Search for Manx Music

Two of my greatest passions are music and genealogy.  When I was searching for some of the family history from the Isle of Man, I greatly advanced in my search for Manx Music.

The Isle of Man is situated in the Irish Sea, roughly halfway between Dublin, Ireland, and Liverpool, England.  It is one of six main Celtic Nations (each with their own version of the Gaelic language), along with: Ireland, Scotland, Cornwall, Wales, and Brittany.  It is know for a rugged coastline, a bike race, a unique flag, and a cat with no tail.  The dark Irish comedy called Waking Ned Devine was set in Ireland, but actually filmed on the Isle of Man.

The Isle of Man flag has its origins from an
ancient symbol called the triskelion.
It is widely through to represent always landing
on your feet.

I've known of my connection to the Isle of Man for many years, and have been trying to find out about the Manx Music.  I located a couple of recordings with Manx Music performed by people from the Isle of Man, and others who lived elsewhere, but wanted to preserve this unique music.

The Celtic Voices; Women of Song features four wonderful musicians,
with Emma Christian being from the Isle of Man.  Emma's picture (not the one pictured above)
bears a resemblance to my sister.  Her words are in the Manx Gaelic language. 

This album has music of the Isle of Man,

but is performed by people from the

United States.

Finding music to play from the Isle of Man presented some challenges, which were solved by the search for my family history.  It can be advantageous when looking up genealogical information to search for authors which may have already done some of the groundwork.  I've actually found several books related to my family by searching for the various last names with book sellers.

Much to my delight, I found the Manx National Songs book reprinted by the Forgotten Books company.  It was music that came from the collection of three people, including Dr. J. Clague, who has the same surname as my ancestors from the Isle of Man.  His name is misspelled on the cover, but is correct on the inside.

I searched through the book for songs to add to my repertoire; stopping from time to time to play one on the fiddle.  The first song I played was A Manx Wedding, but I decided not to perform that one yet due to the challenges of making many page turns, while playing an instrument that requires two hands.  Manxmen we'll remain! ended up being the first Manx song that I performed, due to it's unique character (I enjoyed the challenge), shorter length, and it seemed to emanate from my very soul.

I plan to continue to perform Manx Music in the future.  It is fun to think of my ancestors playing the same tunes, possibly hundreds of years ago, that I am playing now.  In many ways, it honors their memory, and gives me a greater connection to them than I have ever had before.