music.sci-nnov.ru was the "Nizhny Novgorod Music Page" (Нижегородская музыкальная страница), a non-commercial site about Nizhny Novgorod music and musicians. It was run by Nizhny Novgorod musician Evgeny Afraimovich and journalist Elena Kashina[1]; later the project remained the work of one author, with the home page calling it "a non-commercial project of Evgeny Afraimovich"[2]. According to the site's own account, it opened in 1997[2]; web-archive snapshots of the home page are known from December 12, 1998 to November 2, 2005[1][4]. The Nizhny Novgorod site catalog on nn.ru described it as: "Information about Nizhny Novgorod music and musicians, projects, news"[5].

The first edition: an index by genre

The 1998 snapshot shows a table of contents of Nizhny Novgorod's musical life arranged by genre: "Classical", "Pop music", "Rock music", "Today's Sensation!", "SHOW-Provintsiya", "Authors", "Choral music", "Folk music", "Theatrical", "Useful links"[1]. A separate item was "Author's Song" (bard song), marked as the page of Alexei Sitdikov[1]. At the bottom were the date of the last update — November 29, 1998, an offer to take a banner to link to the page, and navigation for the "Nizhny Novgorod Ring of Links"[1].

Jazz, mailing lists and "Notes"

By 2001 the site had turned into a branching personal portal. The site map listed the sections "About the site", "About the author", "Music projects", "Musicians", "Music video clips", "Music forum", "Non-music projects", "Guest book" and "Contact", while the free services listed were a music e-mail, "All the Jazz of the 20th Century", "Great Sounds" and a "Music board"[2]. There was a chat called "nizhe poyasa" ("below the belt"), search across the site and the web, and a subscribe.ru mailing list: "All the Jazz of the 20th Century. Subscribe! Free jazz mp3 every week!!!", as the home page put it[2]. There the author also recommended local performers: Alexander Gronsky, Radio Prestige host Lyudmila Trefilova, and Lyudmila Sokolova with her version of "Unchain My Heart"[2]. Hosting was provided by the company "Sendy" (Сенди, www.sandy.ru)[2][3].

In the 2003 edition, the home page explained the project's origin: the page "has existed since 1997 thanks to the author's selfless passion for all things computer-and-music" (spelling as in the source)[3]. The update feed ran almost weekly and consisted mostly of new files in the "All the Jazz of the 20th Century" and "Music news" sections: in May–July 2003 it added recordings by Stanley Clarke, the Keith Jarrett Trio, and David Sanborn[3]. On May 13, 2003, the sections "Notes on Music" and "Notes on Cinema" opened, with the author immediately warning that all the notes were "very subjective and sometimes a bit sharp"[3]. The home page also carried blocks for "counters", "advertising" and "author's recommendations", and offered visitors a poll, "What brought you here...?"[3]. A separate banner announced the film "Lakomy Kusochek" ("A Tasty Morsel"), described on the site as the first Nizhny Novgorod feature film; its premiere took place in Nizhny Novgorod on June 13, 2002[3].

The Nizhny Novgorod events guide of 2004–2005

The last preserved snapshot carries a news feed for the winter and March of 2005: it is already half made up of local events listings and news about city bands. On December 24, 2004, the site posted information about the Nizhny Novgorod band Elefunk with a demo track from their debut album; on February 8, 2005, data on the rock band "Posledny Priyut" ("Last Refuge") was updated; on March 15, there was an invitation to the site of the Nizhny Novgorod band "Talisman"[4]. The announcements concerned city venues: on February 25, 2005, a jazz festival was held at the drama theater, where, as the home page reported, "Nizhny Novgorod presents Yana Tyulkova and her 'jazz-vocal studio'"; on March 19, the club "Piaty Element" ("Fifth Element", 141 Gorky Street, at the Sputnik cinema) hosted a Celtic culture festival for St. Patrick's Day[4].

Its place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site belongs to the layer of private non-commercial projects of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet: not a media outlet or a company, but a reference resource on city music compiled by one person. A measurable trace of its visibility survives in the nn.ru site catalog, where the "Projects: Music" category gave each listing a numeric rating and let users sort the list by rating, hosting provider, or check date[6]. The "Nizhny Novgorod Music Page" carried the note "Rating: 215" — the ninth entry on the first page of the section, between a site rated 245 and the next one rated 160[5]. The site entered our data precisely through this catalog: in the preserved samples of the Counter.nn.ru counter, on which the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating is based, no separate entry for this address is recorded. In the preserved results table of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote for 2004, the address music.sci-nnov.ru does not appear[7].

How it closed

The site never published a direct farewell, but on March 15, 2005, it announced a split. "I have decided to gradually change the site, leaving on it only what is directly related to Nizhny Novgorod music," the home page reported, noting that a new site, "Ugputu.Ru", had opened, to which "All the Jazz of the 20th Century" with its forum, "Music news", "Notes on Cinema" and "Notes on Music" had already moved[4]. Everything that had driven the project's most frequent updates broke away from it. No new posts appear in the snapshots after March 15, 2005: the last snapshot of the home page in the web archive is dated November 2, 2005, and repeats the March edition[4]. No later saved copies of the home page have been found.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 1998 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — nn.ru site catalog, Music section, 2003 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — nn.ru site catalog, "Projects: Music" category, 2002 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet vote results, 2004 (archive)