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23 Jul 12 - 11:11 AM (#3380396) Subject: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: Desert Dancer Access to the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library Just Got Bigger: Rare music and dance collections now available online to a worldwide audience (EFDSS News) • Giving access to more than 2,000 pages from the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library's unique collections online • Safeguarding the future of England's traditional dances and tunes by encouraging long locked away treasures to be seen and played again • View now Rare dance and tune collections dating back to the 1700s have been made available to a worldwide audience through the English Folk Dance and Song Society's (EFDSS) website. These historic documents, previously only available to visitors of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) at Cecil Sharp House, have been added to VWML Online. They will sit alongside existing digital libraries and galleries, which include Cecil Sharp's Diaries and photos from the Sharp collection, as well as the online Take 6 manuscript archive – featuring the work of some of England's most prominent folksong and dance collectors. This development of this resource has been made possible by funds donated by the Islington Folk Club. The expansion of VWML Online is part of EFDSS' commitment to ensure wider access and the long-term preservation of the library's collections, which celebrate the many and various cultural traditions of England. The printed collections so far included new initiative are: • Wright's Complete Collection of Celebrated Country Dances, vol. 1; • Urbani & Liston's A Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, 1800; • Preston's Twenty four Country Dances from the years 1793, 1794, 1796, 1798, 1799 & 1800; • Skillern's Twenty Four Country Dances for the years 1799, 1780, 1781 & 1782; • Straight & Skillern's Minuets For the Year 1777. Also included are the manuscript tune books belonging to John Moore (three volumes), W.G., John Malchair of Oxford, Henry Huntlea, Yarker and Skene (two volumes), plus six anonymous tune books dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Malcolm Taylor, Director of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML), said: "We are delighted to be able to make these collections available alongside some of our other treasures via VWML Online and the Take 6 Archive. "It is undeniable that the internet is allowing us to breathe new life into these often unknown materials which have been, for people unable to visit Cecil Sharp House, buried or locked away and effectively invisible. Now a whole new audience can become acquainted with musical traditions that have emanated on their own doorsteps. "We are very grateful to Robin Seifert for photographing most of these collections and the Islington Folk Club for their initial funding for this project." Martin Nail, Treasurer of the Islington Folk Club, said: "The club's resident band is a vital part of the club and we are therefore delighted to support the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library in making this part of England's music heritage available to a wider public. The best outcome would be to hear these tunes being played again by a new generation of musicians." As more funds become available, more collections will be added. If you would like to donate to this project, please contact the Malcolm Taylor on malcolm@efdss.org or 0207 485 2206. EFDSS' next major digital project will be The Full English – a project to create the most comprehensive searchable database with images of English folk songs, tunes, dances and customs in the world - all as they were noted down from the voices of the people. It will bring together the collections of Harry Albino, Lucy Broadwood, Clive Carey, Percy Grainger, Maud Karpeles, Frank Kidson, Thomas Fairman Ordish, Cecil Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Ella Mary Leather and Alfred Williams for the first time and allow free public access to 58,400 digitised collection items through a new web portal, due to be online in 2013. -- Got this from EFDSS and CDSS via Facebook over the weekend. ~ Becky in Tucson |
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23 Jul 12 - 12:20 PM (#3380443) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: Sian H How fantastic! Just had a look. Thanks for letting us know! |
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24 Jul 12 - 08:56 AM (#3380783) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: GUEST,leeneia Okay, okay. The dance tunes are in the Gallery. I made my way to the dances, hoping I could play them and pick my favorites. I got to here: http://library.efdss.org/cgi-bin/dancebooks.cgi How do I make it go past the first page of the book? |
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24 Jul 12 - 10:08 AM (#3380818) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: SteveMansfield How do I make it go past the first page of the book? Hover your mouse over the image of the first page, and red < and > symbols will appear overlaid on the page image. Click > to go to the next page, < to go to the previous page. |
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24 Jul 12 - 11:00 AM (#3380844) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: Desert Dancer There are actually three ways to navigate through a book: - as Steve Mansfield said, use the arrows that appear when your mouse is over a page - enter a page number in the box to the right that says "Page [ 1 ] of 100." (or however many pages) - in the larger box below that, slide the pointer up or down. A small preview image of each page appears within the pointer. ~ Becky in Tucson |
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24 Jul 12 - 11:02 AM (#3380845) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: Desert Dancer A fourth method: simply click on a page, and the next will be shown. ~ B in T |
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24 Jul 12 - 03:59 PM (#3380974) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: GUEST,leeneia I'll try hovering. The other two methods didn't work for me. |
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24 Jul 12 - 05:23 PM (#3381008) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: GUEST,Richard Butterworth Leeneia: which browser are you using? |
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25 Jul 12 - 09:48 AM (#3381268) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: GUEST,leeneia IE 8. I don't think it's my browser, I think my computer is getting old. I returned to the site, turned on Noteworthy Composer, ran the mouse over the page, and the arrows appeared. Then I went through quite a few pieces, playing the tunes. It was fun, and I recommend it. |
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25 Jul 12 - 11:34 AM (#3381308) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: GUEST,Richard Butterworth Glad you're finding it useful. If you (or anyone else) has any other problems or comments, please contact the VWML library staff (email at the bottom of the page). |
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25 Jul 12 - 11:45 AM (#3381315) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: Jack Campin A very much simpler interface that simply let you download each entire volume as a single PDF would be useful (MUCH preferable for me than your page-at-a-time interface). |
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25 Jul 12 - 02:00 PM (#3381389) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: Desert Dancer Yes, it's unfortunate that the javascript interface makes it just about impossible to save an image with anything other than a screen grab, so users will have difficulty making use of the material offline. ~ Becky in Tucson |
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25 Jul 12 - 03:54 PM (#3381425) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: GUEST,Richard Butterworth As I said, if you could please direct comments/problems to the email address on the page it'd be much appreciated as I don't regularly frequent mudcat. Becky: thanks for pointing that out. Its now fixed; you should be able to right click an image and save it, etc. (You might need to reset your browser's cache first though.) Jack: I'm afraid funding for this project didn't extend to creating the sort of pdf books you suggest. However, the images themselves are available here... http://library.efdss.org/images/dancebooks/fullsize/ ...(the filenames are made of the accession number of the book, followed by four digits giving the page number) so if you or anyone would care to create pdf versions of the books, you're more than welcome. If anyone does, they'd also be more than welcome to pass them back to the library and we'll be happy to publish them on the site. Thanks again for your comments. Richard B |
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26 Jul 12 - 01:17 AM (#3381585) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: Desert Dancer Got it! Thanks for the quick work, Richard! ~ Becky in Tucson |
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26 Jul 12 - 10:08 AM (#3381727) Subject: RE: VWML online: rare dance & tune sets From: GUEST,FloraG What would be really nice would be if some kind soul would play the tunes and add sound. Even better, if some dance club would do the dances and put on something like you tube. Anyone that adventurious? FloraG. |