An Alarc’h - Breton Celtic War Chant

Vocals & arrangement by Farya Faraji. This is a folk song from Brittany in the Breton language, one of the surviving remnants of Common Brythonic, the language once spoken in Great-Britain before the Anglo-Saxon arrival. The song is found in the 19th century collection of folk songs called “Barzaz Breiz,“ put together by Breton philologist Théodore Claude Henri, vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqué. The song is written with a profoundly nationalistic and patriotic Breton angle, and recounts the return of Yann IV, known as the Swan of Monfort, who was exiled to Britain for a time, but returned in 1379 to defend Brittany against a French force led by another Breton, Bertrand du Guesclin. There, Yann won against Betrand, and regained control of the throne of Brittany. The instrumentation is typical of Breton music, and consists of the Breton bombard, a reed instrument similar to the medieval shawm or the Middle-Eastern zurna, a bagpipe, a fiddle, a flute, a guitar providing t