History Music / LoreenaMcKennitt

* EpicInstrumentalOpener: "The Old Ways" has about a minute and a half of instrumentals before the singing begins. And it is indeed epic.
* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: Justified, since she ''is'' a Celtic-inspired musician. To be specific, Loreena uses uilleann pipes, which are the less-well known Irish variant.

Loreena [=McKennitt=] is a [[CanadianMusic Canadian singer and musician]]. Her songs have a distinct Celtic and Middle Eastern tone (she's of Scottish descent), but are sometimes described as NewAge. Her songs are often ballads, and she's characterized by her high, echoing soprano voice. She found her calling to music after trying to be a veterinarian, and has since then sold more than 13 million copies of her albums. She's often compared to Music/{{Enya}} as they both have Celt roots and use Gaelic in their music, but Loreena's music is more inspired by works of literature (most often Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Blake and William Butler Yeats) and is considered to be more grounded. Many of her songs have roots in English or Celtic folk songs, but more recently her music has been inspired by Arabian/Turkish lore.

* NonAppearingTitle: The majority of her original songs which are not poems set to music or traditional songs have titles like this (though they are usually still thematically appropriate). Even a few of the poems and traditional songs have titles like this too. Examples include: "The Mystic's Dream", "The Dark Night of the Soul", "Full Circle", and "Skellig" (the title of which actually makes no sense unless one reads the liner notes for the explanation).

* DespairEventHorizon: McKennitt seems to have hit this when her fiancee died in 1998. Soon after, she dropped almost completely off the map and released no new albums for 8 years.

* ConceptAlbum: To some extent, every one of her albums follows the concept of "inspirations received while studying and journeying", but some are more clearly travel-oriented than others (''The Book of Secrets'' and ''An Ancient Muse''). Both the latter and ''The Mask and the Mirror'' have the ArabianNightsDays theme.

* ILoveTheDead: Implied, along with TheLostLenore, at the end of "Annachie Gordon".
* ItsPopularNowItSucks[[invoked]]: Loreena herself seems to have felt this way about her career, seeing as once she broke through with ''The Book of Secrets'' she took a 9 year hiatus.

* It'sPopular,NowItSucks: Loreena herself seems to have felt this way about her career, seeing as once she broke through with ''The Book of Secrets'' she took a 9 year hiatus.

* BrokenBird: Quite literally in "The Bonny Swans," a song inspired by the folk tale "The Twa Sisters."

->''A clouded dream on an earthly night''
->''Hangs upon the crescent moon...''
->''A voiceless song in an ageless light''

->''It's there that my heart is longing''

* AnonymousBand: Averted. While none of her band's members are known to the general public outside of her work, nor do they act as anything more than the background musicians to her FaceOfTheBand, all of their names are always listed and credited in every album, and at concerts she makes an effort to give them all spotlight moments and even introductions at times. Among those singled out are Brian Hughes (most guitar work, including ethnic and Celtic types), Caroline Lavelle (cello), and especially Hugh Marsh (violin).

* BrokenBird: Quite literally in "Bonny Swans," a song inspired by the folk tale "The Twa Sisters."

* CompositeCharacter: Although nothing in the song suggests it, the music video for "Bonny Swans" strongly implies that the harper who brings the youngest daughter as a harp to her father's hall is also the true love for whom her oldest sister drowned her; the actor and costume for both is the same. This does add a rather powerful resonance to the song's denouement, however.

* EverythingsLouderWithBagpipes: Justified, since she ''is'' a Celtic-inspired musician.

* FamilyUnfriendlyDeath: In her retelling of the "Bonny Swans", the youngest sister is drowned so her older sister can have her man. She transforms into a swan... which then is turned into a harp.

* HarpOfFemininity: The harp is one of her signature instruments along with rare Celtic instruments.

* PassingTheTorch: The monk of "Skellig", giving the books he has written to John so as to keep knowledge and education alive.

* MurderBallad: "The Bonny Swans".

* SignatureSong: Probably "The Mystic's Dream". Or "The Mummers' Dance".

* {{Star Crossed Lovers}}:
** "The Dark Night of the Soul" ''sounds'' like it's all about this -- a girl running off into the middle of the night to meet her lover. It's actually intended to be a spiritual allegory; the lyrics were taken from a poem by St. John of the Cross.
** Played straight in another song, "Annachie Gordon." They even ''die'' at the end.

* AnonymousBand: Averted. While none of her band's members are known to the general public outside of her work, nor do they act as anything more than the background musicians to her FaceOfTheBand, all of their names are always listed and credited in every album, and at concerts she makes an effort to give them all spotlight moments and even introductions at times.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/B000J233SK_2446.jpg

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Aside from the songs which are directly taken from poems that reference literature ("The Lady of Shalott", "Cymbeline", "The Dark Night of the Soul", "The Two Trees", "Prospero's Speech", "The Highwayman", "The English Ladye and the Knight", and more), two songs also have more oblique allusions: "Dante's Prayer" references the fact she was reading the ''Inferno'' while riding a train through Siberia and contrasted the text with what she saw out the window; and "Penelope's Song" is written as a lament from [[TheOdyssey Odysseus's]] wife waiting for him to come home.

* RecycledSoundtrack[=/=]RecycledTrailerMusic: "The Mystic's Dream" was used in the soundtrack for ''MistsOfAvalon''; "The Mummers' Dance" appeared in trailers for ''EverAfter''.

* RecycledSoundtrack[=/=]RecycledTrailerMusic: "The Mystic's Dream" was used in the soundtrack for ''Mists of Avalon''; "The Mummers' Dance" appeared in trailers for ''EverAfter''.

* LiterallyAllusionTitle: Aside from the songs which are directly taken from poems that reference literature ("The Lady of Shalott", "Cymbeline", "The Dark Night of the Soul", "The Two Trees", "Prospero's Speech", "The Highwayman", "The English Ladye and the Knight", and more), two songs also have more oblique allusions: "Dante's Prayer" references the fact Loreena was reading the ''Inferno'' while riding a train through Siberia and contrasted the text with what she saw out the window; and "Penelope's Song" is written as a lament from [[TheOdyssey Odysseus's]] wife waiting for him to come home.

* {{Motifs}}: Aside from her love of tragic ballads, a thread which begins in ''The Visit'' and weaves its way more fully into ''The Mask and the Mirror'' is that of the {{Unicorn}}. It first appears in "Courtyard Lullaby" (which [[ShownTheirWork also references]] the pomegranate tree, the fruit of which was often depicted in medieval times as the end of a unicorn's tail to represent the fecundity that was the unicorn's opposite), but images from the Unicorn Tapestries are used on the cover and liner sheets from ''The Mask and the Mirror'', and in the music video for "Bonny Swans" both the characters of the song and Loreena herself are shown literally becoming part of the tapestries.

Loreena [=McKennitt=] is a [[CanadianMusic Canadian singer and musician]]. Her songs have a distinct Celtic and Middle Eastern tone (she's of Scottish descent), but are sometimes described as NewAge. Her songs are often ballads, and she's characterized by her high, echoing soprano voice. She found her calling to music after trying to be a veterinarian, and has since then sold more than 13 million copies of her albums. She's often compared to {{Enya}} as they both have Celt roots and use Gaelic in their music, but Loreena's music is more inspired by works of literature (most often Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Blake and William Butler Yeats) and is considered to be more grounded. Many of her songs have roots in English or Celtic folk songs, but more recently her music has been inspired by Arabian/Turkish lore.

* SignatureSong: Probably "The Mystic's Dream".

* {{Star Crossed Lovers}}: "The Dark Night of the Soul" is all about this -- a girl running off into the middle of the night to meet her lover.
** Actually, it's intended to be a spiritual allegory; the lyrics were taken from a poem by St. John of the Cross.

Loreena McKennitt is a [[CanadianMusic Canadian singer and musician]]. Her songs have a distinct Celtic and Middle Eastern tone (she's of Scottish descent), but are sometimes described as NewAge. Her songs are often ballads, and she's characterized by her high, echoing soprano voice. She found her calling to music after trying to be a veterinarian, and has since then sold more than 13 million copies of her albums. She's often compared to {{Enya}} as they both have Celt roots and use Gaelic in their music, but Loreena's music is more inspired by works of literature (most often Alfred Lord Tennyson, William Blake and William Butler Yeats) and is considered to be more grounded. Many of her songs have roots in English or Celtic folk songs, but more recently her music has been inspired by Arabian/Turkish lore.

* ''The Wind That Shakes The Barley'' (2010)

!!Tropes in Loreena's work include:

* ArabianNightsDays: A heavy theme in both albums ''The Mask and the Mirror'' and ''An Ancient Muse''

* MagnumOpus: "The Book of Secrets" is by far her deepest and most intricate release to date, and that is saying something.

* MagnusOpus: "The Book of Secrets" is by far her deepest and most intricate release to date, and that is saying something.