LibriVox

lindawilcox · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 139 Location: Alexandria, VA

The Folk Ballad Collection

This project is now complete! You can visit the catalog page here:
http://librivox.org/folk-ballad-collection-001/

After helping out with the Christmas Carol Project, I thought of a new idea. A lot of folk ballads are in the public domain but most recorded versions of them are copy-righted (think Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, or Joan Baez). It’s rather unfortunate that you have to pay to listen to these great traditional pieces of oral literature. So…

This is a both a poetry and musical project.
It works just like any poem or short story collection.

We’re look for:
8 spoken ballads
8 musically performed ballads
(It’s fine if there are both versions of the same ballad.)

What counts as a ballad?
1) a narrative song with a recurrent refrain
2) a narrative poem of popular origin

*Note: This might be part of children's literature section. Nothing too vulgar please.

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WHERE TO FIND BALLADS

Here are some good sites to find folk ballad sheet-music in the public domain:

http://www.ezfolk.com/library (voice, piano, guitar, banjo sheet-music)

http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/ (very extensive)

Here are some good sites to find ballad texts:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_ballad (Wikipedia’s page on Child’s Ballads)

http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/poemtrad.html (Poets’ Corner traditional ballad page)

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7535 (Project Guntenberg's A BOOK OF OLD BALLADS by Beverley Nichols)

Recording Information
=========================================
FOR SONGS

At the beginning, read the abbreviated "librivox disclaimer":
"[TITLE OF SONG] performed for LibriVox.org by [your name]" or some variation on that, adding date, location, your personal url, if you wish.

At the End say: End of song; this recording is in the public domain.

There's are many ways you can record the song:
1) solo a cappella
2) solo with accompaniment (with piano, guitar, or banjo as long as your voice is louder than the music)
3) duet, trio with other people (with or without accompaniment)

You don't need fancy recording equipment. Lo-fi music works great; the library of Congress releases them all the time.

If you are new, please check the Recording Notes thread before recording:
http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6427#6430
If this is your first recording, you'll also find this useful:
http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/NewbieGuideToRecording
(I'm not sure if will totally help. Experiment with it a bit.)

Technical Details
Please be sure that your recording software is set to the following technical specifications:
Bit Rate: 128 kbps
Sample Rate: 44100 kHzs

Save your recording as an mp3 file using the following filename and ID3 tag format:

File name � all in lowercase: [song's title]_[your initials].mp3
(e.g. oldsusanna_abc.mp3)

ID3 tags (version 2):

Title: Song Title (e.g. Old Susanna)
Artist: Composer Name or Traditional (e.g. Stephen Foster)
Album: Folk Ballad Collection
Genre: Folk
(You can put "Recorded by ...." in the Comments section if you wish)

==========================================
FOR SPOKEN BALLADS

At the beginning, read the abbreviated "librivox disclaimer":
"[TITLE OF BALLAD] performed for LibriVox.org by [your name]" or some variation on that, adding date, location, your personal url, if you wish.

At the End say: End of poem; this recording is in the public domain.

Technical Details
Please be sure that your recording software is set to the following technical specifications:
Bit Rate: 128 kbps
Sample Rate: 44100 kHzs

Save your recording as an mp3 file using the following filename and ID3 tag format:

File name � all in lowercase: [poem title]_[your initials].mp3
(e.g. barbaraallen _abc.mp3)

ID3 tags (version 2):

Title: Poem Title (e.g. Barbara Allen)
Artist: Composer Name or Anonymous (e.g. Anonymous)
Album: Folk Ballad Collection
Genre: Speech
(You can put "Recorded by ...." in the Comments section if you wish)

==========================================
What To Do With Your Recording
You may either post a link to your completed files here in the thread or email them to me via http://www.yousendit.com/ at this address: zbaobao at hotmail dot com. If you use yousendit, please post the link it generates in this thread as well.

When you post your link, please also include the following information:

* your name as you would like it credited on the catalog page and any URL you wish your name to link to (Note: This is necessary only if your information is not yet in the wiki: http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/ListOfReadersCatalogNames#preview)
* a link to the source of the song

Deadline: June 30, 2007
THANK YOU!
*********************************************

Edit me

wordplay · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 196 Location: Southern Illinois

Count me in for at least one! Read, not sung. Maybe I can find a singer or two......... I know some people.

Becky
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lindawilcox · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 139 Location: Alexandria, VA

Peter Why · Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:26 am Post subject:

I'm happy to sing/read an occasional one.

Greensleeves? PD checking's going to be interesting .. or are you just going to look for PD collection's first. John Masefield did some sea shanty collections, I think, but finding the PD tunes will take some searching. I think that's going to be the hard part of this project.

Peter
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wordplay · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 196 Location: Southern Illinois

The first one is a very old Applachian dulcimer tune. No evidence of any copyright on the lyrics. Performances can be copyrighted-like they do for Beethoven, but the lyrics are unrestricted.

Bile Them Cabbage Down-note the new file link!

http://download.yousendit.com/97BC16760FBDFA8D

Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies
http://www.mediafire.com/?bondu4m4nin

Red River Valley
http://www.mediafire.com/?1ox1xn012yl

Rebecca Dekker www.audioworldplay.wordpress.com

me haved woughts of fun wiff dis! I have several others, but don't want to be a pig! They are on my website!

Becky
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wordplay · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 196 Location: Southern Illinois

Blow, Ye Winds, Blow
http://www.contemplator.com/america/
Has instrumental music for each song-you can get a feel for songs you don't know!

He)
You must make me a fine Holland shirt,
Blow, blow, blow, ye winds, blow,
And not have in it a stitch of needlework,
Blow, ye winds that arise, blow, blow.

(He)
You must wash it in yonder spring,
Blow, blow, blow, ye winds, blow,
Where there's never a drop of water in,
Blow, ye winds that arise, blow, blow.

(He)
You must dry it on yonder thorn,
Blow, blow, blow, ye winds, blow,
Where the sun never yet shone on

Blow, ye winds that arise, blow, blow.

(She)
My father's got an acre of land,
Blow, blow, blow, ye winds, blow,
You must dig it with a goose quill,
Blow, ye winds that arise, blow, blow.

(She)
You must sow it with one seed,
Blow, blow, blow, ye winds, blow,
You must reap it with your thumbnail,
Blow, ye winds that arise, blow, blow.

(She)
You must thrash it on yonder sea,
Blow, blow, blow, ye winds, blow,
And not get it wet or let a kernel be,
Blow, ye winds that arise, blow, blow.

(She)
You must grind it on yonder hill,
Blow, blow, blow, ye winds, blow,
Where there yet has ne'er stood a mill,
Blow, ye winds that arise, blow, blow.

(She)
When you're done and finished your work,
Blow, blow, blow, ye winds, blow,
Bring it unto me and you shall have your shirt,
Blow, ye winds that arise, blow, blow.

-------
This ballad first appeared as "A proper new ballad entitled The Wind hath blown my Plaid away, or A Discourse betwixt a young Woman and the Elphin Knight." This was a black-letter ballad (broadside) that was printed circa 1670. In later variants the elfin knight is replaced by the devil.
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lindawilcox · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 139 Location: Alexandria, VA

lindawilcox · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 139 Location: Alexandria, VA

Jazbees · Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 4:14 pm Post subject:

All right, I just can't resist. I scanned through some of the titles in Stephen C Foster's book on ezfolk.com, and ran across "If You've Only Got a Moustache". The name and lyrics struck me as quite funny, and my wife (a music history major) recognized the author's name immediately. She's also interested in the song because of a guy she knows who is quite proud of his moustache.

I'm still recovering from some nasty head krunk (only three more days of antibiotics!), so I can't sing it right away. I also need some background music, but haven't found any public domain MIDI versions of the song online. So I'm entering the music into GarageBand for starters, and will record the song once that's done and my voice returneth.
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Justin Barrett
http://www.justinanimator.com/
http://www.justinbvocal.com/

lindawilcox · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 139 Location: Alexandria, VA

thistlechick · Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:47 pm Post subject:

You might also want to consider searching gutenberg.org for the word 'ballad' in the title and see what types of resources you can find there as well =)
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wordplay · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 196 Location: Southern Illinois

lindawilcox · Joined: 17 Jun 2006 Posts: 139 Location: Alexandria, VA

Jazbees · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 6:33 am Post subject:

Would there be any problem with transposing a song to a different key? I entered the "Moustache" song into GarageBand as written, but the highest note is just on the edge of my range, and I can't really sing it clearly. Shifting it down a step helps just enough, but I'm wondering if doing so means that I'm altering the work, and therefore it can't be included because it's not exactly what the composer originally published. Does that make sense?
_________________
Justin Barrett
http://www.justinanimator.com/
http://www.justinbvocal.com/

wordplay · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 196 Location: Southern Illinois