The video of Glenn Gould playing the complete Goldberg Variations (which version is this??) can be downloaded and then transformed into an mp3.

1. Go to the google video page.
2. Click on the "Download video - iPod/PSP" button.
3. convert to mp3 with ffmpeg
   

   sudo aptitude install ffmpeg mplayer libavcodec-extra-52
   ffmpeg -i "Goldberg Variations.mp4" -ab 128k -ar 44100 Goldberg_Variations.mp3

   Note that the extra codecs package is called libavcodec-unstripped-51 on older debian/Ubuntu versions

musikkcollegium, the venerable Swiss orchestra, has a really great section of downloadable music. The recordings I've listened to so far are very good.

Here's a little ruby script to download all their free music and to tag it all with the id3tag utility. 'id3tag' is provided by libid3 (or maybe libid3tag0) on ubuntu/debian.

require 'mechanize'
require 'fileutils'

def sanitize_filename(name)
  name.sub(/^"/,'').sub(/"$/,'').gsub(/[^\w\.\-]/, '_').gsub(/_+/,'_').gsub(/-+/,'')
end

# yields Mechanize::Link object and an array of the directories it was found
# in.  When clicked, the link will return a Mechanize::File object which is
# the mp3 file
def get_mp3_links(page, dirs=[], level = 0, &block)
  level += 1
  links = page.links

  links.each do |link|
    case link.attributes['class']
    when 'tx_abdownloads_listView_downloadLabel'
      data = [link, dirs]
      block.call(data)
    when 'tx_abdownloads_listView_categoryLabel'
      dirs[level-1] = link.text
      get_mp3_links link.click, dirs, level, &block
    end
  end
end

agent = Mechanize.new
page = agent.get("http://www.musikkollegium.ch/en/music-downloads/composers.html")

get_mp3_links(page) do |link, dirs|

  path = dirs.map {|v| sanitize_filename(v) }.join('/')
  FileUtils.mkpath(path)
  Dir.chdir(path) do
    music_file = link.click
    clean_filename = sanitize_filename music_file.filename
    music_file.save(clean_filename)
    track_string = clean_filename.split('_').first
    track_string = '0' if track_string =~ /[^\d]/
    track = track_string.to_i
    id3info = {
      :artist => dirs.first + " - musikkollegium",
      :song => link.text,
      :genre => 32,
      :track => track,
      :album => dirs.last,
      :comment => 'downloaded from http://www.musikkollegium.ch/en/music-downloads/composers.html',
    }
    options = id3info.map {|cat,val| "--#{cat} \"#{val.to_s.gsub('_',' ')}\"" }.join(' ')
    cmd = "id3tag -2 #{clean_filename} #{options}"
    system cmd
  end
end

A lot of these are very nice solo piano works:

http://freesolopiano.com

Get them all (if you have wget)

wget -r http://freesolopiano.com/mps1

I admit I'm tempted to buy some albums.

David J. Grossman (and colleagues) spent a considerable amount of time
and effort refining the Goldberg Variations midi files (see here for
discussion: http://www.jsbach.net/goldbergvariations.html). He was
planning a CD release by recording the midis using soundfonts but I'm
not sure it ever happened (or will happen) since that was 11 years
ago. With his permission, I went ahead and recorded these using the
1720 Blanchet Harpsichord (http://sonimusicae.free.fr/blanchet1-
en.html). Mostly, it is straight from Dave's files. In a couple of
instances, I slightly modified tempos when I felt it was needed. The
files are completely free (public domain; CC0 license).

The Goldberg Variations for Downloading
http://freebach.dyndns.org/goldberg_variations/links/
http://freebach.cphoster.com/goldberg_variations/links/

The meta-project:
http://freebach.dyndns.org
http://freebach.cphoster.com

If you scroll down to the "Visual Rendering" section you will find
that I've arranged the variations visually with some images based on
the nick-names given by Jörg Ewald Dähler and Fritz Neumeyer (http://
www.a30a.com/goldberg/gveworks.html). Arranged as they are, you can
see the canons all line up on the right side, etc. I've also tried to
emphasise the two parts to it with some flourishes in the middle. So
far, I've found it to be quite handy at helping me to remember the
variations.

Dave remarked, "I now find that I enjoy my MIDI version almost more
than recorded versions. I get to decide how the phrasing should be."
These recordings from MIDI might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I
have found them tremendously enjoyable to listen to and helpful as a
reference from which to appreciate other interpretations.

I'd be interested in any feedback on the music or the site.

1. Download the video as a .flv file

   
   The best tool for this used to be the Fast Video Download addon for Firefox, but its super lame now (i.e., they now send you to a link to download an entire toolbar). Still there are plenty of ways to do this.
   

   
   

   keepvid

   
   

   Just copy and paste the url into the text box at the top. Then figure out which link you need to download. Make sure to rename your file something meaningful.

   
   

   
   



2. Convert the .flv to .mp3

   
   Some simple, cross-platform solutions:
   

   
   

   freez flv-to-mp3 or here

   
   

   Works on Windows and Linux (under wine). Very simple to use. Pay attention to mono/stereo and where the converted file is going to be made.

   
   

   LumixSoft converter

   
   

   Also works on Windows and Linux under wine. This gives stereo output by default, but the mp3 audio quality is controlled by a slider so one doesn't know until after the fact what bitrate you're using for the conversion.

   
   

   
   
   

   The Linux way

   
   First you want to get some tools. ffmpeg and mplayer are the two really handy, ubiquitous file conversion tools in linux:
   

   sudo apt-get install mplayer ffmpeg

   
   
   You can interrogate your file to find out what's in it:
   

   ffmpeg -i file.flv
   # or, if you just care about the audio:
   ffmpeg -i file.flv 2>&1 | grep "Stream.*Audio"
   

   
   If the audio track is an mp3, then you can just dump the mp3 file with no conversion:
   

   mplayer -dumpaudio file.flv -dumpfile file.mp3
   # or you can use ffmpeg:
   ffmpeg -i file.flv file.mp3
   

   
   If the audio is not mp3 format, you can always do this to generate an mp3 with bitrate of 128:
   

   ffmpeg -i file.flv -ab 128k -ar 44100 file.mp3

   
   (notice the 'k' at the end of the bitrate, otherwise you need the bitrate in full: 128000)
   

Splitting an mp3

I mention this here because lots of videos have introductions or postludes that are lame and need to be trimmed off. One can do this with audacity, but this requires a conversion from mp3 into wav and back to mp3, so this is not ideal if you are working with mp3 format natively. mp3splt is the tool you need:

sudo apt-get install mp3splt
# this will trim off 3.5 seconds of introduction:
mp3splt file.mp3 0.3.50 EOF  # makes a file called file_0.03.50_EOF.mp3

# this will trim the beginning and the end and output the file named trimmed.mp3
mp3splt file.mp3 0.3.50 2.56 -o trimmed.mp3

How to remove the dodgy promo thumbnails in YouTube:
http://sudoit.blogspot.com/2008/10/clean-surfing-on-youtube.html

Kindergarten Quiz- WHO IS IT?
Answers are from the 9 original Leon/Leah models.

1. My journal states, "....adjustment has been rocky and not too good yet."

2, ON the 100th day of school you took 100 juice lids.

3. You were crowned King of Kindergarten with Olivia crowned as Queen.

4. According to your teacher, your fame was all over the school-- your riding your red wagon everywhere in the neighborhood - you know the old fashioned way of transportation- one knee in the wagon, one foot pushing and one hand steering with the handle and one hand holding on for dear life. Speed Racer was your idol.

5. You celebrated the first day of Kindergarten by throwing up all night in between the bed and wall. I loved those messes. Hence you missed the 2nd day of kindergarten.

6. You traded thumb sucking for a bike with training wheels.

7. You attended Kindergarten at the nearby High School.

8. You stole milk from the back of the lunch line.

9. You went to school on Halloween as Johnny Appleseed.

10. You went to school for nearly a week loaded up on tylenol because mom couldn't find anything wrong with you except fever. Finally Aunt Gwen suggested I take you to the Dr. It was pneumonia and you could not run or ride a bike for a month.

11. You are the Kindergarten Kisser. It is documented you kissed 3 classmates of the opposite sex, and who knows how many more.

12. Mom put you on the school bus the first day in pouring rain. I lifted you to the bus to keep your shoes dry. You stood there at the top of the steps and waved and I didn't have to hide my tears that time.

13. Teacher's comment at six weeks: "__________is polite and mannerly and I love _________.

14. You were set up on a blind date by a person you got on the bus with for the first day of kindergarten. You married the person you were set up with.

15. You had an exceptional event at field day. You ran to the circle, found your own shoes, put them on and ran back to the edge of the circle.

16. To be a Longhorn came so naturally to you. Your kindergarten teacher gave you a Lowery Longhorn T- shirt her kids had outgrown. How you loved that shirt.

17. You were naughty at Kindergarten. Then we moved and for some reason you decided to reform and be good. That was in March. Boy, was I relieved.

18. Upon being informed that I had made you a new article of clothing, your reply was "So what."