Music and the Celtic World

Catalog description

In this course, students explore the diverse musics of the Celtic world, from cultural practices of the ancient Celts to folk and popular traditions of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Galicia, Cape Breton, and the United States. They investigate the origin and meanings of "Celtic music," and study its diverse instrumental, vocal, and dance traditions, and its varied performance practices, occasions, and purposes. Through history, literature, poetry, spirituality, and mythology, students examine the realities and fictions of the ancient and modern Celtic world. Through live and recorded music and dance performance, they consider the continuities of Celtic culture across time and space, and the significance of Celtic music today in terms of cultural identity, tradition, and globalization.