Bagad

France · 1940s

Happy Dancing Epic Sentimental Intense

Your digging level for this genre

0/8

🏆

Description

Bagad (plural: bagadoù) is the modern Breton pipe-and-drum ensemble tradition from Brittany, France. A typical bagad combines Great Highland bagpipes (binioù braz), double-reed bombardes, and a Scottish-style drum corps (snares, tenors, and bass), performing arranged suites based on traditional Breton dance melodies.

Unlike informal folk dance bands, bagadoù are staged ensembles with precise drill, competition-oriented arrangements, and a characteristic bright, martial sonority. Their repertoire draws on regional dance forms (gavotte, an dro, hanter-dro, plinn, ridée, laridé, and more), presented in multi-part suites that spotlight melodic variation, antiphony between bombarde and pipes, and intricate drum orchestrations.

While rooted in Breton folk music, the bagad format was shaped by Scottish pipe band practice, resulting in a uniquely Breton yet pan-Celtic ensemble sound that has become a cultural emblem of Brittany and a centerpiece of the regional musical revival.

History

How to make a track in this genre

Top albums

Kejadenn

Bagad Kemperle

Doue Lann

Bagad Men Ha Tan & Henri Texier

Bagad Men Ha Tan & Doudou N'Diaye Rose

Fromveur

Bagad de Lann-Bihoué

Main artists

Top tracks

Locked

Share your favorite track to unlock other users’ top tracks

Influenced by

Breton Folk Music

Breton folk music is the traditional music of Brittany (Breizh) in north‑western France. It is rooted in Celtic culture and sung primarily in the Breton language, with additional traditions in Gallo. The style encompasses vigorous dance repertoires performed at fest‑noz (night festivals) and deeply emotive narrative songs (gwerzioù). Signature elements include call‑and‑response singing such as kan ha diskan for dance, modal melodies (often Dorian, Aeolian, or Mixolydian), and sustained drones. Core instruments are the bombarde (a double‑reed shawm) and the biniou (Breton bagpipe), alongside veuze, diatonic accordion, fiddle, Celtic harp, and hurdy‑gurdy. The music’s dance‑driven forms (gavotte, an dro, hanter‑dro, plinn, ridée, etc.) use distinct step cycles and phrasing that shape melodic and rhythmic contour. Modern scenes also feature bagadoù (pipe‑and‑drum bands) and fusions with folk‑rock and contemporary Celtic styles. Fest‑noz culture—central to the living practice of Breton music—was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012.

Breton Celtic Folk Music

Breton Celtic folk music is the dance-centred traditional music of Brittany (Breizh) in north‑western France, rooted in the Breton language and the wider pan‑Celtic soundworld. It revolves around fest‑noz social dances, call‑and‑response singing (kan ha diskan), narrative laments (gwerz), and driving instrumental sets designed to keep long chains of dancers moving. Typical instruments include the bombarde and biniou kozh (Breton bagpipe), Celtic harp, diatonic accordion, fiddle, and later guitar and bouzouki; modern ensembles may also feature the Scottish Great Highland bagpipe (binioù bras) and snare drum under the influence of bagadoù (Breton pipe bands). Melodies are largely modal (Dorian, Mixolydian, Aeolian), drone‑based, and strongly rhythmic, serving specific dance types such as an dro, hanter‑dro, gavotte, plinn, laridé/ridée and others in metres from 2/4 and 4/4 to 6/8 and 12/8. While deeply traditional, the genre has continually refreshed itself through revivals and cross‑Celtic exchange, informing contemporary Celtic rock, Celtic electronica and global “world music” stages.

Celtic Folk Music

Celtic folk music is the umbrella for traditional song and dance-tune practices from the Celtic-speaking regions, especially Ireland and Scotland, and also Wales, Brittany, Cornwall, and the Isle of Man. It features modal melodies (often Dorian and Mixolydian), distinctive ornamentation, driving dance rhythms, and a strong oral/aural transmission tradition. Typical instruments include fiddle, flute, tin whistle, uilleann pipes or Great Highland bagpipes, Celtic harp, bodhrán, button accordion/concertina, and later accompaniment by guitar and bouzouki (often in modal tunings like DADGAD). Common tune types are reels (quick 4/4), jigs (6/8), slip jigs (9/8), hornpipes (dotted 4/4), polkas (2/4), strathspeys (with the “Scotch snap”), marches, and slow airs. Songs may be in English, Irish, or Scots Gaelic (and in Brittany, Breton), covering themes from love and emigration to work, history, and myth. As a modern genre category, Celtic folk music cohered during the mid-20th-century folk revival, which foregrounded regional traditions on stages and recordings while retaining the social, participatory essence of sessions, ceilidhs, and fest-noz gatherings.

Pipe Band Music

Pipe band music is the ensemble tradition centered on the Great Highland Bagpipe accompanied by a corps of high-tension snare drums, flourishing tenor drums, and bass drum. It evolved from Scottish Highland regimental practice and community bands into a precise, competition-driven art form. The idiom is defined by unison piping lines ornamented with codified gracenote figures, tight rhythmic interplay with rudimental Scottish drumming, and repertoire forms such as 2/4 and 6/8 marches, strathspeys, reels, jigs, hornpipes, and modern medleys. While rooted in Scottish heritage, pipe band music is now an international performance and contest tradition with world-class ensembles across the UK, Ireland, North America, Oceania, and beyond.

Marching Band

Marching band is a wind–percussion ensemble that performs while moving, combining musical presentation with choreographed drill formations. Typical instrumentation includes brass (trumpets, mellophones/flugelhorns, trombones, baritones/euphoniums, sousaphones), woodwinds (piccolos, flutes, clarinets, saxophones), and a battery percussion line (snares, multi-tenors/quads, bass drums, cymbals), often with a color guard and, in modern field shows, an optional front ensemble (mallet keyboards, auxiliary percussion, electronics). The genre spans parade-style performance at a steady march tempo and field-show productions that integrate popular, classical, and jazz repertoire with visual design. Styles range from “corps-style” precision drill to show-style presentations rooted in HBCU traditions that emphasize groove, dance, and call‑and‑response crowd engagement.

Celtic

Celtic is a broad, pan-regional umbrella for the traditional and tradition-inspired music of the Celtic nations—primarily Ireland and Scotland, but also Brittany (France), Wales, Galicia (Spain), the Isle of Man, and Cornwall. It is characterized by modal melodies (often Dorian and Mixolydian), lilting dance rhythms (reels in 4/4, jigs in 6/8, slip jigs in 9/8, hornpipes with dotted swing), and extensive ornamentation (cuts, rolls, crans, grace notes). Typical instruments include fiddle, wooden flute, tin whistle, uilleann pipes or Great Highland bagpipes, button accordion/concertina, bodhrán, Celtic harp, bouzouki (adopted into Irish music), guitar, and occasionally piano. Vocal traditions range from unaccompanied sean-nós singing to narrative ballads in English, Irish (Gaeilge), and Scottish Gaelic, as well as Breton and Welsh. Modern "Celtic" often denotes both heritage styles and contemporary hybrids that blend folk with pop, rock, and ambient/new age aesthetics while retaining core melodic modes, dance forms, and timbral signatures.

Folk

Folk is a song-centered acoustic tradition rooted in community storytelling, everyday life, and social history. It emphasizes clear melodies, simple harmonies, and lyrics that foreground narrative, protest, and personal testimony. As a modern recorded genre, folk coalesced in the early-to-mid 20th century in the United States out of older ballad, work song, and rural dance traditions. It typically features acoustic instruments (guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica), strophic song forms, and participatory singing (choruses, call-and-response).

French Folk Music

French folk music encompasses the traditional song and dance practices of the many regions of France, from Brittany and Normandy in the west to Occitania and Provence in the south, Alsace and Lorraine in the east, and Burgundy, Auvergne, Poitou, and beyond. It features distinctive regional languages (Breton, Occitan, Corsican, Basque, Alsatian dialects, and French itself), characteristic vocal styles such as the Breton call-and-response kan ha diskan and Corsican multipart paghjella, and a rich dance repertoire (bourrée, gavotte, an dro, hanter-dro, branle, scottish, mazurka, polka, and valse). Core instruments include the diatonic button accordion, hurdy-gurdy (vielle à roue), French bagpipes (cabrette, cornemuse, biniou), bombarde, fiddle, clarinet, tambourin à cordes, and modern additions like guitar and bouzouki. Social dance events (bal folk, fest-noz in Brittany) keep the tradition alive, while revival artists and ensembles bridge archival repertoire with contemporary arrangements.

Fife And Drum

Fife and drum is a historical military and civic music tradition built around the piercing, small wooden fife and a battery of rope-tension side (snare) drums plus a large bass drum. The ensemble plays signal calls, marches, and quicksteps used historically to regulate troops and accompany parades and ceremonies. Musically, it emphasizes bright, diatonic fife melodies—often in Ionian or Mixolydian modes—supported by open, rudimental drumming (flams, drags, rolls) in a strongly metric, march-oriented feel. Repertoires include camp duty signals and set tunes that trace from Swiss and Germanic fifing into British and Colonial American practice, later becoming a heritage performance idiom in Europe and North America.

Scottish Country Dance Music

Scottish country dance music is the lively, highly structured dance-band tradition that accompanies Scottish country dancing. It centers on tune types such as reels (2/2), jigs (6/8), strathspeys (4/4 with the distinctive “Scotch snap”), and hornpipes (4/4 with a gentle swing). The core sound is led by fiddles and/or accordion, supported by piano (vamping left hand and chordal right hand), with occasional guitar, bass, and light drums. Tempi and phrasing are optimized for dancers, typically in 8-bar phrases forming 32-, 40-, or 48-bar tunes repeated to fit dance sets (e.g., 8×32 bars). The style emphasizes lift, rhythmic clarity, and clean articulation so dancers can feel each step. Modern bands inherit a long tradition that blends older Scottish and English country-dance idioms with Baroque-era harmonic sensibilities and, later, the tight ensemble approach of 20th‑century British dance bands.

Has influenced

Celtic Rock

Celtic rock blends the energy and instrumentation of rock with the melodic modes, dance rhythms, and timbres of Celtic traditions from Ireland, Scotland, and Brittany. Electric guitars, bass, and drum kit sit alongside fiddles, tin whistles, uilleann pipes, bouzouki, and bagpipes, creating anthemic songs and tune sets that feel both ancient and modern. Emerging in the early 1970s, the style offered a contemporary vehicle for Celtic languages and storytelling, while keeping jigs, reels, and airs alive on amplified stages. Over time it grew into a festival-ready sound that influenced punk, metal, and various pop crossovers, and became a musical emblem of Celtic identity at home and in the diaspora.

Celtic Electronica

Celtic electronica is a fusion genre that blends the melodies, modes, and instruments of Celtic traditional music with contemporary electronic production. Typical sounds include fiddles, uilleann pipes, whistles, Celtic harp, bouzouki, and bodhrán layered with synthesizers, samplers, drum machines, and atmospheric processing. Jigs, reels, and airs are reimagined over breakbeats, 4/4 house grooves, downtempo rhythms, and trance inflections, often retaining modal flavors like Dorian and Mixolydian. The result is both rootsy and futuristic: a dance- and cinema-friendly soundscape where Gaelic and Scots traditions meet ambient textures, trip‑hop weight, and club-ready momentum.

Celtic Metal

Celtic metal is a fusion of heavy metal with the traditional music of the Celtic nations, especially Ireland and Scotland. It blends distorted guitars, bass, and drums with folk instruments such as uilleann pipes, tin whistle, fiddle, bouzouki, harp, and bodhrán. Stylistically, it often borrows rhythmic cells from jigs and reels (in 6/8 or 12/8), employs modal harmony (Dorian and Mixolydian are common), and incorporates pentatonic and drone-based melodies. The lyrical focus typically explores mythology, folklore, history, and landscapes of the Celtic world, delivered through a mix of harsh and clean vocals, sometimes in Gaelic or other Celtic languages. The result ranges from epic, melodic arrangements to blackened, atmospheric soundscapes, maintaining a strong sense of place and tradition within a metal framework.

Celtic New Age

Celtic new age blends the timbres and modal melodies of Celtic traditions with the serene atmospheres of New Age and ambient music. It favors ethereal synth pads, spacious reverbs, and gentle acoustic textures, often centering harp, tin whistle, uilleann pipes, fiddle, and airy choral layers. Harmonically, it leans on modal centers (Dorian, Aeolian, and Mixolydian), drones, and slow-moving progressions that evoke pastoral settings and mythic narratives. Tempos are typically moderate to slow, emphasizing sustained tone, delicate ornamentation, and meditative repetition over rhythmic drive. Vocals—when present—frequently feature layered harmonies in Gaelic or English, reinforcing a sense of timelessness, nature, and spirituality.

World Fusion

World fusion is a broad, exploratory approach that blends musical traditions from different cultures with contemporary forms such as jazz, rock, ambient, and electronic music. Rather than being tied to a single folk lineage, it privileges hybrid instrumentation, modal and rhythmic vocabularies from around the globe, and collaborative performance practices. Compared with the more pop-oriented worldbeat, world fusion tends to be more improvisational, texture-driven, and studio- or ensemble-focused. It commonly juxtaposes instruments like oud, kora, sitar, tabla, duduk, and frame drums with electric guitar, synthesizers, and jazz rhythm sections, often emphasizing modal harmony, drones, polyrhythms, and odd meters.

Folk Rock

Folk rock is a fusion genre that blends the narrative lyricism, modal melodies, and acoustic timbres of traditional folk with the backbeat, amplification, and song structures of rock. It typically pairs acoustic or traditional instruments (acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiddle) with a rock rhythm section (electric guitar, bass, drums), often featuring chiming 12‑string guitar textures, close vocal harmonies, and socially conscious or storytelling lyrics. The result ranges from intimate, reflective ballads with a steady backbeat to more anthemic, roots‑driven rock. Emerging in the mid‑1960s through artists such as Bob Dylan and The Byrds, folk rock became a gateway for traditional and roots materials to enter mainstream popular music, and it seeded later movements from country rock and Americana to jangle pop and modern indie folk.

Challenges

Digger Battle

Let's see who can find the best track in this genre