Greetings: We would like to announce the existence of a new on-line resource called the Traditional Tune Archive (TTA), being developed by Andrew Kuntz (Fiddler's Companion tune index), and myself. Right now the site is read-only at [1]http://vclvm54.isis.unc.edu/mediawiki/index.php/TTA , which is the "construction" URL. It is a presentation of music notation, annotations and descriptors of traditional tunes set in a semantic relational wiki, so that searches and queries can be made to the database in a variety of combinations, including theme coding (Gore's format). Although there are several excellent databases on the web at present, the TTA is the only one to introduce the ability to run relational queries as a user function. This best describes the difference between the TTA and other excellent resources, for it not only lists information, but continually works with in-putted information to enrich its relational qualities. In short, if you were interested in finding out the various people who recorded a tune on a sound recording, there are several excellent sources to go to. However, if you were interested in finding tunes from 1) Cape Breton in 2) mixolydian with a tonic of 3) 'D' (and, perhaps narrowing it to a composer like 4) Dan R. MacDonald) you might consider the TTA as a best resource (try running it or a similar search on the "Query the Archive" feature). Or, one might query "Daniel Dow" or "J. Scott Skinner" to see how many tunes entered so far with each one listed as composer, or if your looking for a "Polka" in "G" to complete a set you can run a user report to get options. Check the "Drill Down" tab to see a breakdown of the different totals for all fields entered so far (reels predominate almost 2:1 over jigs-but you knew that, already!). Or, see the results the simple "Search" produces. Even though it is still "under construction"--in the process of entry with an ititial 'population' (I've got 6,000 entries in it, but am only half-way through the letter 'C')-- Andrew and I invite list members to explore the TTA and try out the features, most of which you can access in read only mode. I hope you will give us feedback on what is valuable, what needs work, and how we might improve it; its invaluable to us in moving forward. I'm hard at work populating the TTA with the entire contents of the Fiddler's Companion index (and doing updates, corrections and additions as I go) and will continue to do so until I have completed the transfer. Meanwhile I am tweeking some of the formatting and search functions, and exploring some of the experimental uses of the semantic database. Next steps: The TTA is licensed under a Creative Commons license, and is available for non-commercial use. We are seeking to form a consortium of editors with expertise in various trad. genres to help with review of entries, to keep submissions accurate and help flag the need for disambiguation and resolution. Those interested, please contact us. Finally, we will soon open the TTA to the on-line trad. community for log-in and entry of data. Andrew and I will continue to manage the project as administrators (the direct association with the Fiddler's Companion will cease) of a community project. Sincerely, Valerio M. Pelliccioni & Andrew Kuntz
-- References Visible links 1. http://vclvm54.isis.unc.edu/mediawiki/index.php/TTA Hidden links: 2. http://vclvm54.isis.unc.edu/mediawiki/index.php/TTA 3. http://vclvm54.isis.unc.edu/mediawiki/index.php/TTA To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
