This month, Morningside residents will celebrate our Musical Journey Around the World during a joyful, fictional stop in Ireland with a performance of Irish music and dance, along with a tribute to the Scottish tradition of the bagpipes, during the St. Patrick’s Day Party on March 17. Later in the month, we’ll make a fictional stop in England, where residents will be entertained by a British Invasion-Beatles-style rock band in celebration of the music of the British Invasion era.
Music in the British Isles, from the earliest recorded times until the Baroque and the rise of modern classical music,
was a diverse and rich culture that included sacred and secular music. Each of the major nations of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, retained unique forms of music and of instrumentation, but British music was highly influenced by continental developments. Musicians from the British Isles also developed some distinctive forms of music, including Celtic chant and the carol in the medieval era. In the second half of the 18th century, musicians developed a more fully-fledged and formalized type of orchestral classical music, with more changes in musical notation and new instrumental playing techniques. Throughout its history, the United
Kingdom has been a major producer and source of musical creation, drawing from church music, Western culture, and traditional folk music. In the 20th century, influences from the music of the United States became dominant
in popular music. Following this was the explosion of the British Invasion, where British rock bands became highly influential in the United States and worldwide. Other notable movements in British music include the new wave of British heavy metal and Britpop music. Today, the United Kingdom has one of the world’s largest music industries, with many British musicians having influenced modern music.
By Diana Blidy