CELTIC MUSIC. Welsh and Trish music are inseparably connected, for although each country developed its music in accordance with its own traditions and local forms, the hard was the dominant influence which shaped its general character alike in both Wales and Ire land. Poetry was universally identified with music, and musical instruments were used in dependently only to furnish dance or march music. In the course of time these conditions N\ ere changed, but it was not until the decline of the bards that instrumental soloists became a factor in the development of Celtic musk. From the earliest. historical times, when in the Eleventh Century a Welsh chieftain summoned Welsh and Irish bards to a great music (miller ence. down to the Seventeenth Century, when dis tinctly(' Celtic music ceased to he written, the musical histories of Ireland and of Wales follow much the same general plan; and, to a certain extent, early Scotch music (q.v.) may he t inted with them.
Welsh music was founded hy, and for cen turies identified with, Druidism. Its influence is apparent even in the modified form of those old songs which still exist. The cadences are savage, weird, vet sad, and far superior artisti cally to their Irish parallels. The direct reason for this superiority is the fact that the Welsh harp had a perfect diatonic scale, while in Ire land the early scale had but five tones. This diatonic scale made possible the full cadences and great range of melody which is noteworthy in the early pastoral music of \Vales, and which distinguished it from both the Scotch, with its abrupt changes from major to minor. and the less complete Irish. Traditionally Celtic musi cal instruments were introduced into Britain by the Phomicians, but there is no historic basis for such a belief. The principal Welsh musical instruments were the feign. or harp; the erictil, or sort of a violin; the pibyorn, or hornpipe: the pib-bra jell, or bagpipe: the t ad in rthl, a drum: and the corn/me/in, or bugle-ho•n.
Irish Musie.—The exact number and position of the tones in the original Irish scale have been long a subject of discussion. All that wo can be sure of is that at first only five notes were used, and that later a sixth and a seventh were added. The melodies were very similar to the
Scotch, with the important exception that the Irish avoided the abrupt and violent modula tions so much used by the former. Dance-music, of which there is a great variety, was mostly written in six-eight time. The Seventeenth Cen tury marked the appearance of foreign musicians in Ireland and the rapid decline and final dis appearance of a national music. The early Irish musical instruments. were the harp: the bagpipe, distinguished from the Scotch pipe by being blown upon by bellows, instead of from the lips; the ben-hat/7)W/, a horn of a wild ox or buffalo: the /mimic, a metal trumpet; the corn, a long, curved tube: the stoc and the sturaan, small trumpets; the musical branch, an instrument adorned with single bells; and the tympan, a stringed instrument played with a bow. Of these, by far the most important was the harp, with its large number of strings and its scale of fixed semi-tones. In the latest period of Irish music (toward the end of the Eighteenth ('entury), there was great uniformity in the eon]. pass, the scale, and the method of playing the harp. The ordinary compass was from C below the bass staff to D above the treble staff; and the scale was generally that of G, though some tines C was used. Almost certainly. however, this uniformity was of comparatively recent date. Some of the oldest harps are the so-called harp of Brian Born, preserved at Trinity College, Dub lin. and having :30 strings: that of robin „\ (lair at Hollybrooke. with :37 strings; and the Dall way harp, dating from 1621, and having 52 strings. Among the many famous harpists were: Turlogh O'Carolan; Carroll ()Maly, the author of "Eileen Arodni." appropriated by the Scotch as "Robin Adair:" Ivies Reilly; and Thiffiia Willianl COnallon. Consult: Grove. Dictionary of Music and llusicians 1S80) eollee lions of Trish music by Bunting (1796, 1809, 1.840), and by Petrie, in connection with the ‘4oeiety for the Preservation of Irish llusie (1855) : also collections of Welsh melodies by Parry and by J. Thompson.