Free Christmas Music from the Vatican

The Vatican ^

[Stoat]

2003	2002
2001	2000

Christmas Music:

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

 

[Stoat]

Yes, I know it's quite early to be thinking about Christmas, but I'm posting this now because I'm thinking that many people will be wanting to make up CD's with this great music on it to send to friends who don't have internet access or who don't know how to burn CD's of their own, so that they can enjoy it throughout December and beyond. There's a lot of music here and it takes time to download what you want, burn it to CD, make a nice cover, etc.etc. Many of you may have friends overseas who might like to listen to this and that will further add to the lead time that you will need. So, I'm hoping you won't mind this early post...I'm just trying to help so that you don't need to do this at the last minute :-)

As I mentioned, there's a lot of great music here and particularly if you have a dialup connection you may be interested in a 'download manager' program, which makes a big download project much faster and simple. There are many download managers out there, but my personal favorite is FlashGet;

http://www.amazesoft.com/

but there are many to choose from...I like FlashGet mainly because it doesn't add any spyware to your system.

[Jet Jaguar]

ping?

[not-alone]

thanks

[LadyDoc]

thank you.

the music is beautiful.

[Stoat]

You're quite welcome! I hope that you and your friends will enjoy it, as I have. FYI, they change the musical selections every year not only for Christmas but for Easter and other Holy days, so I've found that it's a good idea to check regularly to be assured of hearing their latest offerings. I've found that it's easiest for me to print a list of the offered selections and that way I can check to find any new additions....sometimes they do a major page layout change where it's obvious that there are new things but sometimes they don't. Best Wishes to you all and I hope that you might consider emailing a link to the Vatican's music pages to your friends as well.

[Coleus]

Thanks, what's the purpose of a download manager?

[Stoat]

Hello,
A Download manager has several purposes, and one or all may be working for you depending upon what you are doing.
If you have a dialup connection, you can have the download manager split the download into multiple 'streams' which maximizes the use of your bandwidth, resulting in a faster download as compared with a single stream. (you can do this if you have a highspeed connection as well...it will just probably be most noticeable when used with a dialup connection)
In a case such as in these Vatican pages where you have multiple mp3 files on a single web page, you can have a right-click option where you can click your right mouse button while on such a page and select "download all", which allows you to download all files on the page, one after another or in groups, the size of which you specify.

If you're working with a dialup connection and you lose the connection, the download manager makes resuming your download easy....you don't have to start over from the beginning. This is great for very large files as well as multiple files.

You can also 'start all' pause all and resume all when you have selected multiple files. It's a tremendously convenient time-saving accessory to have if you download a lot of files or programs.
 

Here is an excerpt from the owner's manual of Flashget, which may provide some additional information:

 

What is FlashGet?
 

---

FlashGet is specifically designed to address two of the biggest problems when downloading files: Speed and management of downloaded files.

If you've ever waited forever for your files to download from a slow connection, or been cut off midway through a download - or just can't keep track of your ever-growing downloads - FlashGet is for you. FlashGet can split downloaded files into sections, downloading each section simultaneously, for an increase in downloading speed from 100% to 500%. This, coupled with FlashGet's powerful and easy-to-use management features, helps you take control of your downloads like never before.
 

---

Speed
FlashGet can automatically split files into sections or splits, and download each split simultaneously. Multiple connections are opened to each file, and the result is the the most efficient exploitation of the bandwidth available. Whatever your connection, FlashGet makes sure all of the bandwidth is utilized. Difficult, slow downloads that normally take ages are handled with ease. Download times are drastically reduced.
Management
FlashGet is capable of creating unlimited numbers of categories for your files. Download jobs can be placed in specifically-named categories for quick and easy access. The powerful and easy-to-use management features in FlashGet help you take control of your downloads easily.

 

Highlights
Speed. The ability to split files into up to 10 parts, with each part downloading simultaneously. Up to 8 different simultaneous download jobs. FlashGet just might be the fastest download software around!
Organize. Categorize files with FlashGet's integrated & simple-yet-powerful file management features before your files engulf you!
Mirror search. Automatically search for the fastest server available for the fastest possible downloads.
Automatically have FlashGet dial up, hang up & shut down the computer when you're not around!
Schedule to download files whenever you feel! Whether it's while you snooze or during off-peak periods, certain times each weekday, weekend or whatever. The choice is yours!
Manage your copious downloaded files with FlashGet's simple yet powerful user interface.
Automate your FlashGet downloads with a browser click! Supports Internet Explorer, Netscape and Opera* web browsers. *with freely downloadable plug-in.
Superior ease-of-use. FlashGet's interface is logical, integrated, informative and customizable.
Queue your downloads with FlashGet's logical queueing system.
Control the download speed limit so that downloading files doesn't interfere with your web browsing!
Easily see any aspect of your downloads at a glance. Whether it be server status messages, monitoring splits, amount downloaded, time left...whatever! No excessive clicking into multiple open windows to see what's going on!
Customize the the FlashGet toolbar and user interface, including the Graph and log window colors.
Support for proxy servers for maximum downloading flexibility.
Speak your language with FlashGet's auto-select language capabilities (20+ selectable languages available).
Check for FlashGet updates from within FlashGet.
Monitor your download progress, server status messages and download splits graphically with the easiest, most functional user interface around!
 

+ much, much more!

I hope that this will be of some help.  Please let me know if I should explain something further or if you need more information.

 

[Coleus]

thanks a lot, I may try it out.

[NYer]

Thanks for the post. It's never too early to listen to Christmas music ;-D

Merry Christmas

Catholic Ping - please freepmail me if you want on/off this list

[dha]

Beautiful! Thank you for posting this.

[Stoat]

You're welcome :-)
I hope that everyone might consider forwarding either this FR URL or the URL to the Vatican music pages to all of your email friends as well..there's nothing quite like music to touch the heart and spirit :-)

[okokie]

THANK YOU

[Stoat]

awww...You're welcome! I hope that you will enjoy the music and that you might tell your friends about it as well :-)

[Coleus]

http://www.vatican.va/liturgical_year/liturgico_en/christmas.html

[Varda]

This is a great idea! I've never used the CD burner on my computer. Time to fire 'er up!

[Stoat]

Thank you very much for reactivating this thread and for the URL update!  I hope that everyone will enjoy this great music.

There's one update that I would like to make, however.  Since I posted this thread I've had a change of heart regarding my preferences in download managers.  I no longer favor FlashGet because they have begun adding adware garbage into their product and it will frequently trigger alerts in cleaner programs.  When the components are removed it will quite often will disable the program.

Now I prefer Internet Download Manager

http://www.internetdownloadmanager.com/

Which, as of this posting, contains no adware or spyware and works at least as well if not better than FlashGet.  I've been using it for several months and have experienced no problems with it.  I find it to be a great help when downloading multiple files, large files, and for those times when you can't finish a large download and need to restart later.

Thank you again for your post and for pinging your friends.  I hope that everyone will have a Merry Christmas.

[onyx]

I love this -- I missed it in '04!

[Stoat]

This is a great idea! I've never used the CD burner on my computer. Time to fire 'er up!

I'm delighted that you think so and I'm sure that your friends will be overjoyed when they receive a custom-made CD from you.  Be warned, however.....it can be addictive!  Soon you will discover all of the fun things that you can make with your CD burner including photo albums which can even be animated or include video and audio content.  Many modern home DVD players will also play CD's with mixed-content media, and so you can send simple or elaborate productions to all of your friends who own a DVD player at home....they don't even need a computer.  You can make custom covers for your creations and you can really produce a high-quality professional quality product with no more than a home PC and some good software.  Good luck to you and have fun!