Can o' songs

This section contains a selection of the songs in various languages. Where possible I've provided a bit of background information about the songs, and English translations. There are also lists of albums which include the songs and links to sites where you can get hold of those albums. Most of these songs have several different versions and there are links to some of those versions.

Songs in:

At secondary school I sang in the school choir for a few years before I took up the clarinet and joined the school band instead. A few years later I started playing the tin whistle and got interested in Irish music and the Irish language. Unfortunately I stopped playing the whistle and clarinet while at university, but I continued to listen to Irish and Scottish songs and tried to learn some of them.

I learnt a bit of Scottish Gaelic in 1998, and decided to have a go at Irish in 2003. My first visit to Ireland in 2004 inspired me to start playing the tin whistle again and to learn more Irish songs. Since then I've been back there every year and I've regained the confidence to sing and to play music in public.

I did classes in traditional Irish sean-nós singing with Gearóidín Bhreathnach at Oideas Gael in Gleann Cholm Cille in Donegal, Ireland in 2007 and 2008, and attended a course in Gaelic Song with Christine Primrose at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the Gaelic College on the Isle of Skye, in 2008.

For a few months in 2007 I sang with a group at the Hammersmith Irish Centre in London. Between January and July 2008 I sang with the Brighton Welsh Male Voice Choir and the Brighton Vox Community Choir. In July 2008 I moved to Bangor in Wales and joined the Bangor Community Choir and the Bangor University Music Society Choir.

Have you learnt any songs in languages you're studying? Would you like to record yourself singing them and share the recording? If so, please contact me.

In case you're wondering, the title of this section, Can o' songs, is a sort of multilingual pun. It's comes from the expression, can of worms; and in Welsh cân means 'song'; in Irish can means 'speak' and canadh means 'to sing'; while in Scottish Gaelic can means 'say'.

Links

Multilingual song book
http://www.laukart.de/multisite/

Celtic Lyrics Corner
http://www.geocities.com/celticlyricscorner/index.htm

A Traditional Music Library
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk

Rambles - reviews of folk, roots & traditional music
http://www.rambles.net

Folk Music of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales & America
http://www.contemplator.com/folk.html

The Brobdingnagian Bards - A Bard's Celtic Lyric Director
http://www.thebards.net/music/

Folkinfo - a collection of traditional folk songs
http://www.folkinfo.org