Folk dance music

Web page writing

Niels Mejlhede Jensen, Bøgeløvsvej 4, 2830 Virum, Denmark. e-mail (web master)

Old tunes used for folk dancing in Denmark 1999 arranged with improvisations

How I write my web pages:

Editing program

I use Netscape Composer to write my web pages after the booklet: "Hjemmesider" by Michael Karbo 1998 (48 kr = $ 7), see: www.mkdata.dk, (also in English). I read this booklet on a train ride from Copenhagen to visit my parents in Northern Jutland, and got enthusiastic, and I started right away when I was home again.
 

Language

The Web is the whole world, so another author told me that the language is not Danish but English.
My native language is Wendelbomål, a Danish dialect that is difficult to understand in other parts of Denmark and very rare in writing. The language is somewhat ridiculed, also in Northern Jutland. I belong to the 2' last generation that can speak it at all . I would be a big laugh if I wrote about the folk dances (from the countryside!) in Wendelbomål. Copenhagen Danish (5 million people) may vanish in 3 generations with the development of internet. (I am sorry for the loss in cultural diversity). Perfect Danish is OK but the world prefers imperfect English. Britons and Americans are usually very tolerant about English.
 

Music notes

I make my music with a piano keyboard in the programme Cakewalk Apprentice, which was included when I bought my Sound Blaster AWE 32 sound card 5 years ago. So I got used to this small and simple program, with its shortages. From there midi files are transferred to a note editing program, like Encore or its minor and cheaper (and sufficient) program Music Time. Music notes are here printed neatly on paper even with a matrix printer. If only those notes could be passed on here on the Web.
The notes are printed to file. (I first select the printer: HP Laser postscript + on file. Then I select score settings to: Margin 0.6 cm and reduce score to 85%, to fit the size I want for the note sheets here to fit normal printers). This file is read by GhostView (freeware from the Web) and transferred to Paint Shop Pro (shareware) to be changed to a gif file. This gif file is then transferred to Netscape Composer. (I know too little about this, but I find by trial and error that it is important to have the right size of your page already in Encore, because changing size in Paint Shop or Netscape unfortunately disturbs or ruins the note sheet). This transfer of note sheets does take some time on my 486 computer. Reading notes it is important that you are not doubting if the note is "on the line" or "between the lines". Printed to paper this is OK. But I am sorry it is not 100% OK with my notes here on the Web. But this is the best so far.

Big thanks to Søren R from Folkets Hus Spillemænd who helped me printing the music notes to the web, see: Folkets Hus music notes  . Søren helped me here on the internet. That might have been more exciting and "modern" if I had lived in New Zealand, and not just 15 km away. But I hope to soon get help also from far away places (for instance with language terms).
 

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