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Looking for Celtic Wedding ideas and inspiration? Try these celtic
wedding music CD's to inspire your celtic dream wedding!
Celtic Spirit
Celtic Musical Selections
1. Ubi Caritas - Connie Dover
2. Seacht Suailci' Na Maighdine Muire - Aoife Ni Fhearraigh
3. Kyrie Eleison, An Ghloir, An Phaidir - Aine Minogue
4. Be Thou My Vision - The Anjali Quartet
5. Salve Splendor - William Jackson
6. Noelenn Brehed - Groupe Vocal Jef Le Penven
7. Mo Ghra' Thu' - Aoife Ni Fhearraigh
8. Bi, A Losa, Im Chroi-se - William Coulter
9. Our Father, God Celestial - The Baltimore Consort
10. Puer Natus - Aine Minogue
11. The Christ Child's Lullaby - Sheena Wellington
12. Rosa Mystica - Therese Schroeder-Sheker
Review: Exquisite, Etherial, Spiritual, and Mesmerizingly
Beautiful!
This collection contains music which takes one to another time
and place. It is a top-notch collection of music which is unforgetable,
and listening to it is a spiritual experience which leaves one
breathless and deeply touched. The exquisite voice of Connie Dover
begins this collection, and each song thereafter is the same calibre
as the first. Lilting melodies, haunting performances and exquisite
voices all make this a must-have addition for anyone who loves
Celtic music, and for anyone who likes Enigma, Loreena McKennitt,
and Enya. Get a magic carpet and listen to the soundbites. Highly,
highly recommended!
Review: Delightful!
This is a delightful spiritual music. The lyrics and the melodies
are just beautiful. If you are a spiritual person, then you will
love it.
Review: Wonderful, relaxing,
insightful, reflective, refreshing
What wonderful end of the day music...probably the finest Celtic
album that I own, and I own quite a few!!
The voices are clear and exact and gentle and
haunting. The music is familiar and comforting and kind.
If you have only one Celtic album, this should
be it.
Review: Uplifting, to say the least...
This CD is one of the CDs that makes me glad that we are now in
a digital age as opposed to vinyl, for if this had been a vinyl
album, it would have been worn flat by now. I play it constantly,
in my office, in the car, at home. It has a great, spiritually-uplifting
tone that is both inspiring and meditative. It has a great combination
of voices, in solos and ensembles, that bring real life and dimension
to the music. As the commentator for the introductory essay to
these pieces says, the Celts seem to have a real feeling for the
presence of the divine, and that can often be heard in these melodies,
harmonies, and voices. There is beauty and there is grace in these
pieces.
--Music--
Many of the pieces, such as the Ubi Caritas, the Kyrie Eleison,
and the Puer Natus are very traditional liturgical lyrics, but
here they are given a unique Celtic flavour that is both modern
and original as well as traditional and ancient. Other songs such
as Be Thou My Vision are more traditional hymn texts, here given
arrangement and performance that would seem both refreshing and
reassuring. Many of the songs, when they are not utilising Latin
for the ancient liturgical pieces, use traditional Gaelic texts,
that give an air of mystery and contemplative distance to the
songs, such as Seacht Sauãilcena Maighdine Muire (Seven
Joys of the Virgin Mary), Noelenn Brehed, Mo Ghrá Thú
(I Love Thee), and Bí, a Íosa, Im Chroí-Se
(Jesus Be in My Heart).
--Performers--
All of the performers here are stunning. Connie Dover and Aiofe
Ni Fhearraigh, both women of astonishing voice. Aine Minogue combines
talent on the harp with high-calibre singing, and her double talents
shine with distinctive Celtic flair. Sheena Wellington and Theresa
Schroeder-Sheker lend their incredible talents to finish the disc
with strength and beauty that reach emotional climaxes befitting
a spiritual ecstasy.
William Jackson displays both vocal and instrumental
talents, which include performances the bamboo flute and the gut-strung
clarsach (Scottish harp) for a stunning performance on Salve Splendour,
and William Coulter brings his acoutic guitar talents to an old
Irish hymn.
Also performing on this disc are three groups:
the Anjali Quartet, the Groupe Vocal Jef Le Penven, and the Baltimore
Consort, each renowned and experienced in the musical styles that
incorporate ancient and Celtic influences.
--Liner Notes--
The CD comes with a small booklet that includes biographical information
oneach of the major performers and groups, as well as listings
of back-up and harmony contributors. There is an introductory
essay on the Celtic Spirit by Fr. John O'Donohue. Like many Narada
collections, these pieces have appeared on previous Narada recordings,
and details for finding the prior releases can be found here.
This is an excellent guide, for many of these pieces inspired
me to want more, both of the artists and of the types of music.
--Overall Impressions--
I cannot speak too highly of this collection. While not the most
intricate or sophisticated of music, it is nonetheless a favourite
of mine for both background and forefront listening. It makes
a good companion for prayer and contemplative times, for waking
or falling asleep, for reading or for working.
Review: If angels sing...
If angels sing, this is how they surely must sound. Of all the
music I have ever heard I find this to be the purest most transporting
experience of pure feminine energy. Never syrupy or pedantic,
the female vocals here seem to literally plumb the listener's
deepest regions and stir those subtle quiet spaces gently to life.
The gaelic lyrics, rather than being an obstacle to enjoyment,
serve rather to enhance the entire musical experience by side-stepping
the issue of literal meaning, at least to we who speak only English,
and thereby freeing us to appreciate the words as sounds whose
meaning transcends spoken language. I own other celtic albums,
all of which I love for their own particular strengths, but this
is the one I save to listen to at those special quiet times when
I'm alone and just want to put on the headphones and be carried
in the arms of the angels.
Review: Beautiful!
This is great! Each song is very well done, and all of the songs
flow nicely together. Whether you are a fan of celtic music or
not, this album is for you.
Celtic Wedding: Music of Brittany
1. Dans Mod Koh A Vaod (Old Fashioned Dance) Listen Listen Listen
2. A Breton Carol Listen Listen Listen
3. Dans-Tro Fisel (Dance From The Fisel Country) Listen Listen
Listen
4. Marches (From The Vannes Country) Listen Listen Listen
5. Dans Bro-Leon (Dance & Song From The Leon Country) Listen
Listen Listen
6. Heuliadenn Toniou Breizh-Izel (A Medley In Which Each Member
Of The Band Plays A Tune Of His Choice) Listen Listen
7. Ev Chistr 'Ta, Laou! (Cider-Drinking Song) Listen Listen
8. Jabadaw (Dance From Breton Cornwall) Listen Listen
9. Celtic Wedding (A Medley Of Song & Dance Describing The
Famous Ancient Breton Ceremony) Listen Listen
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Brittany, in western France, is an ancient Celtic homeland whose
language and music are closely related to those of Wales and Cornwall.
And although Breton folklorist Polig Monjarret only jokingly suggested
that the Chieftains do a Breton album, they did just that. Celtic
Wedding remains one of their finest outings. Breton music is subtle
when compared to Irish, Scottish, and Welsh music, with complex
rhythms, rich harmonies, and spin-on-a-dime call-and-response
refrains. The venerable Irish sextet seems refreshed and exhilarated
by the cross-pollination. Local musicians sit in, playing the
bombarde (a notoriously bad-tempered oboe) and biniou (Breton
bagpipes), and singing in the Breton language, which is making
a strong comeback after long years of repression. --Christina
Roden
Review: A Fresh Breeze from the Chieftains
It is difficult not to like a performance by the Chieftains, and
this collection is no exception. While the subject matter is a
little removed from their usual Irish fare, the high quality which
one has come to expect from them is certainly present.
Review: Great CD
I love this CD. My only wish were that the final song -- which
is actually a collection of several songs -- was divided up into
the individual songs. Not that it really is a big deal, it would
just make listening to it easier.
Review: May be a little too studious
and cultured for many listeners
I like the Chieftains a lot, love some of their music. I love
Irish music, especially the moody traditional OR electronic/ethnic
updates or variations on the Celtic sound and this album falls
in the former category. I find it a little long in the tooth,
actually, and have to get into an academic frame of mind to fully
appreciate it. I've tried to listen to it several times, but find
my mind soon wanders and, unlike so much of the Chieftains music,
the tunes don't stay in my head. Definitely a mood piece and best
appreciated, I suspect by serious Celtic or Chieftains fans.
Review: A Fresh Breeze from the Chieftains
It is difficult not to like a performance by the Chieftains, and
this collection is no exception. While the subject matter is a
little removed from their usual Irish fare, the high quality which
one has come to expect from them is certainly present. You can
almost smell the hills and feel the gentle breezes.
Review: Excellent rhythms and melodies
well worth the purchase
I originally purchased this on a whim some time ago and fell in
love with the subtle difference between the irish sound and the
breton sound. The only problem is that I let my 15 year old bleached
haired hard out Tool and Korn freak son listen to it as well.
Now I have to try and find the CD in his bedroom if I want to
listen to it as he hides the CD so that he has exclusive listening
rights!! An unusual turn of events. The music is romantic without
being soppy and very evocative for those with a leaning towards
past life experiences-my head becomes filled with pictures of
past events. It has now sent me on a hunt for any similar type
of music-traditional rather than modern as Stone Circle is. Do
listen to Celtic Wedding if you are a Celtic music fan. I doubt
that you will be disappointed.
Review: Wonderful collection of music
that makes you NEED to dance!
I love this entire CD, but I am specifically interested in the
portion of the Breton Wedding Ceremony track called "Adoromp
Holl". I am trying to locate a copy of the published anthology
of music from which it was drawn, or just a copy of this piece.
I am specifically looking for organ music. Can anyone help?
Beautiful Wedding
Receptions (Pennies from Heaven Series) (Paperback)
Your wedding reception will be the party of your life.
It will be a time to gather all the people who are meaninful to
you and your husband. This book is about creating the wedding
reception of your dreams.
The Perfect Wedding Reception : Stylish Ideas For Every
Season (Hardcover)
Book Description
Once couples decide to say "I do"
there are dozens and dozens of decisions to be made. It's hard
to know where to begin and even more difficult to fit all the
dozens of details together into one wonderful event. Thankfully
Maria McBride-Mellinger, author of acclaimed bridal books, stylishly
illustrates just how to create a dreamy reception that will be
forever memorable.
The Perfect Wedding Reception features exquisite
wedding celebrations designed by Maria McBride-Mellinger that
capture the magic of each season in refreshing, contemporary style.
The nuptial adventure begins in a formal spring garden but soon
its off to a beach front for a fanciful summer wedding, to a revolutionary
era stone barn for a rustic fall wedding and finally to a gracious
country home for a candle lit winter wedding feast.
Glorious photos of each location, flowers, menu
selections, table details, centerpieces, bouquets, invitations,
wedding cakes and favors tell the story of each wedding with helpful
tips and most importantly McBride-Mellinger's favorite resources
from around the country that will actually help bring your wedding
reception to life.
Whatever season you choose to marry Maria McBride-Mellinger
offers delightful flourishes to tempt every couple as they plan
the party of their lives and create memories meant to last a lifetime.
Review: Perfection!
As a second-time bride, this was the book that "did it"
for me. My October wedding reception, while not the exact replica
of Ms. McBride-Mellinger's, incorporated as many of her ideas
as I could. This is an absolutely beautiful book which will be
an inspiration to any bride to be that wants a classy, memorable
wedding befitting her chosen season. The settings, invitations,
floral designs, cakes, and small touches are unique and certainly
can be "scaled down" for those on a smaller budget.
Not the end-all, be-all catalogue of a bridal book...but a digestable
and exquisite source of inspiration.
Review: Beautiful
pictures, but not enough different weddings
This book has wonderful pictures of four weddings, one in each
season.
The pictures are truly extraordinary, but they are almost exclusively
of these four weddings, so there aren't tons of different ideas
for each season, rather one "theme" idea for each season.
One thing that disappointed me was that her summer wedding was
a casual one on the beach, so if you want more formal ideas for
a summer wedding you are out of luck. Like other reviewers have
said, most of these perfect presentations would be completely
out of a lot of people's price range, but you could definitely
pull a few ideas that you loved from her spreads and make it work
on a smaller budget. By and large this is a good supplementary
book on reception ideas, with tons of photos and some good "idea"
text (as opposed to "how-to" text.)
Review: OSTENTATIOUS
IDEAS FOR EVERY SEASON BUT NOT EVERY BRIDE
If Kennedy or Vanderbilt is your last name and I mean The Kennedys
and The Vanderbilts, if Bill Gates is your wedding sponser or
if you are a member of the Royal Family then this book is for
you. If you live in the real world you may not want to bother
reading a book that would embarrass even Martha Stewart. Even
if your wedding budget isn't that of a small nation you can uncover
some ideas to use on a realistic day of bliss. But I would leave
out the "Honeymoon bed out in the open" next to a swamp
unless you are marrying Jeff Corwin or the Crocodile Hunter. Look
at page 116 and see if you would like to spend your wedding night
there but McBride-Mellinger says "far from sight of the area's
inhabitants". It's also far from sight of a bathroom,room
service and Walgreen's to get some mosquito spray and close to
sight for anything with four or six legs or even eight hairy ones
that hopefully would be four groomsmen rather than a spider. As
in all the weddings in the book, the cakes are works of art, the
prettiest I've ever seen (pgs 106&107, 214&215 "a
masterpiece" and the chapter on Confections) and the flowers
are magnificent. If you read this book make sure to have a dictionary
for all the $2.00 words as it must have been written with a word
processor in one hand an a Thesaurus in the other. Also, a really
good cook book will come in handy to try and figure out what everyone
was eating. McBride-Mellinger is even so helpful as to tell you
how to dress the "help" as if in this day and time the
guests even know what to wear, where the "help" should
go to the bathroom, and to prepare food incase they work more
then four hours. But do show respect because Maria McBride-Mellinger
has a very high opinion of herself and a much over inflated ego.
"The Perfect Wedding Reception" is that: perfectly ostentatious,pretentious,over
the top and prefectly not for middle class America. The book is
a "perfect" waste of a good tree. For over 30 years
I have been a floral artist and wedding planner with the experience
of over 500 weddings in all parts of the US and Europe.
Review: creative
suggestions
This book suggests many creative ways to make your wedding reception
fun and unique. The author describes 4 weddings (one for each
season) thoroughly and with an artist's eye for detail and color.
She also provides an extensive index for all aspects of reception
preparation and planning. The pictures vividly display the character
of each wedding, bringing them to life. I would have prefered
some extra examples with illustrations of decorationg ideas for
each season that were not part of the featured wedding. It would
have been nice to have some more practical examples of possibilities.
The featured weddings are gorgeous but, for people like myself,
a bit out of reach financially. Surely, one can put a creative,
unique twist on some less eccentric styles to make them equally
as special, beautiful and perfect for any wedding.
Review: Very helpful
There are some wonderful suggestions here to make your day special.
You will read this and remember the little things to do. One recommendation
would be to direct readers to Katherine's Song, the wedding song
in Defenders of the Holy Grail (Ken Agori)...this is THE song
for this millenium. Of course, this may belong more at the service,
but at the reception for the first dance, WOW!! THis book is worth
the money...
Review: One of the
Best
In preparation for our wedding, I ordered just about every book
that I thought looked appealing and got great reviews, literally
HUNDREDS of dollars' worth of books! This and its companion, The
Perfect Wedding, stood out among the rest.
I liked it for the following reasons:
1. Beautiful pictures of original ideas. There were lots of pictures
and lots of ideas. Obviously you aren't going to find a book that
has absolutely every idea for flowers or cakes (it would be HUGE!),
but the ones that this book included were very nice.
2. Good mix of pictures and text. About 3/5 of the book was pictures
and ideas. It was divided up into 4 sections representing the
4 seasons, so you could get ideas for your specific season (getting
inspiration from the best of your season is a great idea!). The
other 2/5 of the book was resources with phone number, addresses,
websites, etc., so you could actually get ahold of the people
who put together the beautiful things in this book or go to the
places that would give you more of a similar idea.
3. Not just for the wealthy. Granted that I personally am not
too concerned with books geared for my budget, this book gave
ideas for all ranges of budgets. Of course, some of the cakes,
flowers, etc., must have been expensive, but she also gives ideas
that are more budget-conscious.
I would recommend this book, no question. It's
better than Colin Cowie's, on par with Martha's, and definitely
much better than Vera Wang's.
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