CW: Celtic, Irish or Classical Crossover?

[Dave]

Hello everyone,

This is my very first poll (I think!).

I don't yet have any Celtic Woman CDs or DVDs and I only know what I've seen online from clips and what I've read in reviews (professional and fan). But what I have seen and read leaves me confused and has prompted the following question for those of you (most of you!) who know more about their music (with and without Hayley) than I do:

Is the music of Celtic Woman best described as Celtic, Irish or Classical Crossover (the broad definition, see below).

EDIT - after some initial comments, please take the choices to mean:

- Celtic Crossover
- Irish Crossover
- Classical Crossover[/b]

I have deliberately not included "other" or "other Crossover" as that is too muddy, lets you off the hook and anyway, they aren't widely recognised as genres. Similarly, "World Music" is too muddy!

Don't hang too much on the "classical" of crossover; Hayley, Chloe and Ronan Tynan all currently have albums in the Billboard Classical Crossover chart. In other words, and I don't mean this disparagingly, is CW in reality closer to being a commercial variant of Classical Crossover than the "Celtic" or "Irish" music that the publicists would have us believe?

I haven't voted because I don't know the answer. If anyone doesn't know what Celtic Music includes, there is an interesting discussion about it at Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music#Definition_debate

Cheers, Dave

[Stephany]

Hi Dave,
This is a very interesting poll.
Though I must admit I haven't voted because I don't know the difference between Celtic and Irish music.
I always assumed (wrongly as it appears!) it was the same.
Best wishes,
Stephany

[Dave]

A very good question Stephany, I will add a link here and in my original post:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_music#Definition_debate

To summarise, Celtic Music is the folk:

Music of Brittany
Music of Ireland
Music of Wales
Music of the Isle of Man
Music of Northumbria
Music of Scotland
Music of Cornwall
Music of Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias (parts of Spain and Portugal).

Cheers, Dave

[milewalker]

Hi Dave,

If I had to describe the music of CW I would have called it Celtic Crossover - in general it consists of celtic motifs interwoven into a pop or musical format - like the song Danny Boy., or if you like to be more modern, At the Ceili. Caladonia is obviously not Irish inspired.... Actually, If you took the three choices you gave, and added traditional pop, you could check off all four options and be pretty accurate

There is probably a slightly greater emphasis on Irish music here than the other subgroups - I might speculate that a lot of Americans are of Irish descent, and that many of the more well known examples of "Celtic" music tend to be Irish for that reason. So, when you put together a program of Celtic music for an American tour it tends to be dominated by Irish. -edit
Dominated may be too strong a word....
Having said this there are many exceptions - there are also a number of songs on their program which are definitively not Celtic, like Over the Rainbow, Somewhere, Lascia Ch'ia Pianga, and Beyond the Sea.

I will vote for Irish based on the choices you gave in your poll. But the reality is that it is only slightly less misleading than the others.

Jon

[Caitlin]

Do I dare and try to sway the vote??

Sure, why not!

Here's the Set List from the ANJ tour:

Act One:
The Sky, The Dawn, The Sun
Caledonia
The Butterfly
Danny Boy
The Prayer
Siuil A Run
Orinoco Flow
Granuaile's Dance
Beyond the Sea
The Blessing
Scarborough Fair
Vivaldi's Rain
Over the Rainbow
Mo Ghile Mear

Act Two:
Dulaman (Seaweed!)
Newgrange
The Softgoodbye
The Last Rose of Summer
The Last Rose Instrumental
Nella Fantasia
At the Ceili
Shenandoah-The Contradiction
Carrickfergus
The Voice
Sing Out
You Raise Me Up
Finale
Mo Ghile Mear
Spanish Lady (not listed, but always done)

<3 Caite

[Stephany]

caite said:

Beyond the Swa

I think you mean "Beyond the Sea"
Thanks for the impressive list, Caite.

In my opinion, "The Sky, The Dawn, The Sun" is clearly not Irish nor Celtic. But most of their songs are inspired by Irish music so I'm voting for that.

[Dave]

milewalker said:

Hi Dave,

If I had to describe the music of CW I would have called it Celtic Crossover...

Hi Jon... yes, so would I... or Irish Crossover! But it isn't a generally accepted genre, unlike Classical Crossover which is. I mean, where did you ever see a "Celtic Crossover" chart?

milewalker said:

I will vote for Irish based on the choices you gave in your poll. But the reality is that it is only slightly less misleading than the others.Jon

I did say that I didn't want to make it easy i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif but you can see why I am a bit confused. I wondered if it:

- covers a broad enough range to be called Celtic;
- is sufficently Irish to be fairly accurately described as such;
- muddies the Celtic/Irish aspects so much that you just have to lump it in with the broader and more commercial definition "classical crossover" (which includes a multitude of sins - albeit often nice sounding ones!)

In other words, and I don't mean this disparagingly, is CW in reality closest to being just a commercial variant of Classical Crossover?

Cheers, Dave

PS Thanks for the listing Caite!

[Caitlin]

stephany said:

I think you mean "Beyond the Sea"
Thanks for the impressive list, Caite.

Whoops. Yes I do. All fixed now!

<3 Caite

[roger]

When I read Dave's three options, but before I read any of the replies, my immediate reaction was, "Nope, it's none of those". I agree there is no acceptable genre as Celtic Crossover but that describes 95 per cent of their material perfectly.

Roger

[milewalker]

My bad Dave,

I thought we were trying to find a way to make an accurate assessment.

I guess I didnt really understand the question behind your poll. If the question you are really asking is "What section would I put CW in if I owned a music store"?, the answer would clearly be classical crossover. But having said that it just isnt really very "classical" at all.

Let me put it this way - if you expand the boundaries of classical crossover to cover CW, in my opinion you are running the risk of making crossover just as muddy as "world music" or "folk".

Jon

[Dave]

I guess the moral is:

Never start a Poll without an "Other" option!

Shall we imagine that the three questions (which I cannot alter and I don't want to start another poll/thread) are:

- Celtic Crossover
- Irish Crossover
- Classical Crossover

and run it on that basis?

I'll try to count up all the non-standard replies anyway, at the end.

Cheers, Dave

[roger]

Okay Dave, now you've changed the rules, I have voted for Celtic Crossover. That's about as close as I can get without inventing a whole new genre.

Roger

[milewalker]

Heh

If I were presented with those 3 choices, I would probably select Celtic Crossover as well - even though there is slightly more Irish music in play there, the Celtic appellation covers virtually all of their music, whether Irish or not.

Of course, as I already voted I cant do that

Jon

[Joe]

I went w/ Irish (Crossover). It's very difficult to classify CW...one could easily say world, folk, etc.

[Richard]

Hello Dave and everybody!

I voted for Celtic Crossover. There are strong leanings towards Irish music, but one of CW's show-stopping numbers is 'Caledonia', which is an old name for Scotland.

I notice HMV place Celtic Woman's CDs and DVDs in the Irish section, which makes sense because most of the girls are Irish. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Best Wishes,

Richard