ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how Celtic music is used to invoke the sonic world of the Middle Ages in historical and fantasy films on account of it being perceived as ‘authentic’ folk and medieval music. This conception of Celtic music has emerged as a result of the widespread commercialisation and globalisation of the Celtic tradition and Celtic music label in the 1980s and 1990s. The chapter outlines how Celtic music’s presentation as medieval music in the historical film is most often rooted in a community, rural, or folk setting, drawing upon perceived folk and medieval connotations as a means of evoking an ersatz nostalgia for an irretrievable past.
