Special thanks are extended to the following talented musicians
for allowing their performances to be used here on the
BASTIN Family Website:
The following music was sequenced by unknown individuals, and these MIDI files were identified as freely usable on the MIDI archives where they were found. If anyone knows the identity of the sequencer(s) for these, please write! I would like to add credits for these individual(s). Also, if the sequencer should object, please contact me and I will remove these from the jukebox:
Welcome! In case you arrived at this page without coming through my main page, this is the homepage for the Background Music Jukebox developed for use on The BASTIN Family Website, a genealogy site devoted to tracing the BASTIN Family. I developed this script to give visitors a choice of background music (including none!) when visiting my pages. It has been tested to work with both Netscape 3.0, and later, and Internet Explorer 3.0, and later. It will not work with earlier versions of these web browsers.
Anyone is welcome to copy the basic jukebox JavaScript contained here, within the rather loose requirements listed below. Additionally, please use your own selection of MIDI files! One of the joys of music is in being able to listen to what you want!
If you want to use this JavaScript jukebox on your own homepage, go ahead and copy the basic underlying JavaScripts, but please use your own selection of MIDI files, and also obtain proper permissions from all sequencers and copyright holders. Please be sure not to link to any files on this site, but, instead, store what you need on your own webpage.
I gladly grant permission for use of this script for all
music lovers. I only ask that you drop me an
e-mail letting me
know where you have installed this jukebox on the web. Even this is
optional. (But, I would like to know :-)
-- Gary Bastin, BASTIN-L List Administrator, BASTIN
Family Website Webtinkerer.
By music copyright law, two (or more) permissions are involved before incorporating music into a webpage. First, royalties are due the owner of the copyright on the music unless the music is royalty-free, which is only the case if the original composer released the sheet music this way, or, if the work is old enough to be in the public domain (generally older than 75 years, i.e., published in 1923, or, earlier as I write this in 1998). Short excerpts, such as in critical analysis, or in obvious parodies are also usually allowed (e.g., Kirk's Breakdown.) Second, the performance of the copyrighted sheet music is also copyrighted by the sequencer, in the case of MIDI files, and permission must be obtained from this 'performer'.
Briefly, in developing this jukebox, music was 'auditioned' from various MIDI archives on the Internet. By selecting old music, royalties are avoided. (For a genealogy page, this is actually most desirable, anyway! Music from when our ancestors lived seems most appropriate!) The sequencer was contacted next, in all cases where he/she could be identified in the MIDI file, and permission was obtained for non-commercial use here on the BASTIN Family Website. (You must obtain permission yourself to include your own choice of MIDI files on your own webpage!)
Background Music Jukebox works with both Netscape and IE. (Version 3.0, and later, only. It will not work with Version 2.0 or earlier. Sorry...). In Netscape, you may start a different tune at any time. (Depending on your exact browser/MIDI player arrangement, you may have to stop the music before you can start a new tune.) The Stop button works best in Netscape; in IE, and occasionally in Netscape, you may have to manually stop the music by opening the window in which your MIDI player is playing the music. The Netscape and IE differences are largely due to the fact that Netscape uses plug-ins, which allow opening a small browser window to play the music, versus the IE method of using another of Bill Gates' applications to play the music. Although this MIDI jukebox does play music in IE Version 3.0 and later, the lack of plug-in technology in IE means that a separate MIDI player is launched. Since the music is being played in a separate application, JavaScript techniques may no longer work to stop the music. The end result of all this is that IE may only play the selected tune once and you may not be able to start a second tune until the first one has completed playing, or until you stop the first tune! Still have problems? Please e-mail me, Gary Bastin.
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