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Free Download: "Pretty Saro" from the album Songs of Love and Politics, performed by Peggy Seeger

Our featured download from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is "Pretty Saro" from the album Songs of Love and Politics by Peggy Seeger.

A dominant figure in the folk song movement in the U.S. and England for more than 35 years, Peggy personally selected these traditional and original songs focused primarily on the themes of love and politics. Songs include "Freight Train," "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face," and "Gonna Be An Engineer."

"21 tracks display the variety of Peggy's repertoire, her range of styles, love of tradition and innovative songwriting prowess." — Homespun Tapes

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All tracks downloaded through this promotion are owned by Alexander Street Press and are available to legally download, free of cost to the user.

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Free Download: Franz Schubert's "The Trout, Piano Quintet in A"

Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was a Austrian composer. He is the only Viennese composer who was native to Vienna rather than other part of the Austrian Empire. His father was a schoolteacher who ensured that he had music lessons from an early age, including from such composers as Salieri. Schubert began composing in 1810; at the same time, he was performing in a quartet with his brothers. This appears to have influenced his early compositions which show the influence of Mozart, Hadyn, Bach, and Rossini. Schubert began composing in earnest at age 17, and proved to be a highly productive composer, turning out 50 pieces within the space of a year. He married Marie von Spaun, the sister of his friend Josef von Spaun, in 1819. Schubert's death certificate said he died of "nervous fever" in 1828, though the real cause was likely teritary syphilis.

Schubert wrote "The Trout" in 1819 on commission to write a piece with unusual instrumentation and variations in the fourth movement.

This recording is performed by Jean-Jaques Kantorow, violin, Vladimir Mendelssohn, viola, Jacques Rouvier, piano, Duncan McTier, double bass, and Phillippe Muller, cello.

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All tracks downloaded through this promotion are owned by Alexander Street Press and are available to legally download, free of cost to the user.

Free Download: "Kataghani" from the album Music of Central Asia Vol. 3: Homayun Sakhi: The Art of the Afghan Rubâb, performed by Homayun Sakhi

Our featured download from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is "Kataghani," performed by Homayun Sakhi. From Kabul to California, Homayun Sakhi is admired as the outstanding Afghan rubâb player of his generation, a charismatic virtuoso who has pushed the limits of his instrument. With tabla player Taryalai Hashimi, Sakhi plays music that is uniquely Afghan, yet resonates strongly with the spirit of Indian raga. Read more about music from Afghanistan in the 2011 Summer edition of Smithsonian Folkways Magazine.

Music of Central Asia is a co-production of the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia, a program of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Download this work now at http://alexanderstreet.com/GLMUdownload.htm

All tracks downloaded through this promotion are owned by Alexander Street Press and are available to legally download, free of cost to the user.

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Free Download: Albert Roussel's "Symphony No. 3, Op. 42"

Albert Roussel (1869-1937) is an early twentieth-century French composer. He was raised by various members of his extended family, and did not begin to study music until 1894, when he resigned from the French navy to pursue music. He married Blanche Preisach in 1908. Despite his resignation from the navy twenty years previously, he fought in World War I. As for many of his generation, the experience seems to have deeply affected him--his style of composition became less rococo. After years of indifferent health, he died of a heart attack in 1937.

The Third Symphony was written to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1930. In this piece, as with many of his later pieces, flute is featured prominently throughout the work.

This recording is performed by the Orchestre de Bordeaux-Aquitaine, Roberto Benzi, conductor.

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All tracks downloaded through this promotion are owned by Alexander Street Press and are available to legally download, free of cost to the user.

Free Download: "Cowboy Jim" from the album Pioneering Women of Bluegrass, performed by Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard

Our featured download from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is "Cowboy Jim," performed by Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard. When Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard recorded these songs in the mid-1960s, bluegrass music was dominated by male performers. They selected their favorite songs and arranged them for a stellar group of sidemen—bluegrass legends Lamar Grier, Chubby Wise, David Grisman, and Billy Baker. Their widely admired performances made them role models for future generations of women in bluegrass.

Download this work now at http://alexanderstreet.com/GLMUdownload.htm

All tracks downloaded through this promotion are owned by Alexander Street Press and are available to legally download, free of cost to the user.

The 26 tracks have been remastered, resequenced, and newly annotated by the performers themselves, and include "Long Black Veil," "The One I Love Is Gone," and "I Hear a Sweet Voice Calling."

"Hazel and Alice blast out vintage bluegrass-country soundsongs with fierce, raucous energy." — Time Magazine. For more information, and to download this track, click here