This site is best viewed at a minimum of 600x800 resolution and with some sort of scrolling device like Logitech Trackman Marble or Microsoft's Intellimouse...
Read the information on this page before sending e-mail. I provided this page because I get tons of mail which I cannot keep up with. I will not respond to questions if the answer is here. I mean no personal affront by not responding, it's just that I don't have the time to do so. I hope you find the answer here. If it's not here, I don't have an answer.
A better name for this site would be "Traditional and Popular Songs of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and America." Most of the songs are folk music, that is, music with a long oral tradition that has no known author (see the Folk Miniencyclopedia for a better definition). However, there are many that have a known author and therefore do not fit the academic definition of folk music. All of the songs are circa 1600 to 1922.
Accoustic music from the 1960s and later is also known as folk music. Anything created after 1922 is protected by the author's or publisher's copyright. Therefore I cannot put original songs by James Taylor; Peter, Paul and Mary; Andy Stewart; The Chieftans; The Clancy Brothers; Arlo Guthrie; Mary Black; etc. on my site. Unfortunately, World War II songs are also covered by copyrights. Popular songs such as Ashokan Farewell, Today, The Dark Isle, Kilkelly, The Queen of Argyll and many others are protected by current copyright. Although they sound as if they are old folk songs, they are not.
I pay for a limited number of hits. If that limit is reached during the day, the page is inaccessible. Try back the next day.
At this point I usually reach the limit two or three times a week. Some of the traffic is not due to people directly visiting the site, but people who have linked directly to my music for the backgrounds on their web pages. I have tried to figure out a way to stop this and change the location of my music regularly to discourage the practice - but it continues.
The quality of tunes varies. Part of this is the sequencer (the person who created the midi) and part is the quality of their soundcard and the quality of your sound card. Tunes that previously sounded terrific may not sound as good when you upgrade your sound card - on the other hand, they may sound better!
I often get the midi files and lyrics from different sources, so the tune may not always fit the lyrics exactly, approximately, or sometimes, much at all.
If you distribute any of these tunes in a zip file (or any other compressed format) you must provide a text file which credits the sequencers and provide a copy of this information or a link to this information.
YOU MAY NOT ALTER ANY OF THE MIDIS ON THIS SITE and distribute them - except for the single line melody tunes from the Carolan pages. That includes changing instruments, transposing or removing author credit and information from the midi file.
You may not publish any of the tunes by Lesley Nelson-Burns or information on this site in either digital or paper format.
You may not transform any of these files into karaoke (.kar) files.
If you are looking for a particular midi that is not here try doing a search first (read the instructions carefully) to make sure it isn't here. Then try some of the links to midi sites on my links page.
If you are looking for sheet music of the tunes you can try the Resource Center and choose Songbooks. Many of the resources I use that are in print are there with some information on the songbook so you aren't ordering blind.
Most people, however, are looking for free sheet music. I have no plans to include the sheet music at this site. It takes up too much space and there are copyright issues for anything dated after 1922. There are several excellent sources for public domain sheet music. They are:
I will not send sheet music to people, no matter how worthy the cause - education, a wedding, etc. I have listed the resources I use on each information page with a link for purchase if it is available. All of the print sources, including those that are not available at Amazon, are listed in the bibliography. You can order them from a local bookstore or from a traditional music site on the web. There is a comprehensive list of mail order sites at the Mail Order site at Ceolas. If the book is out of print try searching Bookfinder.
This site is listed on several pages as a source for free sheet music. It isn't always as simple as that sounds, but I'm told it can be done successfully without too much trouble - particularly if you only want the melody line. You probably need to be familiar with or become familiar with midi software. The following will give you some idea of what you'll need to print out the music, and the problems involved.
You will need software that can read midis and print the music from them.
I'm told one good way to do this is through Notation Software, which is specifically designed to print music from midis.
One visitor noted that Mac users can use Finale's Notepad Plus.
Do not expect what you print from a midi to look like music in a songbook. You may need to edit the midi before printing it out. The midi may need to be transposed, it may have six and seven staves, so you may need to delete several. In other words, the midi may be downright useless to you. But it may not.
In summary, some midis may print fairly well, and some may take some work. If you are musically inclined and become familiar with the software you use, you will probably be able to manage.
An inexpensive shareware program that can edit midis (transpose and delete staves, etc.) is Noteworthy. href="http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SW/SW1.html">Cakewalk's Score Writer and MusicEase are more expensive packages that will also edit and print out sheet music. There are doubtless more, you'll have to do some research to find them. A reminder that if you do edit the midis here, you may not delete the credit information on the tracks.
If you are looking for recordings of music try the Resource Center and choose Music. You can also go directly to Amazon.com through the resource center. There you can do a search at Amazon for track titles to find albums with songs you are interested in.
You will only be able to hear the background music if you have a soundcard and browser with a plugin which supports this option.
There are a tremendous number of plug-ins to listen to midis and they all work differently. I frankly do not know why the pages work perfectly for me (Windows 98, IE 5.5) and for most people, while it does not work for others. It has to do with how the browser and the plug-in read the code. To do that you may need to go to the support pages for your midi plug-in.
If you cannot hear background music:
There are many midi plugins on the net. Charles Belov has a list here with information on them.
Graphics take up the majority of load time. With a 28.8 modem it takes 43 seconds for the main page to load. If this is too long consider using the framed page. It loads in approximately one-half the time.
Load time is also affected by whether or not your plugin is capable of streaming the background sound file. Streaming means the program is capable of starting to play the file before it is completely downloaded. The regular version of Crescendo does NOT stream, Crescendo Plus does. Therefore, people with the Plus version will experience faster load times than others. However, the Plus version is not free.
Some Mac users may also have problems with some pages. I have tried to address this problem, and nothing seems to work. I have removed the counters, because the problems seem to have been centered on those pages. If you still have problems, I suggest you bookmark the search engine (which has no counter or background music) and start there.
The easiest way to download files (with Windows 95 - sorry I can't help the Win 3.1 and Mac people) is to right click on the link and Save the Link As - to save the file locally. If you are using Crescendo you can save the file when it is playing via the menu bar.
Live Update has a page on html code for background music. It is located at:
There is a also a terrific site on HTML for beginners HTML 4 Rookies. It is an excellent source and also explains how to put background music on your pages.
The tunes on this site are traditional tunes. The tunes have long passed into the public domain. Arrangements of traditional tunes are copyrighted if they are dated after 1922 (see Professor Karjala's Website for an explanation). The vast majority of the midis on this page are based on arrangements in the public domain. My sources are primarily songbooks from the 1800s and early 1900s. There are also a few based on the Library of Congress sheet music collection and the Lester Levy collection. I have altered these public domain arragements in various ways. A few midis are sequences based on single line melodies to which I added the accompaniment.
However, a few arrangements are base on music from songbooks dated after 1922. If you are an author or company who owns rights to any of these arrangements and prefer they not be used on my site, please e-mail me and I will remove the arrangement from these pages and create a midi from a public domain resource.
If you wish to use the midis that are based on arrangements not in the public domain you must be aware that I do not own the copyright to them and cannot give permission for you to do so. I have listed the source for ALL music that I have created so that you can determine if an arrangement is public domain or not.
Please note that the author of the midi file is credited on the lyrics page. I am not the author of all of the midi files on these pages. If the tune does not have a lyrics page the author is noted by the song. If a midi file has no credit it is only because I have no record of who sequenced the music. I have tried to contact all the known authors of the midi files. If you know an author or recognize a tune as your own that is not credited, please let me know. If you wish me to delete your files, I will do so.
If you are a musician or performer the midi files and information are here as a resource for you to use and I'm delighted to share them. Those arrangements that are based on public domain resources may be used freely. Those that are not from the public domain I can, obviously, give no permission for. If you have a doubt about a specific tune, please create your own arrangements.
The harp graphic on the Carolan pages is from Ossian Publications The Complete Works of O'Carolan, Copyright 1989. (ISBN 0 946005 26 8). I contacted Ossian for permission to use the graphic but did not receive an answer. If you choose to copy this graphic (and many sites have copied it from here - be aware that you should contact them for permission.)
For an excellent resource on what the current U.S. copyright law and what public domain means visit Professor Karjala's Website. It was created to oppose the copyright extension that was passed in 1998 but is still updated. It is an invaluable resource.
You do not need to e-mail me for permission to link to this site. You may link to the any of the individual pages on the site, including these (you may also link to others).
The Main Page - Contemplations from the Marianas Trench - (http://www.contemplator.com)
Popular Songs in American History (http://www.contemplator.com/america/)
Francis J. Child Ballads (http://www.contemplator.com/child/) or (www.childballads.com - which will soon point directly to that page rather than the Main Page.)
Songs of the Sea (http://www.contemplator.com/sea/)
Beth Patterson created a wonderful button to link to my pages. If you are interested in using it, here it is:
You must save the graphic to your server. If you have a webpage you'll know how to code the graphic for a link. If you do not, go to HTML 4 Rookies for instructions.
I have two pages for links: Folk Music Links and Carolan Related Links which will provide you with some other sites to visit. These are NOT meant to be comprehensive.
As I said, my links pages are not meant to be comprehensive. The links I add are now are only those I find educational or are historical. While I appreciate reciprocal links, I don't insist on them - if a site is of value it doesn't make it less valuable if my page isn't linked to it!
I created these pages out of love for traditional music. I've been rewarded by meeting some incredible people who share this interest. Along the way I've also been surprised to have been notified that some people thought these pages were worthy of an award. I haven't noted anything here because although it gives me great satisfaction I'm not given to tooting my own horn, but I began to feel that I'd like to recognize their kindness in some way... so, not to toot my own horn, but in thanks to them I have a tiny page... Here 'tis.
webmistress@contemplator.com