[COMPLETE] The Black Panther by John Hall Wheelock - icequeen

[silverquill]

For section 10 the Secret One I believe the wrong poem was uploaded

That was my mistake in entering the link in the MW.
It is correct now and again Ready for PL.

[silverquill]

For section 13 Travail there is background noise (siren) from 0:30 to the end

Yep, that is severe enough that I think you will need to do a new recording. At least it is short.

[JackpotSeven]

May I claim Section 21 Andante? This is my first recording after my 1-minute-test which was okayed (and I now know how to do noise reduction on).

Oh, and I would like to be credited as JackpotSeven, if possible!

[davidg42]

Happy New Year! With my first recording complete, I'd like to try a couple of short poems as my next project, #22 THE DEAR MYSTERY and #29 The Fish-Hawk.

I see two challenges in reading The Fish-Hawk aloud. The first is finding a way to read to bring out the rhymes while not breaking up sentences that are on separate lines. The second is rhyming "stood" with "Solitude" in the excerpt below. Maybe those two words rhymed when Wheelock wrote this poem, but they don't rhyme today. Do I just read them with contemporary pronunciation and not worry about the rhyme?

Gradual, through broad gyres of ever-climbing rest,
Up the clear stair of the eternal sky, and stood
Throned on the summit! Slowly, with his widening breast,
Widened around him the enormous Solitude,

Any advice would be appreciated!

[silverquill]

May I claim Section 21 Andante? This is my first recording after my 1-minute-test which was okayed (and I now know how to do noise reduction on).

Oh, and I would like to be credited as JackpotSeven, if possible!

Great!
I've added you to the catalog and assigned this section to you. Just click on your name in the Magic Window to view your personal reader page. This is where you can track all of your LibriVox projects, of which I hope there will be many.

Headset mics do give a poor quality audio for recording. I wear a Plantronics headset at work all day, but have a better set of Audio-Technica headphones for my LV work and have one of there good, but inexpensive USB mics for recording. Finally bought a cheap mic stand and pop filter to bring the mic closer, and hung a few blankets in back to cut down on the reverb and it helped a lot.

Anyway, all the best, and WELCOME TO LIBRIVOX

[silverquill]

Happy New Year! With my first recording complete, I'd like to try a couple of short poems as my next project, #22 THE DEAR MYSTERY and #29 The Fish-Hawk.

I see two challenges in reading The Fish-Hawk aloud. The first is finding a way to read to bring out the rhymes while not breaking up sentences that are on separate lines. The second is rhyming "stood" with "Solitude" in the excerpt below. Maybe those two words rhymed when Wheelock wrote this poem, but they don't rhyme today. Do I just read them with contemporary pronunciation and not worry about the rhyme?

Gradual, through broad gyres of ever-climbing rest,
Up the clear stair of the eternal sky, and stood
Throned on the summit! Slowly, with his widening breast,
Widened around him the enormous Solitude,

Any advice would be appreciated!

Welcome to the project! I've signed you up for those two poems.

You raise two very interesting questions about which there are varying opinions. I do record a lot of poetry, but this is sill one man's opinion.

1. I believe that rhyme and meter carry themselves without need for a lot of help from the reader. Although we think of poetry as an auditory experience, it also has a visual component in the division of lines and stanzas, or even further with line structure. (Think of e. e. cummings). So, I read poems with as natural a sound as possible, using the natural and punctuated breaks rather than line breaks. Sometimes the coincide, and sometimes not, as in the verse you cite as an example. Emphasizing rhyme and meter too much can give a very unnatural sound to the poem, such as the sing-song sound of iambic pentameter, for instance. Our, think of a Shakespearean play.

But, ultimately it is a matter of interpretation, and readers will have different approaches to different poems. That is the beauty of LibriVox -- great variety of accents and interpretations.

2. The rhymes you point out can be problematic. I suspect a contemporary British accent, for instance would produce a rhyme here. Sometimes a poet is jut not precise in the rhymes. Or, do "again" and "rain" rhyme? Not in my American accent.. Again, my approach is to remain natural, and read poems in my native accent. I think it sounds stilted or something to break out of that for the sake of a rhyme. Again, this is just my personal approach.

So, it does come down to using the approach that fits you best. You might try recording it several ways, then listening to it and hearing which sounds best to you and go with it.

Long answers to short questions, but I hope this helps.

[JackpotSeven]

Great!
I've added you to the catalog and assigned this section to you. Just click on your name in the Magic Window to view your personal reader page. This is where you can track all of your LibriVox projects, of which I hope there will be many.

Headset mics do give a poor quality audio for recording. I wear a Plantronics headset at work all day, but have a better set of Audio-Technica headphones for my LV work and have one of there good, but inexpensive USB mics for recording. Finally bought a cheap mic stand and pop filter to bring the mic closer, and hung a few blankets in back to cut down on the reverb and it helped a lot.

Anyway, all the best, and WELCOME TO LIBRIVOX

Thanks for the warm welcome! About the headset mic, I definitely understand they are poorer quality, I'm waiting on a few things for my condenser mic and if you'd like I can certainly re-record this Section 21 Andante with that one in about a week's time. For now though, here is the fully recorded, amplified and noise reduced product:

https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_21_wheelock_128kb.mp3

File duration: 2:50

Please let me know if there are any areas I can improve on or things I need to edit. Thanks in advance!

[davidg42]

Hi there - #22 The Dear Mystery is uploaded.
https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_22_wheelock_128kb.mp3
Length is 00:58

[rahma]

hello! here is my recording for section 16 - Haunted Earth

https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_16_wheelock_128kb.mp3

duration: 1:25

i now have only section 19 remaining.

thanks,

rahma

[svonb002]

Here are sections 28 and 37. The section 37 claim isn't currently filled in on the MW but it was part of my original claim for both of these sections.

https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_28_wheelock_128kb.mp3 1:25 min

https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_37_wheelock_128kb.mp3 1:04 min

[silverquill]

https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_21_wheelock_128kb.mp3

File duration: 2:50

Please let me know if there are any areas I can improve on or things I need to edit. Thanks in advance!

I'm sure this will be fine.
Stay tuned for a listening report.

[silverquill]

hello! here is my recording for section 16 - Haunted Earth

https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_16_wheelock_128kb.mp3

duration: 1:25

i now have only section 19 remaining.

thanks,

rahma

Thank you!
This is in the MW Ready for PL.

[silverquill]

Here are sections 28 and 37. The section 37 claim isn't currently filled in on the MW but it was part of my original claim for both of these sections.

https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_28_wheelock_128kb.mp3 1:25 min

https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_37_wheelock_128kb.mp3 1:04 min

Thank you, Stefan!
I've got these both in the MW Ready for PL.

[rahma]

hello! here is my recording for section 19 - Mirror

https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_19_wheelock_128kb.mp3

duration: 1:12

thanks,

rahma

[silverquill]

hello! here is my recording for section 19 - Mirror

https://librivox.org/uploads/icequeen/blackpanther_19_wheelock_128kb.mp3

duration: 1:12

thanks,

rahma

Thank you!
Stay tuned for a PL report.