Macabre & Mysterious Music: Free, old-timey songs from the early 1900s. (Think steampunk.)
Posted: August 21, 2013 Filed under: *Macabre Media, Macabre & Mysterious Music, Music & Art | Tags: halloween music, Library of Congress, Macabre & Mysterious Music, Renae Rude, steam punk music, steampunk, The National Jukebox, The Paranormalist 11 CommentsWhen I was searching for weird and interesting music with a creepy feel, I came across a new feature at The Library of Congress: The National Jukebox.
Description from the Library of Congress:
About the National Jukebox
The Library of Congress presents the National Jukebox, which makes historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge. The Jukebox includes recordings from the extraordinary collections of the Library of Congress Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation and other contributing libraries and archives. Recordings in the Jukebox were issued on record labels now owned by Sony Music Entertainment, which has granted the Library of Congress a gratis license to stream acoustical recordings.
How to play with the National Jukebox:
Once at the site, you can browse and search through a wide variety of music from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. You can make a playlist as you go, then email the link to yourself. There’s no registration required.
I spent a lovely hour or two there, sampling music and recordings. Eventually I found seven recordings that suit my spooky tastes particularly well.
To hear the playlist I created:
- Click: http://media.loc.gov/playlist/view/E39EBA6F1697009EE0438C93F116009E
- On the right of the page that opens, locate & click the text link that says ‘View Playlist’ next to the blue button.
- A new window will open with a small player.
- Click the play button and enjoy.
To hear any individual song from my playlist, click on the link below and press play.
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- The ghost of the violin (02:41)
- Male vocal duet, with orchestra
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- The skeleton rag (03:00)
- Male vocal quartet, with orchestra
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- At the devil’s ball (02:38)
- Male vocal quartet, with orchestra
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- A rheumatism cure in Jayville Centre (02:51)
- Descriptive scene
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- The ghost that never walked (02:34)
- Male vocal solo
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- I found a rose in the Devil’s garden (03:11)
- Male vocal trio, with trombone, bassoon, and orchestra
Renae Rude - The Paranormalist 
I wanted to thank you for pointing out the recordings, in one word I must say fascinating.
Thank you.
You’re very welcome, Jim. I thought it was really cool too. I try to listen to a new-to-me recording every couple of days, just out of curiosity.
Neat! You might also do a few searches for, say, “ghost” or “haunted” or even “vampire” at Classic Jazz Online: http://www.jazz-on-line.com/pageinterrogation.php
Oh no, another fascinating rabbit hole! Seriously though, I’ve already found some fascinating stuff there, thanks to your suggestion.
I’ve never seen so much Sarah Vaughan in one place … what a treasure!
I love a good fiddle ‘n washboard combo. Thanks for sharing!
IKR? Why in the world did that stop being a thing??
I’ve spent some time here myself to get trigger music for paranormal investigations! But I sometimes forget it is there. And I certainly never thought of searching for spooky music. Can’t wait to listen! Like Like Like!!!
Now see, that’s brilliant! I would have never thought of using it as a trigger. Fantastic idea.
It’s fun to research a site or location and predict or imagine the style of music that would have been played, or in some situations performed. Really creepy when used in a location that may not have heard that music for years.
And actually, I think I just found my Halloween day activity for my students! I sometimes play spooky stories “on tape”.
Excellent 😀