"The Celtic Encyclopedia presents an
amazing body of work by Glenn Weiser. It has
over 100 Celtic tunes, comprising the most extensive collection of Irish, Scottish,
and Welsh airs, marches, waltzes, hornpipes, jigs, reels, and harp pieces that I've ever
seen.
"Together with the "Celtic Harp Music of Carolan and Others" book, they
represent and astounding collection of Celtic tunes. Also, there is no overlap between
books, so if you were to get both, you wouldn't be buying redundant material!
"All these tunes are, like the Celtic Harp book, in standard tuning or dropped D.
Glenn
has gone to great lengths to preserve the original keys and diatonic nature of the
original Celtic music (harps couldn't play accidentals, so all arranged notes stay "within the
scale").
"As Glenn so succinctly puts it: "'I often think of arranging traditional music as being similar to jewelry making --
the tune tself is the gem, and the harmonization and fingering are the setting. To be displayed,
the stone needs the setting, and the setting in turn must do justice to the stone.'
"Turlough O'Carolan's harp music is represented with 21 tunes, along with harp
tunes from
the Bunting Collection (See Glenn's list of Tunes). This book will keep your fingers busy
for
years to come with some of the most melodic music ever written. If you like playing the
Celtic style of music, you will love this book."
-Paul
Kucharski fot the Acoustic Fingerstyle Guitar website
"This is Glenn Weiser’s third book in a series of guitar fingerstyle
arrangements of tunes which were not originally written with the guitar in
mind. Like the other books, this one features thoughtful arrangements of classic and lesser-known tunes, geared toward the intermediate to advanced
player. (There are a few simpler pieces that industrious beginning players
should be able to work through.) The tunes are arranged with lots of harmony, as well as some syncopation and other effects (such as
bagpipe-like ornamentation).
"The book, which features Welsh, Scottish, Irish and English tunes, is
divided into four general sections. The first section has 33 airs, marches
and waltzes, including “The Old Resting Chair,” “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton”and “The Lark in the Clear Air.”
The second section sports 40 hornpipes, jigs and reels, such as “The Morpeth Rant,” “Pipe on the Hob,” “Cooley’s
Reel,” and “The Silver Spire.” Section three contains 11 tunes from the
Bunting Collection. (Edward Bunting, a young church organist, began to collect Irish tunes in the late 1700s, eventually producing three volumes
of “The Ancient Music of Ireland.”) Tunes here include classics like “Give
Me Your Hand” and “The Wild Geese.” The final section comprises 21 tunes
from Turlough O’Carolan. Since Weiser has already released a number of O’Carolan arrangements in other books, this time he has arranged some of
the lesser-known (but not lesser musically) pieces. These include “Thomas
Burke,” “Miss MacDermott,” “Carolan’s Fancy,” and “Madam Cole.” O’Carolan’s
strong melody lines suit the folk-classical style of Weiser’s arrangements
quite well.
"Weiser gives brief (two or three sentence) introductions to the tunes,
which are all in standard or dropped-D tuning. The presentation is clear and easily readable, in both tablature and standard notation. There is no
particular instruction in the playing of the tunes (or how to stretch the fingers to achieve what is sometimes required), but the publication focuses
on transcriptions of tune arrangements. However, without reservation, this
is a fine resource. To call it an “encyclopedia” is accurate, since many
guitarists will probably refer to it on a regular basis."
- Ivan Emke for Dirty Linen
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