The Irish seem born with a love of music. At social gatherings, everyone’s always ready to sing his or her “party piece.” Performances are judged less by skill than by uninhibited sincerity or showmanship. Nearly every Irish household has some kind of musical instrument. That love is especially strong for traditional Irish music. You can…

Traditionally, music is considered a celebration of the Divine, and musical instruments as the messengers—the sacred tools—relaying the Divine word. No matter what ethnicity or race, or what part of the world one may be from, everyone seems to understand the feelings that the universal language of music communicates. For instance, in ancient China—ages before the…