Free Christmas music from The Vatican in MP3 format

The Vatican ^ | November 16, 2007

[Stoat]

		2006
2005	2004	2003
2002	2001	2000

Christmas Music:

• Pontifical Musical Chorus of the Sistine Chapel
• Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music

[Stoat]

Yes, I know that it's early to be posting threads pertaining to Christmas 2007, but I do so now for several reasons:

• There are quite a few tracks available for download at the pages linked above, and not everyone has a highspeed internet connection.  Even starting now may cause people to be pressed  for time, given the need to download and sort all of the titles you want.
• A CD of beautiful Christmas music makes a great gift, and many people will want to make a pretty CD cover as well.  It takes time to produce nice artwork, and hopefully people might be so kind as to post links to free CD cover and / or free artwork sites here so that everyone can benefit from them.
• People may be wanting to send their CD gifts to friends or relatives overseas, and this adds CONSIDERABLY to the time before the recipients will be able to hear it.  Please don't forget about the availability of Global Priority Mail from the US Postal Service...I've used it many times and it's a great resource.    

          USPS - Priority Mail International         

         USPS - International Delivery Services        

         USPS - Global Express Guaranteed

• Particularly benevolent and kind people may be wanting to make multiple copies of their CD to give to those who may be in a tremendous need of extra Christmas cheer, such as to organizations that help the poor, or to hospitals or nursing homes, as an example..  Producing multiple copies of a CD and a pretty cover for it takes extra time, although any efforts expended on such a project will be returned many times over in terms of the happiness you'll feel  :-)
• Some people may be new to CD-burning and might need some extra help with technical questions.  Hopefully NOBODY will feel shy and will feel free to ask any question.  If I can't answer it, I am endlessly impressed with the amount of technical expertise on tap here at Free Republic, and I'm sure that someone will be able to help.  In case it might help to eliminate shyness, I have vivid and oftentimes painful memories of when I was new to computers, and I always try to treat others the way that I wish I had been treated when I would ask a question online and would get my head bitten off for asking a "dumb question".  None of that sort of juvenile arrogance will come from me, I promise.  :-)

[Stoat]

Ping :-)

[onyx]

((( THANK YOU, Stoat )))

[Coleus]

.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Thanks!

[Stoat]

You’re quite welcome and I hope that you and yours will all enjoy the music :-)

[Stoat]

Thank you very much for pinging your list   :-)

 

[LiteKeeper]

Kewl

[Stoat]

Here is a search-results page at the Microsoft Office Template Gallery featuring many CD covers and inserts, all of which are free.

Searched All Office Online for CD cover template - Microsoft Office Online

I haven't looked at all of these, but it appears that most if not all require Microsoft Word.

If you don't like the artwork that's included in the template, changing it is usually quite easy....you can use your own artwork or even substitute another piece of clipart from the Microsoft Clipart Gallery

Download free clip art, photos, animations, and sounds - Microsoft Office Online

[Stoat]

Kewl

:-)

[Stoat]

Classical Music Ping :-)

[Straight Vermonter]

Thanks for this!

[steve86]

How fortuitous to see this thread tonight. I was just starting to update and re-catalogue my mp3 collection, which I haven’t done for a couple years. Thanks!

[EDINVA]

Thanks. What a wonderful gift from the Vatican.

Now if I can learn what an MP3 IS.

[Diver Dave]

bump for later

[Stoat]

Thanks. What a wonderful gift from the Vatican.

You're quite welcome, and indeed it is.  Many superbly talented musicians contributed to the tracks there and it's quite a gift indeed that they are all being given away for free  :-)

Now if I can learn what an MP3 IS.

It's the name given to a type of file used for audio and music.  There are lots of technical details available, but you don't really need to know all that in order to enjoy the music.  If you have a Windows computer, you "should" already have Windows Media Player which will play MP3 files just fine.  If you have an Apple or Macintosh computer please let me know and I will ping someone who can help you with that far better than myself.

Have you downloaded things from the internet before?  Do you need some help with that?

Please let me know if you need some help with downloading, playing or burning the music onto a CD   :-)

Thanks. What a wonderful gift from the Vatican.

You're quite welcome, and indeed it is.  Many superbly talented musicians contributed to the tracks there and it's quite a gift indeed that they are all being given away for free  :-)

Now if I can learn what an MP3 IS.

[Stoat]

Thanks for this!

You're quite welcome, and I hope that it will help to make Christmas even more cheerful for you and yours   :-)

[Stoat]

How fortuitous to see this thread tonight. I was just starting to update and re-catalogue my mp3 collection, which I haven’t done for a couple years. Thanks!

You're quite welcome and I wish you good luck with your project.  Are you happy with the cataloguing software that you're using?

In case you're not, there are a few software titles that I've come to like for music-cataloging and related tasks:

I've been using CATraxx for years and I love it to pieces...it allows you to catalogue your entire CD collection as well as individual audio files.  You can also get an add-in that allows you to catalogue vinyl LP's.

CATraxx - Organize your music collection - your way

I also use and really like the Helium Music Manager

Helium Music Manager - Music Management Software, MP3 Organizer and More.

A particularly wonderful application for categorizing and cataloguing CD's or DVD's with audio and / or mixed and miscellaneous content on them Is WhereIsIt

Where Is It 3.84 - Catalog and organize your disks collection

[Wiz]

Thanks for the ping. These great music should heal my soul :)

[sitetest]

Dear Stoat,

Thanks for the ping!

Classical Music Ping List ping!

If you want on or off this list, please let me know via FR e-mail.

Thanks,

sitetest

[Tribune7]

bump

[Bahbah]

Bookmarking...and thank you.

[EDINVA]

Thanks for the info. I DO have a windows media player. I listen to Rush and Mark Levin thru the wonders of my computer. But I’m not sure if I’d know how to save any of this Vatican music. Much less find it to play again. I know these are things kids can do effortlessly in a NY minute.

I am going to click the links you provided and see how it works. Not really ready yet for Christmas music but anything I’ve ever heard out of the Vatican is so special. I can still hear all the priests/seminiarians/whatever singing and chanting during the Pope’s funeral It was just beautiful.

Am also very excited about the Pope’s upcoming visit to ‘our [nearby] town’ He’ll be in DC in April and I will put up with the mobs for the chance of a glimpse.

If I can’t get the music, I will FReepmail you. Thanks so much.

[La Enchiladita]

Divine!!!

Thank you, Stoat. I have downloaded Advent and Christmas, now listening. Many other links you have provided to explore. What a gift.

[Norman Bates]

Thank you!

[Norman Bates]

I wish to be on your Classical Music Ping List. Thanks!

[sitetest]

Done!

[GinaLolaB]

Thank you Coleus.

[GinaLolaB]

Thank you Coleus.

[Dante3]

Thanks.

[Stoat]

Thanks for the info. I DO have a windows media player. I listen to Rush and Mark Levin thru the wonders of my computer. But I’m not sure if I’d know how to save any of this Vatican music. Much less find it to play again. I know these are things kids can do effortlessly in a NY minute.

I am going to click the links you provided and see how it works. Not really ready yet for Christmas music but anything I’ve ever heard out of the Vatican is so special. I can still hear all the priests/seminiarians/whatever singing and chanting during the Pope’s funeral It was just beautiful.

Am also very excited about the Pope’s upcoming visit to ‘our [nearby] town’ He’ll be in DC in April and I will put up with the mobs for the chance of a glimpse.

If I can’t get the music, I will FReepmail you. Thanks so much.

You're quite welcome!  Even though I haven't (yet) received a mail from you and so I'm guessing that you're doing just fine with this now, I think that the questions you raised about how to download the MP3 files may be of concern to others and so I've made a little step-by-step visual instruction here which hopefully might be of help to people who are new at this.  If I use any terminology that people don't understand or I'm not explaining one or more parts of this well enough, please let me know and I will rephrase or elaborate as needed   :-)

Step 1: Creating a Folder to put your music in

You want to be able to find your music later, so you'll need an easy-to-find place to put it.  One way to do this is to create a special folder on your desktop.

• On a clear area of your desktop ( without any icons close by) hover your mouse cursor and right-click.  You will get a menu that looks something like this (different versions of Windows and different software arrangements will look a little different) and look for the command that says "New".  Hover your mouse cursor over that and it should expand to look something like this

 

Now, move your mouse cursor over to the expanded menu and click on "Folder".  You can see it at the top of the expanded menu in the example above, but it may be in a different spot on the menu on different versions of Windows. When you click on it, you should get something that looks like this:

 

 

Now, type whatever name you want for the folder into the text line.  For this demonstration, I've used Christmas Music from Vatican, but you can name it anything you like.  The important thing is that it gives you an idea of what's in the folder.  If you ever need to rename a folder, you can do so very easily.  Just hover your mouse cursor over the folder and right-click. From the menu, click "Rename" as shown here.  Then just type in whatever new name you like.

 

Step 2: Downloading the music into the folder that you've made

Now that you've made a folder, you need to fill it full of great music  :-)

• Open one of the Vatican pages with music downloads on it in a browser window. Determine which music track you would like to download and hover your mouse cursor over the music note icon to the right of the title.  Right click on the musical note and you should get a menu that looks something like this.  Left-Click on "Save Target As"

 

You should now get a dialog box that looks something like this

 

 

 It's important that in the line after "Save in" that it says "Desktop" as shown here..  If it doesn't say "Desktop" there, click on the big square "Desktop" button over on the left of the "Save As" dialog box.  It should then say "Desktop" after "Save in".

At this point you also have an opportunity to assign whatever file name to the MP3 file that you want, or you can leave it alone if you prefer.  You do that in the line after "File Name", such as in this example:

 

 

Now, double left-click on the folder that you made in Step 1.  The "Save As" box will now change to look much like this:

 

 

You'll notice that the "Save in" destination has been changed to the folder that you made in Step 1.  When the "Save In" location and the file name are the way you want them, click on "Save" in the lower right corner of the dialog box.  The file will now download into the folder that you made, and you will end up with a "Download Complete" box like this:

 

Now you can click "Open" if you want to play the music file (your preferred music player will automatically open and play the track) or you can click "Open Folder" which will open up your file manager (Windows Explorer) and will allow you to see the entire contents of your folder.  Or you can click "Close" to exit that dialog box and download another track. For new tracks, you only need to begin at Step 2.

 

I hope that this might be of some help.  Again, please let me know if any part of this is unclear and I will try to do a better job explaining   :-)

Thanks for the info. I DO have a windows media player. I listen to Rush and Mark Levin thru the wonders of my computer. But I’m not sure if I’d know how to save any of this Vatican music. Much less find it to play again. I know these are things kids can do effortlessly in a NY minute.

I am going to click the links you provided and see how it works. Not really ready yet for Christmas music but anything I’ve ever heard out of the Vatican is so special. I can still hear all the priests/seminiarians/whatever singing and chanting during the Pope’s funeral It was just beautiful.

Am also very excited about the Pope’s upcoming visit to ‘our [nearby] town’ He’ll be in DC in April and I will put up with the mobs for the chance of a glimpse.

If I can’t get the music, I will FReepmail you. Thanks so much.

[Stoat]

Thank you very much for pinging your list   :-)

 

[SuziQ]

Ping!

[EDINVA]

I did it .. I did it .. I did it ... I did it!!!

Thanks so much, that was a true labor of love for us techno-challeneged FReepers. I will enjoy the music thru the holidays. Next I will download the rest of the music into other, non Christmas, folder. Getting carried away here.

[2nd amendment mama]

Thanks and bookmarking

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

You should consider a career in technical writing. Well done!

[FrPR]

Ping.

[Mike Fieschko]

I have an mp3 of the Third Mass for the Nativity of Jesus Christ (1962 Missal) for download (43 megabytes, 47 minutes). It's Gregorian chant done by the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Saint Martin, Beuron, Bavaria. Download the mp3 here. You're welcome to use your ping lists to spread the word here.

(ELS, I thought this mp3 might interest you.)

Father Cornelius, the Benedictine order’s expert for parament embroidery (not a typo) at Beuron monastery, designed the interior roof lining: the dove, for Pope Pius XI's Mercedes-Benz Nürburg 460.


Pope Pius XI's Mercedes
a gift from Mercedes-Benz in 1930
It should (but maybe won't) go without saying that the Mercedes-Benz car was given a few years before Hitler's ascent to power.

[Stoat]

Bookmarking...and thank you.

You're quite welcome and I'm delighted that you've found these pages so worthwhile that you want to bookmark them for later.  I've found the same pages to be valid links for the past several years and so hopefully they will remain so.  I hope that you and yours will enjoy the music   :-)

 

[Stoat]

Divine!!!

Thank you, Stoat. I have downloaded Advent and Christmas, now listening. Many other links you have provided to explore. What a gift.

You're quite welcome and I'm delighted that you are enjoying the music and the other links   :-)

Please let me know if you have any further questions :-)

Divine!!!

Thank you, Stoat. I have downloaded Advent and Christmas, now listening. Many other links you have provided to explore. What a gift.

[Stoat]

Thanks.

You're quite welcome and I hope that you and yours will enjoy the music  :-)

[Stoat]

I did it .. I did it .. I did it ... I did it!!!

Thanks so much, that was a true labor of love for us techno-challeneged FReepers. I will enjoy the music thru the holidays. Next I will download the rest of the music into other, non Christmas, folder. Getting carried away here.

((((( BIG FURRY STOAT SMILE ))))))

I'm SO HAPPY that you've been able to make it work!  It was no trouble at all for me to do, and what little time it took is made entirely worthwhile by the knowledge that it may have helped bring some great music into your home. As you play around with these concepts, you'll find variations on them such as making new folders within your My Documents folder, and making sub-folders:  Double left-click on any folder to open it in your file manager (Windows Explorer) and then hover your mouse cursor in a clear area of the folder's interior and use the same procedure you learned for the desktop to create a folder within a folder.  It allows you to organize things even more precisely.  As an example, you could make a folder within your My Documents folder called "Religious and Holiday Music" and within that folder you could have  folders for Easter AND Christmas AND Lent, etc. etc. It allows you to organize things in whatever way is most meaningful and efficient for you.

And please don't worry about getting carried away....that's your indication that you're having a good time   :-)

Best wishes and a very Merry Christmas to you and yours   :-)

I did it .. I did it .. I did it ... I did it!!!

Thanks so much, that was a true labor of love for us techno-challeneged FReepers. I will enjoy the music thru the holidays. Next I will download the rest of the music into other, non Christmas, folder. Getting carried away here.

((((( BIG FURRY STOAT SMILE ))))))

I'm SO HAPPY that you've been able to make it work!  It was no trouble at all for me to do, and what little time it took is made entirely worthwhile by the knowledge that it may have helped bring some great music into your home. As you play around with these concepts, you'll find variations on them such as making new folders within your My Documents folder, and making sub-folders:  Double left-click on any folder to open it in your file manager (Windows Explorer) and then hover your mouse cursor in a clear area of the folder's interior and use the same procedure you learned for the desktop to create a folder within a folder.  It allows you to organize things even more precisely.  As an example, you could make a folder within your My Documents folder called "Religious and Holiday Music" and within that folder you could have  folders for Easter AND Christmas AND Lent, etc. etc. It allows you to organize things in whatever way is most meaningful and efficient for you.

[Stoat]

Thanks and bookmarking

You're quite welcome and I'm delighted that the pages are worthwhile for you  :-)

(Even though I'm a male stoat, I bookmarked the Second Amendment Sisters page featured in your tagline so that I can give the address to ladies.  Thank you!)

[Stoat]

You should consider a career in technical writing. Well done!

awww, why thank you so much for your kind words!  (((blushing)))

I sincerely appreciate it, and I hope that this music brings joy to you and yours this Christmas  :-)

[ELS]

ELS, I thought this mp3 might interest you.

Thank you.

[La Enchiladita]

BTTT

[boxerblues]

Great links, Thanks!

[Stoat]

Great links, Thanks!

You're quite welcome and I'm delighted that you're finding them to be worthwhile  :-)

Please also consider downloading the MOST EXCELLENT Gregorian Chant track so very kindly linked at post #38 by Mike Fieschko.  I listened to it last night and was impressed by the quality of the recording as well as the wonderful music itself.  It's a big file but is well worth the time and hard drive space, IMHO.

If you close your eyes, you can easily imagine that you're in a place like this

Missouri monastery Simple room, silence (Monastery offers a retreat opportunity)

Thank you Mike  :-)

[Kenny Bunk]

Corelli, Gemignani, Vivaldi, Manfredini, Locatelli, Torelli, Albinoni ... and special this Christmas, Rodolfo, the Red-Nosed Reindeer, as played by Giuliani.

Happy Thanksgiving for this wonderful link!