Neat site from Library of Congress

Subject: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Oct 97 - 05:10 PM

was searching on Scots dialect...and found this site
lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/afccchtml/cowperf.html

old recordings in L of C...all sorts of music...either RealAudio or .wav format...it played real well for me...

data and notes as well..

link fixed by
- el joeclone -

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: RS
Date: 26 Oct 97 - 11:32 PM

To Bill D:

Your Library of Congress link seems to be anchored to the Mudcat Home page ... at least that's where I ended up when I clicked on it. Worked fine when I hand-typed the URL though (I couldn't figure out how to cut & paste the title of an active link without including the anchoring URL) - I agree, a great locale!

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 27 Oct 97 - 12:46 AM

You've located the Sidney Robertson Cowell collection of folk music from Northern California. Mrs. Cowell was married to the American composer Henry Cowell, who used tunes and themes from American folk music in his works. (Perhaps his best known pieces are his "Hymns and Fugueing Tunes".)

This is the first of the music collections of the Library of Congress to be mounted on the web. They're being mounted by the National Digital Library (where Lisa Null works).

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Oct 97 - 11:11 AM

RS...sorry about the confusion with the link...I used the URL as the clickable text...just to allow someone to sort of see where they were headed...it works...it just 'feels' funny...

Charlie...I wondered if this wasn't part of what Lisa was refering to earlier this summer...glad to see it started...neat songs and lots of info!! (I especially liked finding William T. Day (Captain in the Oakland CA. Salvation Army) singing 'Little Mohee' etc.! Might be a relative!(especially with his wife in the background feeding him words when he forgot...sounds like my family alright!!)

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Jon W.
Date: 27 Oct 97 - 12:02 PM

I'll take the liberty of making the link clickable:

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/afccchtml/cowperf.html

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Shula & Akiba
Date: 27 Oct 97 - 07:36 PM

Dear Bill,

Neat, indeed! (Say "Hi!" to R.F.)

S&A

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Nov 97 - 01:49 PM

re-upping for those who might have missed it during slow times...

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 06:57 AM

This thread got picked out in Max's thread asking for suggestions for threads to use in a grant application.

It's got some incredible stuff in it, and I thought refreshing the thread would let more people know abouit this amazing resource.

Only thing is, I find that though there are RealAudio buttons, they don't seem to play with my version (RealPlayer 8 Basic). If anyone's got advice on this, I'd appreciate it. With this kind of wide-ranging collection, streaming is a much more practical way of investigating what is available.

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 01:39 PM

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/afccchtml/cowperf.htmlx

a SPACE after html shown by the 'x'

was the culprit in the original CLICKER...

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 03:16 PM

I was looking last night, and I found 'some' files worked and some didn't...I tried both MP3 and RA, and I think maybe some are just not there...some worked just fine

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 04:29 PM

Is there anybody who could get on to the relevant part of the Library of Congres and find out? It might come better from someone in the States, since it's your Library.

It's very frustrating, because it's a brilliant resource. There's nothing like in the British Library that's for sure. (And if I'm wrong there, then correct my mistake and make me happy.)

I tried it on the latest update of RealAudio on my son's computer, RealPlayer One(I got rid of that on mine in favour of an earlier version, because it seemed to want to take over the machine.) It doesn't seem to be able to play the files either.

If some of the files aren't there, maybe some kind of list of these might be possible. But on the one I tried the MP3 worked fine, but there was no luck with the RealAudio, and I've have thought it'd probably be all or nothing.

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 05:07 PM

I just listened to "Willian Day" doing 'Little Mohee' in streaming RealAudio (ram)...but the MP3 says 'file not found' if you ask it to play...but if you download it, it works fine.

The Opera browser I use asks you what you want to do..open a file or save it, and is busy in the background GETTING the file while you decide. But .ram is the streaming version, so, if you download it, all you get it the shortcut link back to the site for streaming...while the MP3 seems to NOT stream...so, if I have it right, you have to treat each type of file differently. The extension for downloadable RealAudio is .ra..

(Check the "Rose, the Record Lady" site to see the diff....she provides both .ram & .ra, depending on what you want)

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 05:31 PM

I've just been trying The Little Mohee and it wouldn't work either. A mystery.

I've been trying for the streaming version, which is ram anyway - and if I stick the arrow over the link, that is what shows up at the bottom of the screen. But it won't load. I've tried changing the address to end with ra (and to rm, which is sometimes used), but no luck.

This has been with RealAudio 8 Basic. I haven't yet tried with my son's RealPlayer update.

The MP3s I've tried seem to work - but that takes a long time if you are hoping to whip through and get a taster to decide the ones you want to download.

When I click on the Real Audio link, up come the little RealPlayer on my screen - and then a message saying that it was unable to connect to the server. I was assuming something must be wrong up the far end - but then Bill D says he gets Little Mohee OK, and I get that message on that one too.

Maybe there is something about the version of RealAudio I'm using - it occurred to me that the Library of Congress might in fact prefer earlier versions, in spite of what they say. Or perhaps they've fixed it so it can't be picked up outside the States, which doesn't seem too likely; or I should try at some other time of the day or night.

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 05:41 PM

if I ask my browser to *download* the .ram file (right click and save link), I get a 66 byte shortcut...then when I click on THAT in my file list, it opens Real Player and connects to the site and plays...weird...there's a lot of variations when RA in invloved.

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Abby Sale
Date: 01 Mar 02 - 08:24 PM

Guys, Something odd there. I also use RP 8 Basic and it worked fine. It's build 6.0.9.584 if there are different versions of it and I got the ram at
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?cowellbib:3:./temp/~ammem_a0fs::@@@mdb=aasm,ftvbib,rbpebib,musdibib,afcreed,cowellbib,toddbib,lomaxbib,raelbib,gottlieb,scsm,ncpm,omhbib,gmd,dukesm,mussm,amss,varstg California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties (ie, The Cowell Collection.)

Maybe try again?

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 07:40 PM

I've tried a few of them and not had any problems with RA. I got the William Day one here.

Hope that helps. What an incredible resource. I need to get a cd burner so I can send some of these to my dad. He'd love them. Listening to a Basque tune now, beautiful.

Thanks!

kat

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 08:02 PM

Still no luck. Tried it at a time when it was small hours in the States; and with my Firewall switched off as well.

I've never had this with any other site, for example with getting the streaming audio from honking duck, with the old 78s. But from this site it's just "unable to connect to the server."

And this happens with two computers in separate houses, with different versions of RealPlayer. One thing they have in common is they are both PCs and both broadband cable connections with ntl, but I can't see why that should be a problem.

But for MP3 downloads there's no problem - I got some great Armenian music - so I can't see that it could be that there is some block against providing it to people outside the States; and anyway this doesn't sound very likely - or even technically practicable.

The mystery deepens. Has anyone else been having these problems?

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 08:36 PM

hhmmm McGrath...I just went to this page and clicked on the RA version of "I've Only Been Down to the Pub" and it played just fine.

Using RealPlayer 8 basic build 6.0.9.380

perhaps there is some setting turned off? In RP 'view, preferences' there are special settings under 'connections' and 'transport' for unusual circumstances...bandwith and buffering are sometimes relevant..

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 08:49 PM

I am on a PC, also, with cable hookup, RP 8 Basic. I don't think Bush has managed to spread the nationalism that far, so it's doubtful that it's blocking you "furriners." *BG* Sorry, not much help. I hope you get it sorted.

kat

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: GUEST,McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 09:04 PM

Good idea Bill - I've had a go adjusting the settings, no luck so far. But since it works fine with honkingduck and other sites my feeling is there must be something about the requirements of this site that is different.

The only suggest why a particular site uniquely shows this "unable to connect" message that is given on the RealAudio help pages is that there might be a high level of traffic. But I can't imagine there would be all that high a demand for the kind of recordings I've been asking for, especially in the small hours.

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Mar 02 - 09:09 PM

well, if you know someone near you with a similar setup who can try the same clicky, you could compare notes..*shrug*...I can't really guess.....

Subject: RE: Neat site from Lib.of Congress
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Mar 02 - 10:15 AM

It's started working! I hadn't done anything new, so I think it must be something up the other end.

I've checked with a few other sites where the same problem had arisen,and they seem ok now. I think they were all American.

So the mystery isn't solved, but the problem is. A great resource - why can't you Americans have another adnministration like Roosevelt's that encourages and facilitrates that kind of recording project? (More to the point, why can't we have one over here that shows the slightest interest in things like this?)