Irish and Scottish music have long been a major part of American music, at least as far back as the 19th century. Beginning in the 1960s, performers like the Clancy Brothers become stars in the Irish music scene, which dates back to at least the colonial era, when numerous Irish immigrants arrived. These weremostly Ulster Protestants, descendants of Presbyterian Scots, whose music was most "closely related to a Lowland Scottish style" ^{[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music_in_the_United_States#endnote_lowlandScots)}. The term Celtic music encompasses Irish traditional music and traditional musics of Scotland; Cape Breton Island and Maritime Canada; Quebec; Wales; the Isle of Man; Northumberland (northern England); Brittany (northwestern France); Cornwall; and Galicia (northwestern Spain). ... Brittany is on the northwest coast of France and is a region unique in that country in its Celtic cultural derivation. ... Celtic music is primarily associated with the folk traditions of Ireland, Scotland and Wales, as well as the popular styles derived from folk culture. ... Cornwall is a region in southwest England which has been historically Celtic, though Celtic-derived traditions had been moribund for some time before being revived during a late 20th century roots revival. ... The Isle of Man is a small island in between Great Britain and Ireland. ... Scotland is a Celtic-Germanic country, located to the north of England on the island of Great Britain. ... The Spanish regions of Galicia, Asturias and Cantabria are clustered together in the northern part of the country. ... Wales is a part of the United Kingdom, but has had a long history as a culturally distinct Celtic country. ... Scotland is a Celtic-Germanic country, located to the north of England on the island of Great Britain. ... The music of the United States includes a number of kinds of distinct folk and popular music, including some of the most widely-recognized styles in the world. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Events and trends The 1960s was a turbulent decade of change around the world. ... Irish folk music band, most popular in the 1960s, who are often credited with popularizing Irish traditional music in the United States. ... Ulster (Irish: Cúige Uladh) is one of the four provinces on the island of Ireland. ... Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. ...

Irish emigrés created a large number of emigrant ballads once in the United States. These were usually "sad laments, steeped in nostalgia, and self-pity, and singing the praises... of their native soil while bitterly condemning the land of the stranger" ^{[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music_in_the_United_States#endnote_emigrantballads)}. These songs include famous songs like "Thousands Are Sailing to America" and "By the Hush", though "Shamrock Shore" may be the most well-known in the field.

Francis O'Neill was a Chicago police chief who collected the single largest collection of Irish traditional music ever published. He was a flautist, fiddler and piper who was part of a vibrant Irish community in Chicago at the time, one that included some forty thousand people, including musicians from "all thirty-two countries of Ireland", according to Nicholas Carolan, who referred to O'Neill as "the greatest individual influence on the evolution of Irish traditional dance music in the twentieth century" ^{[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music_in_the_United_States#endnote_ChicagoIrish)}.

In the 1890s, Irish music entered a "golden age", centered on the vibrant scene in New York City. This produced legendary fiddlers like James Morrison and Michael Coleman, and a number of popular dance bands that played pop standards and dances like the foxtrot and quicksteps; these bands slowly grew larger, adding brass and reed instruments in a big band style ^{[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music_in_the_United_States#endnote_goldenage)}. Though this golden age ended by the Great Depression, the 1950s saw a flowering of Irish music, aided by the foundation of the City Center Ballroom in New York. It was later joined by a roots revival in Ireland and the foundation of Mick Moloney's Green Fields of America, an organization that promotes Irish music ^{[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music_in_the_United_States#endnote_modernIrish)}. James Morrison is a name shared by many people. ... Michael Coleman (1889–1945) was an Irish fiddler. ... FoxTrot, the daily comic strip by cartoonist Bill Amend (Amend rhymes with Raymond), began syndication on April 10, 1988. ... Quickstep is an International Style ballroom dance that follows a 2/4 or 4/4 time beat similar to a fast Foxtrot. ... A big bang, also known as a jazz orchestra, is a large musical ensemble that plays jazz music, especially Swing. ... A roots revival (folk revival) is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. ...

The most significant impact of Irish folk music on American styles, however, is undoubtedly that on the evolution of country music, a style which blends Anglo-Celtic traditions with "sacred hymns and African American spirituals". Country music's roots come from "Americanized interpretations of English, Scottish, Scots and Scots-Irish traditional music, shaped by African American rhythms, and containing vestiges of (19th century) popular song, especially (minstrel songs)" ^{[6] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music_in_the_United_States#endnote_Irishcountry)}. This fusion of Anglo-Celtic and African elements "usually consisted of unaccompanied solo vocals sung in a high-pitched nasal voice, the lyrics set to simple melodies (and using) ornamentation to embellish the melody"; this style bears some similarities to the traditional song form of sean-nós, which is similarly highly-ornamented and unaccompanied ^{[7] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music_in_the_United_States#endnote_seannos)}. Country music, once known as country and western music, is a popular musical form developed in the southern United States, with roots in traditional folk music, spirituals, and the blues. ... A minstrel was a bard who played songs to tell stories about other places or about historical events of the Middle Ages. ... Ornament is frequently used to denote: An element of decoration. ... Sean nós is a highly-ornamented style of solo, unaccompanied singing in the Irish tradition. ...

Samples

	An Irish tune ( info)
	Irish harmonica tune from the Library of Congress' California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collection; performed by Aaron Morgan (harmonica) on July 17, 1939 in Columbia, California.
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File links The following pages link to this file: Apollo 8 Accordion Antonio Vivaldi Aramaic language Symphony No. ... IrishTunes. ... Columbia is a census-designated place located in Tuolumne County, California. ...

References

• Bayor, Ronald H. and Timothy J. Meagher (Ed.) (1996). The New York Irish. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Carolan, Nicholas (1997). A Harvest Saved: Francis O'Neill and Irish Music in Chicago. Ossian Publications. ISBN 1900428113.
• Sawyers, June Skinner (2000). Celtic Music: A Complete Guide. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0306810077.

Notes

1. ^  Miller, Rebecca. "Irish Traditional and Popular Music in New York City: Identity and Social Change, 1930-1975", cited in Sawyers, pg. 225
2. ^  Sawyers, pg. 229
3. ^  Carolan, cited in Sawyers, pgs. 237-239
4. ^  Sawyers, pgs. 242-243
5. ^  Sawyers, pg. 247
6. ^  Sawyers, pgs. 189-190
7. ^  Sawyers, pg. 198