COMPLETE: A Personal Anthology of Shakespeare - NF/ll

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
martinc
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Post by martinc »

All audio files can be found on our catalog page: http://librivox.org/a-personal-anthology-of-shakespeare-compiled-by-martin-clifton/

I asked in book suggestions what people thought about recordings of specific pieces of Shakespeare and ChipDoc suggested that I simply post the idea here to let people know and then get on with it!

The only problem is that although the pieces will all be in the public domain there is no specific publication containing them all (as I shall be choosing them myself) - it will be a sort of freestyle, personal, anthology

I should welcome suggestions of how to handle this

Martin
GordMackenzie
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Post by GordMackenzie »

This is a great idea, Martin.

I like the fact that it will be "personal anthology". I would do each reading as its own file and would post a contents and summary page (perhaps with notes as to why you chose the pieces?) here in the forum. The contents summary text could be included in a future archive of the whole anthology.

Depending on your feelings, you might want to record an introduction to each piece that lets the listener know the context and your thoughts on the piece. This would make the recordings more valuable to folks that may not be as familiar with Shakespeare as you. I would record the introductions as separate files, so that they are optional for the listener.

Just my 2 pennies. I look forward to listening!
Gord Mackenzie
gord[dot]mackenzie[at]gmail.com
Librivox Wiki Page: [url=http://librivox.org/wiki/moin.cgi/GordMackenzie]GordMackenzie[/url]
LibraryLady
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Post by LibraryLady »

Oops, I'm not sure how I missed this thread. Sorry not to reply sooner, Martin!

I love this idea, there is sooooo much Shakespeare material out there and it's a great idea to find your favorite parts. I like Gord's suggestions. I'd just have an introduction at the beginning of each reading/file that says this is a personal anthology of favorite Shakespeare parts or something to that effect, then introduce the reading by it's source and where it can be found.

Including your own thoughts and comments could be interesting but it could also be distracting and take the focus off of the Shakespeare. My advice would be to keep any comments on why you chose the reading very brief, or to make them separate files as Gord suggested.

I'll be your meta-coordinator so I will gather your files when you are finished for cataloging. If you'd like you can post them here as you complete them to keep us updated on your progress. If you don't have server space to keep the files until you are finished, you can send them to me as you finish them using yousendit.

Make sure you come up with a consistent plan for your ID3 tags and use it throughout the project. Let me know if you have any questions!
Annie Coleman Rothenberg
http://www.anniecoleman.com/

"I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice." ~Whitman
LibraryLady
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Post by LibraryLady »

I updated the title of this thread with my meta tag. I also changed the title of your project so I can put it in the catalog. Does that sound okay or do you want it worded differently? Let me know and I'll wait till I hear back from you to add it to the catalog.
Annie Coleman Rothenberg
http://www.anniecoleman.com/

"I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice." ~Whitman
martinc
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Location: Hertford UK

Post by martinc »

Thank you Gord and Annie.

Annie - I am more than happy that you have changed the name of the string and really grateful for your offer to coordinate, you are most kind.

I have given some thought to Gord?s suggestion and your comments ? clearly some sort of explanation or introduction is required for each piece, but the risk is that it will detract from the content. As far as an overall comment on why I chose each piece that is easier - there is no complex technical or poetic reason for any of them (would that I were that clever) it is simply that I like their sound and Shakespeare?s use of language and wish that I had them all by heart so that I could ?join in and sing? when I hear them.

I have some questions/comments upon which I should value suggestions:
I think that the anthology should be called ?A Personal Anthology of Shakespeare? the ?A? suggesting that it this is not supposed to be definitive, just one of many possibilities.

As these selections are taken from the main body of the plays they do not have titles and so I think that I should make up a short arbitrary title to humanise the reference (see later) if that is ok.

How will I know when I have finished? It could go on for ever!

Would other people like an opportuniy to suggest pieces ? I can think of about twenty off hand but there must be hundreds of other peoples? favourites.

Should I do the entire recording myself (which I am quite happy to do) or would people think it should be collaborative. Potentially, I suppose, everyone who wished could record their own personal anthology; this would keep the voices uniform.

Here is my plan for introductions, filename and tags ? comments welcome:

Introduction to each segment:

?A personal anthology of Shakespeare [name of play] Act [act number] Scene [scene number] [arbitrary title] read for Librivox.org by Martin Clifton? ? followed by a very short scene setter.

For example: ?A personal anthology of Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice; Act four Scene one ?The Quality of Mercy? read for Librivox.org by Martin Clifton ? Portia argues for a show of mercy?


File name: personal_anthology_shakespeare_[play]_[act as text]_[scene as number].mac.mp3

For example: personal_anthology_shakespeare_merchant_of_venice_four_1.mac.mp3


ID3 Tags:

ALBUM: A Personal Anthology of Shakespeare
ARTIST: Shakespeare
TITLE: Play Act Scene

I will send the individual files to you via yousendit and post as I go. I am in the process of setting up a web page to store my readings, but am not yet sufficiently confident to rely on this.

Sorry to go on so

Martin
martinc
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Post by martinc »

Here is an example of all of this:

http://s52.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1TD6IIC0AHMLU3T2XW6ON80VK4

Martin
ChipDoc
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Post by ChipDoc »

Sounds great, Martin! I really liked the way you introduced it. As an aside, I believe this speech is the very first written defense of Jews in the English language.

You really should consider coming on over to the War Of The Roses thread and picking up a role. You'd make a great Richard II...

http://librivox.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1017
-Chip
Retired to Colorado
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.
~Mark Twain
LibraryLady
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Post by LibraryLady »

Wow, great work laying out how it will be organized, Martin! I don't have time to listen right now but I will after work. A few quick thoughts:

- A Personal Anthology of Shakespeare does sound better, I will change it to that.

- The arbitrary title looks great, good idea.

- You get to decide when it is finished! Maybe just the 20 or so you have in mind now, or maybe after you've done those you'll have more to add. Just let me know when you're finished. You could always do another later!

- I'd keep it as a solo project to leave others the option of doing their own personal anthology. If you ask for suggestions from others, I think it will become less of your personal anthology, and more of a Librivox anthology.

- Your plan for introductions, filenames, and ID3 tags if *wonderful*!! Very thorough and well thought out. I like the introduction, brief and to the point but enough to put it in context.

- I'll gather the files and save them for you for now. If/when you get your website set up, let me know, and I'll yousendit them back to you so you can keep them all in one place.

- Never apologize for being thorough!

I look forward to listening to the first reading when I get home from work.
Annie Coleman Rothenberg
http://www.anniecoleman.com/

"I hear the sound I love, the sound of the human voice." ~Whitman
martinc
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Post by martinc »

Chip

Richard the second...mmm tempting but - 6341 words by my count and I go on holiday next week

I will persevere with the anthology until then and see what's left when I get back.

thank you for your kind words

Martin
martinc
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Post by martinc »

Annie

All your comments noted, very helpful, I agree with all.

Small mistake in filename - should be underscore before my initials not a dot. I have corrected this and have uploaded the ones I have done so far to:
http://homepage.mac.com/martin.clifton/my%20page/*AudioRecordings.html

Hope this works, I have copies on my own computer anyway and can send separately if this helps

Martin
ChipDoc
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Post by ChipDoc »

martinc wrote:Richard the second...mmm tempting but - 6341 words by my count and I go on holiday next week
It's being done as a play, so you actually only have to voice the lines of Richard himself, not the whole play.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday! I'm about to take one myself, but I'll be back at work on Tuesday.
-Chip
Retired to Colorado
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.
~Mark Twain
martinc
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Post by martinc »

clearly I cannot work out how to format a URL: it doesn't seem to like the whole address, it might be the asterisk, but I promise if you cut and paste all of this including *AudioRecordings.html it will work:

http://homepage.mac.com/martin.clifton/my20page*AudioRecordings.html


Martin
ChipDoc
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Post by ChipDoc »

Sorry, it 404s you even when you copy the whole line into the address box. I suspect it's the * in the address. That sort of thing will freak out most Unix based servers, since they view it as a command.
-Chip
Retired to Colorado
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.
~Mark Twain
martinc
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Post by martinc »

Chip

No, honest, I cut and pasted just Richard's words...

Have a good break

Martin
martinc
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Post by martinc »

and thanks for the url advice - I put the asterisk in as I was confusing myself with two similar names and unfortunately have left it in - will it cause unix problems as it is?

I guess I can rename it without the asterisk

martin
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