COMPLETE Short Poetry Collection 215 - rap

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

Hi Scott! Welcome to the Poetry Collection and congratulation on your first recording!
I gave a listen to it so I could comment asap on background noise. I didn't hear anything wrong. The sound is clear; it's great actually. I've entered the recording in the Magic Window and marked it PL OK! Thank you so much for contributing!
Here's your Reader page in the catalogue: https://librivox.org/reader/16084
It lists the projects you read for, so hopefully you enjoy recording and gradually fill it up! You can also keep track of your sections in ongoing projects under the "Reader Section Details" link.
scottlfortune
Posts: 23
Joined: April 1st, 2021, 3:42 pm

Post by scottlfortune »

Rapunzelina,

You are a Gentleperson, and a scholar! Thank you very, very much. I look forward to a long and happy relationship with Librivox!

Scott F.
Rapunzelina
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Post by Rapunzelina »

Newgatenovelist wrote: April 9th, 2021, 11:44 am My first two for the month, both by a new-to-the-catalogue author

William Falconer was a Scottish poet, sailor and the author of a marine dictionary. He is best known for his epic poem The Shipwreck.
Thank you, Erin! I think you inspired Phil Schempf to record The Shipwreck :D
soupy wrote: April 10th, 2021, 3:59 pm A Death in the Desert by Robert Browning 1864
Thank you so much, Craig! :thumbs:
calluna wrote: April 11th, 2021, 8:12 pm "On the bleakness of my lot" by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Thank you, Calluna! :9:
InTheDesert wrote: April 12th, 2021, 6:36 am Christianus by Handley Moule
Thank you, InTheDesert!
I am marking the recording PL OK, and I thought I'd mention that at 25:29 the text "who but fears Domitian's gloom" was read as "but who fears ..." because of the slight nuance, and I don't know how much word-perfect you'd like to be for this poem. As I said, for me it's perfectly fine and PL OK so don't feel obliged to edit only because I mentioned it.

pschempf wrote: April 12th, 2021, 1:25 pm Rapunzelina -

Things New and Old (1884) Chalfont St. Giles by Edward Hayes Plumptre (1821-1891)

Wish my voice wasn't such a wreck. :(
Thank you, Fritz! I don't know what you mean by such a wreck, it sounds appropriately touching and harmonious to me. Or if it's a pun, you can use this wreck of a voice to record The Shipwreck :mrgreen:
I wondered how to title the recording, so I tracked it down to its original publication of "Things New and Old" https://archive.org/details/thingsnewold00plum/page/n15/mode/2up . My guess is that the collective publication "The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century", which is on bartleby.org, included a portion of the poem. So I went with "Chalfont St. Giles (extract)" but let me know if you have something else to suggest.
Newgatenovelist
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Post by Newgatenovelist »

Rapunzelina wrote: April 13th, 2021, 4:57 am Thank you, Erin! I think you inspired Phil Schempf to record The Shipwreck :D
Wonderful! It's nice to see some of these authors being recorded 'in full', beyond the few monthly poems I can manage. That's great news for Falconer, and Phil, good luck with the project!
Off LV 25-28 March.
pschempf
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Location: Coastal Alaska Rainforest
Contact:

Post by pschempf »

Rapunzelina and Erin -

It was Erin's choice this month that led me to The Shipwreck. I'm always curious about and amazed by all the authors I've never heard of before. I also like longer, ballad-like poems so The Shipwreck was a good fit for me. Thank you for alerting me to a new author, Erin, and for the good wishes.

As far as the title goes, I just took what Bartleby had at the top of their listing. After Rapunzelina's research I now see that Things New and Old is actually the title of a book of Plumptre's writings and what I recorded is only a part of a longer selection, Chalfont St. Giles. Perhaps an idea for another recording :hmm: I thought the title was a bit odd. I kept wanting to say "Things Old and New", but I see that "Things New and Old is actually a quote from the Bible (Mathew 13:52, KJV). Maybe Plumptre saw himself as the scribe.

I'm glad my voice wasn't too much of a distraction. Some days I really struggle and need to repeatedly record phrases to get through them without my voice breaking. This one was one of those. :?
Fritz

"A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules."

Trollope
holtonhj64
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Post by holtonhj64 »

Rapunzelina
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Post by Rapunzelina »

pschempf wrote: April 13th, 2021, 8:56 am Some days I really struggle and need to repeatedly record phrases to get through them without my voice breaking.
Is that bad for your vocal cords? I mean, does it get worse over time, or just an occasional on and off thing with no deterioration?
pschempf
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Post by pschempf »

Rapunzelina wrote: April 13th, 2021, 10:04 am
pschempf wrote: April 13th, 2021, 8:56 am Some days I really struggle and need to repeatedly record phrases to get through them without my voice breaking.
Is that bad for your vocal cords? I mean, does it get worse over time, or just an occasional on and off thing with no deterioration?
I lay it mostly on the steroids I take for asthma. It seems as I begin a recording my voice is very tight, but as I use it, it improves up to a point and then it fades as I get tired. I note in the wave forms of my recordings that the peaks get progressively lower as the recording progresses and I start running out of voice. It seems oftentimes my voice is better in the afternoons after I've had a chance to speak a bit and get it warmed up. If my wife is not here to be disturbed, I do some vocal exercises as a singer does. It's hard to remember that at one time I actually sang opera. I don't think recording is bad for my vocal cords, just a struggle and frustrating at times. I see my pulmonologist next month and will be asking him if there is anything to be done about it.
Fritz

"A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules."

Trollope
Rapunzelina
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Post by Rapunzelina »

Thank you for sharing, Fritz! It sounds like a trying situation. I hope your doctor does have some suggestions/solutions to offer!
Stay strong and take care!
Rapunzelina
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Post by Rapunzelina »

Hi, Holton! All is great with your recording, and thank you for offering it!
CalebMann
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Joined: February 18th, 2021, 4:01 pm

Post by CalebMann »

This is my first official upload. Please feel free to critique in any way!
Sound?
Vocal Quality?
Interpretation?
Any way to improve. :)

Nearer My God to Thee by Sarah Adams 1805-1848
Text URL:https://hymnary.org/text/nearer_my_god_to_thee_nearer_to_thee_een
Duration: 1:38
MP3: https://librivox.org/uploads/rapunzelina/spc215_nearermygodtothee_cbm_128kb_.mp3

Sea Fever by Jon Masefield
Text URL: https://www.theotherpages.org/poems/masef01.html#1
Duration: 1:37
MP3: https://librivox.org/uploads/rapunzelina/spc215_seafever_cbm_128kb_.mp3

Thank you so much!
Rapunzelina
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Post by Rapunzelina »

Hi Caleb! Welcome to Librivox and the Poetry Collection!

Your delivery is very nicely expressive and checking your introductory post, I can see you'll be going for the dramatic works pretty soon :mrgreen:

At Librivox, it is important to use texts that are in the public domain, which generally means published more than 95 years ago. (1925 and earlier)
For "Nearer My God to Thee" you'll notice that the text source says "United Methodist Hymnal, 1989".
This poem can be found in gutenberg.org, e.g. in The Story of Our Hymns, The Otterbein Hymnal, or Book of Hymns for Public and Private Devotion. If a poem is in gutenberg.org, it's preferable to use that as text source. There is some difference in the text, the line "nearer, my God, to thee" is not repeated in the original. So my guess is that the Methodist Church added the repetition for their Hymnal. Would you correct the text by deleting the repetition?

For "Sea Fever" my only suggestion is to delete the false start at the beginning, and only leave 0.5-1 second of silence.

The volume is just a bit on the soft side, see if you can amplify both recordings by 4 dB. It currently measures around 85dB and target volume is closer to 89dB. (I used the Checker to measure volume)

All other tech specs are correct :thumbs:
CalebMann
Posts: 3
Joined: February 18th, 2021, 4:01 pm

Post by CalebMann »

Hello! Thank you so much for the reply. I have updated the audio files and where Nearer My God to Thee is from.

Nearer My God to Thee by Sarah Adams 1805-1848
Text URL:http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/33180
Duration: 1:26
MP3: https://librivox.org/uploads/rapunzelina/spc215_nearermygodtothee_cbm_128kb-v2.mp3

Sea Fever by Jon Masefield
Text URL: https://www.theotherpages.org/poems/masef01.html#1
Duration: 1:31
MP3: https://librivox.org/uploads/rapunzelina/spc215_seafever_cbm_128kb-v2.mp3

Thanks so much! Will keep a better eye on where the text originates. :)
Please let me know if there is anything else!
mleigh
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Location: New Mexico

Post by mleigh »

Here are my three selections:


On the great encouragement given by English nobility and gentry to Correggio, Rubens, Reynolds, Gainsborough, Catalani, Du Crow, and Dilbury Doodle by William Blake (1757–1827)
Text URL: https://www.bartleby.com/235/172.htm
Duration: 0:58
MP3 URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/rapunzelina/spc215_encouragementenglishnobility_mlm_128kb.mp3

To A Poet, Who Would Have Me Praise Certain Bad Poets, Imitators Of His And Mine, Imitators of His and Mine by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Text URL: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36865
Duration: 0:44
MP3 URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/rapunzelina/spc215_praisebadpoets_mlm_128kb.mp3

On hearing that the Students of Our New University have joined the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Agitation against Immoral Literature by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
Text URL: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36865
Duration: 0:48
MP3 URL: https://librivox.org/uploads/rapunzelina/spc215_hearingstudentsuniversity_mlm_128kb.mp3


Enjoy and let me know of any issues.

Thanks,

M
Newgatenovelist
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Joined: February 17th, 2015, 7:22 am

Post by Newgatenovelist »

Hello Rapunzelina,

My last poem for the month - some blood and thunder for you!

The Red Flag by Alfred Fennell (?-?)
Text: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=miua.0544678.0005.001&view=1up&seq=219
Duration: 2.43
MP3: https://librivox.org/uploads/rapunzelina/spc215_redflag_el_128kb.mp3

I haven't been able to find much info about this author online. It might be possible in a research library, or with better searching skills, but this is what I've got:

Alfred Fennell was a Chartist and poet.


Phil, I'm delighted you've picked up this poet. When I chose him I honestly thought The Shipwreck would remain unrecorded, and that the two I was doing were at least better than nothing. Recording up to three poems by a forgotten author never feels like it's doing enough to commemorate someone's life and literary efforts, so it's always a red-letter day when they interest a reader enough to be selected for more recording. I hope your solo is a pleasure to do from start to finish. I'd also like to send my best wishes for your health, and the specific wish that your appointment yields more concrete and helpful professional medical advice.
Off LV 25-28 March.
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