Psalm Singers

Scottish Festival Singers--Psalm 95 (Irish)--Psalms of the Trinity Psalter.mp3

Found at: - FilesTube

The early Gaelic Christians sang their Psalms. In the monastic communities one who was a Psalm singer was called a salmchetlaid. We don't know what the music sounded like, just like we don't know what tunes David used with the Psalms.

St. Benen, one of St. Patrick's Irish converts, was known as his Psalm singer. It's said that he drew thousands of souls to Christ with his sweet voice. Compare the modern Psalm singers (track above) to this YouTube video of Psalm 79: 3-4.




"Their prayers were songs, and as they crooned or intoned them, they seem close to the continuous prayer the Orthodox describe as a murmur in the heart."~Esther DeWaal in God Under My Roof

Celtic Music in all Languages is Still Beautiful!

My friend Deirdra Doan recently visited friends in Germany and posted about it on her blog. Deirdra's husband, John Doan, is a musician, and so they have many musician friends all over the world. I watched the video she posted of Andy Lang & Friends. Part of the song is in another language--not sure if it's German or not--but part is in English, so listen very carefully for that part. It's very beautiful. Enjoy!

Favoured by Heaven

Favoured by Heaven--by Providence endowed
With Qualities most noble and divine,
Thou rosest like the sun, when not a cloud
Prevents the radiant God of Day to shine;
The powers of might and majesty were thine--
With virtues rare to light immortal fame,
And think the genius, learning to refine,
That sheds a lustre round thy honoured name.
A fadeless glory that shall never die,
So long as sunshine gilds the earth and sky.

~From a Poem about Ireland by James Sylvius Law , 1831

Welcome, Summer!

The solstice was celebrated in ancient Ireland. While most people know about Newgrange, the Megalithic passage tomb in County Meath, there is at least one other site in Ireland where the solstice was observed by ancient people. (I'm sure there are more, and there were even more.)

Even standing stones may have marked the sun's movement as this web page suggests.

An email sent recently by Michael Fox alerted me to Carrowkeel where there are cairns identified by letters. The cairnes are located on the top of the Bricklieve Mountains in County Sligo.

The summer solstice is also celebrated on the Hill of Tara.

In the US the summer solstice is considered the first day of summer, but in Ireland, it's considered mid-summer. But whatever you call it, it is an event that astronomers would have recognized, and the ancient Irish druids were astronomers. It's no wonder they built monuments to capture the sun (or the moon) during these cycles.