At the COAA Rally at Lake Winnie Amusement Park a week ago, Bill Klinger
suggested that I check out the MIDI file collection on Erik Kluver's
website.  For a number of reasons it took me a while to find it, but it
was worth the effort.

The MIDI collection appears in a single page which includes general
information on MIDI, a description of a roll scanning project, and
links to over 1200 MIDI files.  The website is in Dutch.  In gathering
information I used Google Translate to decode some of the information.

The majority of the files are of a variety of classical music
compositions which appear to be intended to let users study the use
of voices in compositions and/or rehearse choral music.  Perhaps the
majority are SATB (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) or SATB plus piano
or organ.

As Kluver notes, MIDI files in which each voice is in a separate track
and channel are a powerful tool in developing an understanding of the
way in which the voices were used by the arranger.  They are also very
useful in developing practice files for a choir performance because
they allow individual voices to be emphasized while retaining overall
context.

There are over 110 MIDI files which are for band organs.

The band organ files originated as scans of books for the 50-key street
organ "Carpe Diem", files from a MIDI-fied 59-key fairground organ
built or owned by Fritz Wrede of Hanover, and scans of books for a
61-key Bruder organ.  Many of these files can be easily identified by
notations (m50), (m59) or (m61) in the titles, but there are also about
twenty files which are not so designated.

As is typical of scanned files, the bar lines which appear in the
MIDI files do not match the rhythm of the composition.  There are also
scanning artifacts in many note lengths.  The drum lines contain some
non-sounding information.  I suggest that the "dir" channel is to
control the conductor, "bel" is the bell ringers, "vol" is register
controls, and I have no clue as to the use of "loos".  [Cancel?]

If you are curious about how the Dutch Street Organ sound is created,
I would suggest that you look at the files 0788, "Daar bij die molen
(m50)" and 1164 "Daar is de orgelman (m50)" in a MIDI editor.  You will
see staccato harmony notes in the Melody [division], appearances of the
melody in the Accompaniment line, and runs which start in one voice and
end in another.

The URL for Erik Kluver's website, "Muziek - Gegevensbank van
MIDI-bestanden", is http://members.chello.nl/f.kluver/muziekmi.htm 

Wallace Venable

 [ One of the MIDI files, "Schatz wenn Küsse winken", is playing at
 [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2yqHnbzmgM  using a soundfont of
 [ sampled sounds.  The "virtual fair organ" sounds very realistic!
 [ -- Robbie