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Music
& Sound
Links to Music & Sound On-Line
. Links
to Music & Sound On-Line The
amount of info on the web is enormous, as anyone who's ever tried to run a
search can attest to. And, to put it all in context, best estimates say
that only a fraction, maybe 20 - 40 % of what's out there is actually making its
way to the search engines.
Well ...
Here at DownStreet, we'd like to try to help. So each issue, we
post a few links in Music & Sound to sites that might interest you.
Sometimes the links will be related to one another ... sometimes
we'll just offer up a somewhat random sampling. In either case, we think
we might be able to help you find the kind of site you've been looking for.
Of course, while we can't vouch for the fact that every link we provide will be
of interest to everyone, we do our best to filter out the noise and the
bustle. ...
We hope you enjoy the following sites. . American
Voices, Great Speeches
Most of our fare in Links to Music & Sound
has focused on the former. But as anyone knows who's ever heard a speech
that moved them, oratory can be a music all its own. ... Forgive us,
then, this mini-essay. We don't usually spend this much time introducing
our links. But the question of great speeches seemed to ask for something
a little more. ... Of course, if you'd prefer to skip over this
intro, you can simply click here to jump straight to the links.
... *******
*******  The
first political speech I ever remember hearing was one by Adlai Stevenson,
during the '56 campaign. He had, as I realized only when I got older and
listened again with different ears, a wry with and, more than that, a great
intelligence. But neither was enough to get him elected in his two rounds
against Eisenhower. But the first speech I ever heard that genuinely
grabbed me was the one that marked a passage for most of my generation -- JFK's
Inaugural Address. ...
After that, there'd been other
speeches, but most were memorable more for the momentousness of the occasion
than for the content of the speech or the oratorical skill of the speaker.
I remember, for example, listening to Goldwater during the '64 campaign against
LBJ, and to LBJ, too, though neither was particularly impressive. There
was, however, another voice that emerged in those years that was not only
unmistakable, but powerful in its skill and command of podium and the population
that listened. That voice, of course, was the voice of Dr. Martin Luther
King. Since that time, I can't say that I've been
particularly moved by a speaker. Oh, sure. There've been plenty of
speeches that mattered {and, for better and for worse, plenty that
haven't}. But nothing particularly impressed me, not for its oratorical
skill. Nixon was, let's face it, a poor speaker. Carter had the
substance, but not the delivery. And even Ronald Reagan, dubbed 'The Great
Communicator', left me wishing for something a little more detailed and
well-delivered. Bush the Elder was clear, but uninspiring. And
Clinton certainly had a way with his audience, all charm and affability, though
I almost always felt like he was about to sell me a used car. Most
recently, lots of pundits have been giving it Bush the Younger -- that, after a
slow start, since the terrible events of September 11th, he has come into his
own in his speeches. I'm sorry. Not really. What he has to
say, especially under the circumstances, is important. No question.
But there's a difference between the momentousness of occasion and the ability
to be lifted up by the moment, and carry others with you. Of
course, there's a danger in all this. Oratory, all too often, can mask
political agendas rather than clarify them. It is capable of making ashes
seem like honey, and can sometimes convince its hearers that blood can be gotten
from a stone. Still ... There is a skill to oratory that, more
than ever in this age of electronic media, we need to rediscover. We need
to get past the sound bites -- and past the all-too-easy repetitions of those
emotionally-charged catch-phrases that pepper most modern speeches, and that are
precisely designed to be picked up as the the sound bite for the evening
news. ... One way toward that is to read or
listen to some of the great speeches of the past, and compare it to what's
currently passing. In that context, then, DownStreet
is pleased to offer these ... Links
to American Voices, Great Speeches
DOUGLASS Archives of American Public Address
This
site is one of the best we've ever come across on the
net. It takes its subject and the medium and
makes the best of both. ...
.
Douglass
-- which, of course, takes its name for the former
slave, Frederick Douglass, whose oratorical skill
helped to rouse a nation against slavery -- is an
extensive site. You'll find "speeches and
related documents" organized By
Speaker ... By Title ...
Chronologically ... and By Issue. You can also
search the entire site by keyword, as well as find
links to a Resource Desk, which includes Current
Events, Comm Links, and a Reference area, as well as
links to an impressive write-up of US History, as well
as Featured material. There are also links to a
variety of 'off-site' sources {i.e., at other web
sites}, organized by twelve different
categories: 1. Colonial and Revolutionary
America; 2. Forming a New Nation; 3. Discourse
of a Young Republic; 4. Slavery and the Ordeal of the
Union; 5. Post-Civil War Growth and Transformation; 6.
Voices of the Progressive Age; 7. WW I and its
Aftermath; 8. The New Deal and WW II; 9. Cold War Calm
and Calamity; and 10. After Vietnam, as well as links
to Current Events and Debate, and to General
Collections of Speeches and Documents.
.
The
voices you'll find here range widely -- from Jane
Adams and Eugene Debs to the Guerilla Girls and Ken
Burns. There are all those you'd expect to find,
and plenty you {like us} probably had never even heard
of before. The site also contains plenty of
links to oratorical resources that should be
invaluable to anyone who is called upon to give a
speech, or anyone who's teaching others the art of
oratory.
Rating: ***** [5 stars]
. PBS.org:
Great American Speeches, 80 Years of Political Oratory
As
ususal, PBS has pulled off a highly polished and
thoroughly worthwhile site once again with its Great
American Speeches. ...
.
From
the main page, you'll find links to the Speech
Archive, as well as other kinds of fare that will be
familiar to PBS visitors. The latter include an
American History Challenge, a Pop-Up Trivia section,
and a Wordsmith Challenge. There's also a link
to Ideas for Teachers. In that context, or
simply for those who'd like to give it a whirl,
there's also a link to a section called Could You Be a
Politician?, in which you have an opportunity to
deliver a 10-minute speech from a Teleprompter, but
with some interesting twists. Finally, there's
also a Critics' Corner, where you can hear, read
about, then analyze for yourself the famous
"Checkers Speech" by Richard Nixon.
.
The
Speech Archives is listed by decade, beginning with a
few speeches from the pre-1900 era, including one by
William Jennings Bryan {available both in print and on
an audio file}, and another by Booker T.
Washington. All the links on this page pop up in
a separate JavaScript window, so there's no need to
navigate back and forth or right-click to open them in
a new window {which doesn't work with JavaScript
anyway}. Among the offerings from last century
-- Mark Twain, Emma Goldman, Mother Jones, "Fightin'
Bob" LaFollette, Eugene Debs, Henry Cabot Lodge,
Sr., Marcus Garvey, Clarence Darrow, "The Radio
Priest" Charles E. Coughlin, Thomas Dewey,
Eleanor Roosevelt, Gen. George S. Patton, John L.
Lewis, William Faulkner, Joseph McCarthy, JFK, Malcolm
X, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, John Kerry, Barbara
Jordan, Mario Cuomo, Oliver North, and Elie Wiesel.
Rating:
***** [5 stars]
.
*******
******* If you know of any
links that you think are worthwhile, why not send them along to ...
links@downstreetmagazine.com
... If we agree, we'll be happy to include
them in an upcoming issue to pass the word along. ...
Thanks. *******
******* .
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