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What’s so special about Irish music?

The Celts, the early inhabitants of Ireland, were a people with great musical and artistic talents. The Celtic poets used a portable harp. They are ancient masters of professional music and poetry. The labor songs that the Irish people like to sing, such as textile songs, grain grinding songs, and fishing songs, all have traces of ancient rap.

Irish folk songs and folk music are excellent music formed in pure instrumental performance. Due to the regional nature of the bagpipes and harp, Irish pure music shows a strong national character.

From an artistic point of view, what is national is what is cosmopolitan. But if Irish music only excels in pure music, it is inevitable that there will be times when it is high and low. The reason why Irish music is great is that it also has a group of artists who can still stand at the top of the world in the field of pop music. Together with the bagpipes and the harp, they have won glory for Irish music.

Influences

Irish folk songs have a deep influence on European music. Between 1814 and 1816, Beethoven arranged sixty-two Irish songs in two years; Dublin pianist and composer John Field composed many beautiful serenades, which were very different from those of Chopin, who was thirty years younger than him. big impact.

Eighteenth-century Dublin poet Thomas Moore wrote the lyrics to the folk song “The Last Rose of Summer”: “The last rose in summer blooms alone, and all its lovely companions have withered and died. There are no flowers to accompany. , reflecting its crimson face, and sighing sorrow with it.”

While the whole world was immersed in the sad mood of the song, Irish folk songs conquered everyone, and Dublin also established an unshakable position in the music kingdom.

Look at Ireland today, there is no other country in the world that hosts so many international and national music festivals every year: the annual Cork International Choral and Folk Dance Festival; in the southeastern Irish city of Wex Ford holds an annual classical opera festival; the southern city of Waterford holds an annual International Opera Festival; Dublin holds a large-scale International Opera Festival and International Organ Festival every year…

Origin of Irish music

Colorful Irish music developed in the struggle for national independence and the promotion of national culture. In the twelfth century, Irish harpists were already known in Europe for their superb playing skills.

In the seventeenth century, the Irish people used the harp skillfully to fight against the British colonists. In the eighteenth century, with the upsurge of the Irish national liberation movement, the anti-feudal movement and the revival of Irish national culture, not only the ancient harp competitions have been restored, but also Western European continental music has taken root, blossomed, and fruited in Ireland, the capital of Ireland. Dublin developed into an important music centre in Europe.

Today, the Irish people are proud of: the classic work of the famous German composer Handel, the oratorio “Messiah” based on the biblical story, was first performed in Dublin in 1742 and was conducted by the composer himself; Between 1814 and 1816, Beethoven arranged sixty-two Irish songs; the Dublin pianist and composer John Field, who was thirty years older than Chopin, composed many beautiful serenades, which had a great influence on Chopin. .

Irish folk songs and ballads with beautiful melody, strong flavor of life and romanticism are famous all over the world. The folk song “The Last Rose of Summer” written by the Dublin poet Thomas Moore in the 18th century is a song loved by people all over the world.

There is no other country in the world that hosts as many music festivals every year as Ireland. These many international and national music festivals have simply become major events in the lives of the Irish people.

Saint Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday in Ireland commemorating the legendary and adventurous “Apostle of Mission” Patrick who brought Latin and Roman culture to Ireland in the fourth century. On this festival, in addition to the grand religious celebrations held in Dublin’s old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, there is also a song and dance performance in Stephens Green Park, where girls in costume dance to the accompaniment of bagpipes. In dance, the audience and the performers are often in tune.