Notes about the MIDI's, songs, and stuff

or, a place for me to expound without interfering with the songs

The format right now is basic HTML, nothing fancy. If I need to change anything, please let me know, on my browser they all look fine. MIDI files for the tunes are available for some, these are just the tune, done with Noteworthy Composer. NWC files can be read with a free player. If your browser has trouble recognizing files, you can right click on a Noteworthy (.nwc) or MIDI link and "save link as". Noteworthy (and other music programs) can also take midi files and turn them into written music.

For the most part I have no intention of making "great" MIDI files. These pages are NOT intended to replace live performance, nor should they be sung along to more than is neccessary to learn the tune. These are (for the most part) not recordings that we are duplicating, but an oral tradition. The tunes are approximations of the way I've heard the songs sung. Some have changed slightly in the time these web pages has been up! Anybody who is singing at a post revel and has the audacity to say "But that's not the way it is on the Internet" (or anything vaguely similar) deserves everything that happens to them.

And though it may not be obvious, unless and until I get information on what key Erich plays these in, or Andrixos sings them in, they are in the key of "easy to write out". In other words, a key that I could figure out the tune on a soprano recorder and didn't have to use too many sharps or flats :-) Again, if you really need to hear it in a good key for YOU, you can use Noteworthy, or a similar program and change the key.

For those who don't want to bother with Noteworthy, but want sheet music (and I really think you should check the program out, it's both inexpensive and great), there are gradually PDF files of songs with music being added. A free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader can be found here.

I am working on getting songbooks typed in. This is not going quickly, so far just a few are done. I will NOT be listing all the historical songs on the main page, so unless I ever have the time to make a list of the songs in each songbook, you'll just have to go to each songbook page. Of course, if you're interested in the historical songs, you will probably enjoy looking at the covers of the old songbooks. Any history that anyone would like to contribute about the songs or songbooks is welcome. I know little and just happen to have stuff. The page of songbooks is Songbooks I have growing. The page lists (I think) all the songbooks I have, the ones that are links I have entered. IF YOU HAVE SONGBOOKS that are Calontir and are NOT listed (or indicate that I need a better copy), please let me know if you can make me a copy. The MIDI files on the old songs are particularly in need of knowledgeable people to check them out. In many cases I've never heard the song sung, (or heard it 25 years ago) and have just copied a MIDI file from elsewhere on the net bearing the same title (if it's a filk) that seems to fit the words. I really don't need a lot to work with, if you can sing a verse and chorus into a cheap tape recorder, I can make a MIDI. Andrixos sang his into my cheap tape recorder from the 1970's that now has a squeal as accompanyment! Again, I'm not trying for real art here, just a record of roughly how the tunes go.

The next project (like this needs more complication) is to get more author pages up for the major writers of our history in song and more histories on the individual songs. If you wrote some of these, or are buds with an author and are willing to help, I would love to have some basic info relating to the writers/composers/songs. Pictures are cool, even links to home pages will help.

There are some songs that will not appear here unless I get specific permission from the composers, as they have indicated they do not want their work appearing around the 'net, or they just aren't sung in Calontir.

Other pages

Main Songbook page
Calontir Songbooks I have
Kansas Songs
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