As another season of Celtic music sadly came to a close, we look forward to our next opportunity to play some of our favorite St. Patrick’s Day music, again sometime soon. Celtic music shouldn’t just be heard during the month of March! It may surprise you that some of the first music we played together as a flute and guitar duo was actually Celtic music. We started off playing from a book of Celtic music compiled by and with originals written by some musicians in Tucson. We liked it so much that we sought out as much other Celtic music as we could add to our repertoire, so now it’s actually pretty complete.
St. Patrick’s Day is probably our second favorite “season” of the year because we love playing Celtic music! Our Celtic program consists of music from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. We play a wide variety of music including popular and more obscure folk songs as well as some songs written more recently in but still in the Irish tradition.
Our set list changes from day to day depending upon how we feel that day and the vibe of the audience. Our Celtic music repertoire includes:
- All the Forepart of the Night, Traditional Isle of Man
- Annie Laurie, Alicia Scott
- The Ash Grove, Traditional Welsh
- Blackbird Will You Go, Traditional Welsh
- A Bonfire on Every Mountain, Traditional Scottish
- The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond, Traditional Scottish
- Boulavogue, J.P. McCall
- The Burning of the Piper’s Hut, A. Mackellar
- Carolan’s Favorite Jig, Turlough O’Carolan
- Cuckoo Dear, Traditional Welsh
- Down by the Glenside, Pedar Kearney
- Down by the Salley Garden, Herbert Hughes
- Down in Yon Banke, Skene Manuscript
- Drogh Vraane, Traditional Isle of Man
- I Am Tired of Cutting Ferns, Traditional Scottish
- In Scotland, Traditional Isle of Man
- Garrett Barry’s Jig, Traditional Irish
- The Mackintosh Waltz, Traditional Irish
- MacPherson’s Lament, James MacPherson
- The Meeting of the Waters, Traditional Irish
- Molly Malone, Traditional Irish
- The Ranting Highlandman, Traditional Scottish
- The Rose of Tralee, Charles Glover
- Si Bheag Si More, Turlough O’Carolan
- Thomas Leixlip the Proud, Turlough O’Carolan
We have added authentic ornamentation to most of this music as well as written some original variations for some.
This year we were lucky enough to play Celtic music for St. Patrick’s Day for audiences in Sun City, Litchfield Park, Surprise and Scottsdale.
People ask us often if we have any recordings or CDs of our Celtic music, but unfortunately we don’t at this time. We actually did do a recording last summer, but the recording has not been finished yet. We’re actually talking about re-recording those original arrangements this summer, so stay tuned to find out about when you can purchase your CD of our flute and guitar versions of your favorite Celtic music.
We think Celtic music is great year ’round and can’t wait to play it again, so contact us if you think Celtic music might be a good fit for your event!
