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Music and the Occult

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.pagan.magick,alt.paranormal.spells.hexes.magic
From: "Peter J. Sanderson" 
Subject: Re: Music and the Occult
Date: Thu, 21 Mar 2002 16:41:29 -0700

"Gavriel"  wrote in message
news:ba054f8c.0203211046.62726f67@posting.google.com...
> This is a bit unrelated, but I've heard of a type of Celtic music in
> which no words are spoken and no instruments are used. I heard it
> about five years ago, but can't remember the group name for the life
> of me. Anybody heard of this?

Well that would be rather quiet music ;-)

Seriously I think when you say no words you mean no actual words am I right?
In which case you may be referring to "puirt-a-beul" or "mouth music" which
consists of sung bits of Gaelic and nonsense words to the rhythm and melody
of dance tunes to mimic pipes or fiddle.  The Irish traditional version of
this is often called "lilting" and consists of you
aye-diddly-itheree-toodley-idle-rah's.  In the Scottish/Cape Breton
tradition, one of the current performers utilizing this style is Mary Jane
Lamond.

In the Scots tradition, certain songs are produced to the rhythm used for
"waulking" or fulling woolen cloth to the sound of the wool, being slapped
hard on the table, which would likely be excellent for inducing a trance.
But a note of caution....

First, all of this music is either Scottish or Irish or Gaelic (Or Breton or
Welsh, etc.)...never "Celtic".  While the Celts make up a thread of ancestry
in the aforementioned languages and cultural groups, it would be like asking
a modern day Italian to sing some of his Roman folk music.  "Celtic," while
a catch all term, used in this context, is a handy marketing tool to ride
the current wave (now receding thanks be to God) of a musical fad that
capitalizes on the venrable and respectable musical tradition of a few
cultural/language groups.

The music of Scotland and Ireland as we have it today derives from the 18th
century and later and has NO connection to whatever music the Ancient Celts
may have produced...of which we know nothing.  It's like the use of bodhran
drums in "Celtic" rituals...  while the bodhran may be an ancient design of
frame drum, we have no way of knowing if it was ever used in those
rituals...we do know that the playing style commonly used with it is only
about a century old... but lack of authenticity never stopped anyone yet.

Some of this music might be excellent for ritual work however.  Nothing like
the sound of the pipes to make one's hair rise on the neck...

PJS

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