part
of California with a huge Mexican population, whom I presume sung in
school choirs & local radio ads & so forth; that kind of influence gets
to you, especially when you can use it to create a style that appeals to
folk fans & soprano fans without going off the classical deep-end. Listen
to Mimi <Baez> Farina, JB's sister, to hear what Baez might have sounded
like if she hadn't gone for that "achingly pure soprano" <Nat Hentoff's
famous review quote> style. Farina sounds a lot more like a traditional
British singer.)
Many of the major Celtic singers coming from the actual traditions,
Scottish & Irish, are
straight-tone mid-range altos (Ray & Cilla Fisher; Scottish lowland style;
Maggie Boyle, Brigid Fitzgerald,
Aine Minogue, Irish;
Siuwsan George, Welsh)
or straight-tone high altos (Triona ni Dhomnhail, Cathy Jordan, Karan Casey,
Mary Black; Irish
Jo Freya, British)
or straight-tone low altos (Delores Keene, Niamnh Parsons: Irish)
or high-trebles (Margaret Bennett; Scottish highland; Jill Copper; British)
or low-treble/mid-range tenors (Shirley Collins, British;
Jean Redpath, Scottish lowland).
And that's just off-the-top-of-my-head for examples.
I suspect fashionably high-soprano types like of
Maraid Ni Guinneigh (sp) of Altan (Irish) & Maraid Brennan (Irish), even
though they're keeping a fairly straight tone on it, of weaving in a little
bit more of that Spanish style than they would if they'd never heard a Baez
record. Maybe not, maybe it is really is an Irish style too, but when
Emma Christian from the Isle of Mann sings in a *very* Baez-ish
"achingly pure soprano" I get a *little* suspicious. Sure still sounds
pretty, though.
mmser...@aol.com
(Very, very late R.S.V.P., I know, but I don't get over here quite a often
as I'd like)
As for slow, minor-key Female Celtic-only, I must beg to differ also.
Ever hear Karen Matheson belt out "Pige Ruadh" or "Coisich a Ruin" (esp.
"live" versions on their Get Out CD). I defy you not to tap your toes on
those.
As for Hearty Male Only, try listening to Davy Steele sing his unrequited
version of "The Queen of Argyle" (Ceolbeg, CD=Not the Bunny Hop). This
about breaks my heart every time I hear it.
My two "p" worth,
~>"< ~>"< ~>"< ~>"< ~>"< ~>"< ~>"< ~>"<
They're all just CIA agents who got stuck in their cat suits when the zipper broke...
-- M.M. Serpento
>"<~ >"<~ >"<~ >"<~ >"<~ >"<~ >"<~ >"<!
Craig Cockburn
Ann an sgriobhainn <19961124144...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
sgriobh mmser...@aol.com
>
>As for Hearty Male Only, try listening to Davy Steele sing his unrequited
>version of "The Queen of Argyle" (Ceolbeg, CD=Not the Bunny Hop). This
>about breaks my heart every time I hear it.
>