| Celtic Music - Holiday atmosphere in Brittany |
Bretons love their traditions. The picture above is of Breton Dancing at an autumn Chestnut fair at Peaule.
Celtic Music and Brittany HolidaysMorbihan is worth visiting for its summer music alone.There is a wealth of music of all kinds in Brittany during the holidays. The annual (July) guide to events in Morbihan published by France Ouest - the regional newspaper - lists 50+ musical events: Celtic music predominates. There are competitions annually at Augan for button accordion players - the largest accordion festival in the world; for cornemuses at Pleugriffet, and for bagpipes at Lorient (see link below). Many many entertainments are aimed as much at the local populace as the tourist. They usually include some sort of communal meal (boeuf gros sel, black pudding, moules frites etc.) which is served rapidly and efficiently to large numbers of guests. Breton dancing - a live tradition - also features at many of the events and there are free lessons most years in Redon. It is a very chaste affair and the exertion of it, rather than desire for ones partner, sets the pulse racing. The line-up for a Breton dance could typically be an accordion, combined with a flute and a Bombard for carrying the melodic line, but there are lots of variations (saxophone, violin, mouth organ, etc.etc.). Much is made of Celtic Music in Brittany and many of the supermarkets sell Breton, Irish and Scottish folk CD'ds Celtic Musical InstrumentsFollow this link http://www.ceolas.org/instruments/ for an explanation of Celtic music instruments, and this one for the UK's Celtic music specialist http://www.hobgoblin.comCeltic Musical FestivalsFollow these links: Festival lists for France ; Lorient Inter Celtic Festical |