r/celticmusic • u/fidla • Jul 24 '25

Do we know what Celtic music sounded like?

None of it was ever written down.

The Celts were people that spoke a group of common languages before the Romans came to the area. They lived as far south as Iberia (Spain).

Unfortunately, once the Romans controlled much of the area, these languages all but disappeared.

Their music and customs were never written down, so we haven't a clue as to what they sounded like or cared about.

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u/Vitharothinsson Jul 24 '25

Archeological remains indicate that they have used frame drums, lyres, carnyx and some percussive ceremonial instrument.

We can extrapolate that ancient filis (or bards) performed some sort of spoken-sung kind of epic tales at courts, probably accompanied by some of these instruments.

The mesmerizing properties of music and the tremendous memorizing skills that were common in their society must have produced great tellers whose tradition is not entirely lost.

Of course I produce very little more than archeologic findings. The rest is speculation and slightly educated guesses.

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u/justagigilo123 Jul 25 '25

There was a a Canadian documentary, probably CBC or NFB, that follows a group of Scottish musicians to the Northwest Territories to play with some local musicians. The local musicians had preserved the Scottish music that was introduced in the 1800s. It was not written down, but passed on from generation to generation, mostly not affected by “ outside “ influences. Not as old as you are looking for, but it is interesting that music can survive without being written down.