The National Jukebox

Work on the layout has been delayed while I deal with computer issues. Sigh.

But here's something you'll *really* like. (10 points if you know the source of that line!) I just found out about the Library of Congress' National Jukebox http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/. They have obtained the rights to stream historical recordings from their collection of Victor discs. Best of all, you can create playlists from this collection and share them.

My father was a big fan of John Philip Sousa's marches. You might think that would be enough, but there's far more to my "Sousa heritage". For many years, the Allentown Band was directed by Alburtis Meyers, who had played cornet in Sousa's band. My father insisted that because of that connection, the Allentown Band played Sousa as Sousa intended. Given the musical influence of Meyers in the greater Lehigh Valley (both my dad and my high school musical director studied under Meyers), you could say that Sousa is my musical great-grandfather.

So naturally, when I found that the Library of Congress' collection included recording by Sousa's band, my first playlist simply had to be "Sousa's Band plays Sousa". (Although one of the first tracks I played was a version of Tom Turpin's St. Louis Rag....) I wanted to include the classics (Washington Post, Liberty Bell aka Monty Python, Thunderer and Stars and Stripes Forever) as well as some lesser known works. The first 2 tracks are conducted by Sousa.

This is a wonderful resource that illustrates the true power of the Internet to enrich all our lives.

Although some of these recordings are over a century old, the constant extensions to the copyright period (which only benefit corporations) mean that these treasures are not yet in the public domain. And that makes me a sad panda.