Passage I

A Mouthful of Music

Mouth music is the name given in English to the many ways by imitating the sounds of musical instruments with the human voice. Forms of mouth music are performed around the world, but the genre being particularly popular in England, Ireland, and Scotland. In this Celtic region, lilting and jigging are two of the lively names used to refer to this musical form.

Celtic mouth music exists to accompany dancing, so the rhythms and sounds are first-class and the words take a back seat. Instead of using traditional lyrics, singers often produce nonsense syllables, called vocables to represent specific instrumental sounds, such as those of bagpipes or violins. The results are songs that rarely make literal sense but nevertheless flow in a way easier to dance to.

One Scottish form of mouth music, puirt-a beul, is performed entirely in the Gaelic language and accompanies traditional dance steps. The often tongue-twisting lyrics require much practice to perfect. The greater challenge for many puirt-a-beul singers, though, is learning when to breathe. A poorly timed breath might break a song’s flow, interrupting the steady beat it relies on to help time their steps.

(9)Instruments were prohibitively expensive and thus scarce in isolated Scottish villages in order to fill the void, mouth music emerged and provided residents with the music they wanted for dancing. Additionally, puirt-a-beul gave anyone whomever didn’t read music a way to learn and pass on traditional songs.

The continuing popularity of Celtic mouth music is testament to the vitality of them. In the 1990s. groups like Mouth Music from Scotland and The Cranberries from Ireland rose to fame, exposing with audience Celtic mouth music worldwide.

The bands’ celebrity continually survives as they combine traditional mouth music with modern rhythms.