THURSDAY 1 | Before they fell to the conquering forces of Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, vast swathes of central Europe – including what are now France, Switzerland and Austria – were ruled by Celtic speakers. They were by all accounts a raucous bunch: classical writers describe them as fighting ‘like wild beasts’ (and occasionally naked); they were accomplished head-hunters and, according to first century Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, Celtic men openly preferred male lovers.
The term Celt itself is a perversion of the word keltoi, used by the ancient Greeks to refer to certain ‘barbarian’ tribes (eternal snobs, they considered languages other than their own to be little more than childish babble, hence the term ‘barbarous’). Little is known about the ancient ancestors of these Gaels, Gauls and Galatians. The only written histories are those compiled by the Greeks and Romans, both sworn enemies of the Celts. As Standingstone.com artfully puts it, “It’s a bit like trying to reconstruct Lakota culture from the diaries of General Custer.”
Fast-forward through more than 2,000 years of turbulent history and Celtic-speaking peoples are today found only in the British Isles and western France. And now, rather less snobbishly than during the first millennium, the word Celtic is used to describe not only this branch of the Indo-European languages, but also an extraordinary musical legacy. Enter Kheltica, who offer an “entente chordial of musical traditions from France and the British Isles”.
Their eclectic mix of songs and dances from Brittany blended with traditional Irish and Scottish folk music is rivalled only by that of the band’s make-up: a singer and a mandolin player from Scotland; a British piper; French drummer; Russian guitarist; South African bass player; Malaysian violinist and French flautist. It gets crazier: for these sessions, the bass guitarist will be playing guitar, the drummer will be playing bass and a pianist will be playing violin.
WHO: Kheltica
WHAT: “An entente chordial of musical traditions from France and the British Isles”
WHERE: Slur Bar, Street 172 (Aug 1) and Le Deli, Street 178 (Aug 2)
WHEN: 9pm August 1 (Slur) and 7:30pm August 2 (Le Deli)
WHY: For a musical maelstrom and swift-footed circle dancing