COMPLETE Songs of Innocence and Experience, by William Blake-mas

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » June 15th, 2019, 1:30 pm

I'm really enjoying your readings. These are not easy poems to do well!

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » June 15th, 2019, 2:07 pm

Section 4 has only two issues for your decision.

4:03 Prophesy, as opposed to prophecy, is pronounced 'PROF-a-sigh.'

6:59 'Weary' sounds closer to 'we-ree.' In America, at least, it rhymes with 'leery.' Another way of looking at it is this, though it is not broken down into its two syllables: w-ear-ee.

Foon · Post by **Foon** » June 15th, 2019, 3:36 pm

Thanks Kevin! I'll have a listen later, but I do recall that I fuddled "among" kind of on purpose; I personally find a small deviation in pronunciation to get a rhyme more pleasing to the ear (for example, I would also pronounce "again" as "a-gain" if it was set to rhyme with e.g. "main" or "lane").

Particular thanks for the pronunciation notes for section 4; "weary" I ought to have learned by now (it was pointed out in a previous solo too

but in my defence, it makes no sense to me that "wear" and "weary" are pronounced completely differently)!
I never realised the difference between prophecy and prophesy though! I learned something new!

Foon · Post by **Foon** » July 3rd, 2019, 11:34 am

Hi Kevin,
I've uploaded the last three sections for PL. I'll wait for any notes you have on those before I have a fixing day (and make the MW look a bit less dramatic, with all the red!)

Please note I've taken a bit of creative license with a few pronunciations to make a rhyme ("again", and "spears", come to mind, I believe there were one or two more), but in other cases I didn't (I'm not gonna make "fly" and "mystery" rhyme together).

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » July 3rd, 2019, 12:28 pm

I've marked these last three sections as PL OK, according to our standard.

However, there are things to which you may wish to attend.

Section 5

3:32 'dread' hand rather than 'dead'

Section 6

1:49 livelong is generally pronounced to rhyme with give-long, at least in my circle

2:35 The English are English and pronounce things as do the English, in their own way. 'Thames' sounds closer to hymns with a 't' at the front, but that's not really right either. If you say the plural of 'm' (like 'ems') with a 't' at the front, you'll be darn close.

You pronounce 'wrath' as do the English. The Americans say 'wrath' to more closing rhyme with 'bath.' I don't know which I prefer because often our American churchmen will use the English pronunciation.

Section 7

4:19 You say 'when' when it ought to be 'then.' It's confusing because the lines are one after the other with first 'when' and next 'then.'

Really wonderful job, friend!

Foon · Post by **Foon** » July 6th, 2019, 1:39 pm

KevinS wrote: ↑June 7th, 2019, 1:40 pm

This section certainly ranks PL OK!

There are problems of pronunciation that a modern reader would likely not notice and I will leave it to you to decide how you would like to approach the issue.

Blake uses the pronunciation of some words that is no longer the fashion. In order to mark this nowadays, we use the grave accent. An example is with kissèd. Today we say 'kist,' but the accent tells us that the word is mean to be pronounced as it was so long ago. This would be the two-syllable 'kiss-ed.'

The instances where this occurs is at 1:43 and shortly after; 3:54; and 4:44. (I think there are four in total, though other texts give at least one more, I believe.)

These pronunciations are an issue not only for sound's sake but also for the meter, but, again, the modern reader would not likely notice.

Hi Kevin,
It's finally PL notes time!
I had another listen to section 1 and these instances you mentioned; I don't feel that it breaks up the rhythm of the reading, and I don't really want to change it--patches always sound different to some extent, and I feel that that would break the flow more than these pronunciations. Do you think it's PL OK as is?

Foon · Post by **Foon** » July 6th, 2019, 1:45 pm

KevinS wrote: ↑June 15th, 2019, 9:06 am Section 2 has two optional adjustments.

At 2:38 you seem to pronounce 'livelong' as rhyming with 'five-long' where the pronunciation typically rhymes with 'give-long.'

Also, you pronounce the eye rhyme 'song / among' as if they rhymed to the ear. This at 6:00. 'Among' would in fact rhyme with 'a rung.'

Hi Kevin,
Here I've corrected livelong to the correct pronunciation ("live" is one of those annoying words! "I live [give] in my country" but "It's live [five] on tv!")
I've left among alone.

Foon · Post by **Foon** » July 6th, 2019, 1:49 pm

KevinS wrote: ↑June 15th, 2019, 1:29 pm Section 3 has just one issue which I think ought to be changed. This is the pronunciation of 'bosom' at 0:53 or so. There is no perfect rhyme for 'bosom,' so I might point you to the link found here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bosom.

Corrected for spot PL!

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » July 6th, 2019, 1:53 pm

I've probably gotten ahead of you as all is PL OK. What changes you make from here out, please let me know and I will spot check them to your standard.

Such a nice collection!

Foon · Post by **Foon** » July 6th, 2019, 3:02 pm

Thank you Kevin! I'll check 4-7 another day (it's getting a bit late here and I'm too tired for recording).

MaryAnn, please note that while the sections are marked PL OK, this is not yet ready for the catalogue!

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » July 6th, 2019, 3:26 pm

Foon wrote: ↑July 6th, 2019, 3:02 pm Thank you Kevin! I'll check 4-7 another day (it's getting a bit late here and I'm too tired for recording).

MaryAnn, please note that while the sections are marked PL OK, this is not yet ready for the catalogue!

I'll change them to Spot PL needed so there is no misunderstanding.

Foon · Post by **Foon** » July 12th, 2019, 4:54 am

I've uploaded the rest of the sections for spot PL!

4: corrected prophesy and weary
5: corrected dead to dread
6: corrected livelong and Thames (I do know how to pronounce the latter, I don't know what happened there)
7: corrected when to then

KevinS · Post by **KevinS** » July 12th, 2019, 5:48 am

Foon wrote: ↑July 12th, 2019, 4:54 am I've uploaded the rest of the sections for spot PL!

4: corrected prophesy and weary
5: corrected dead to dread
6: corrected livelong and Thames (I do know how to pronounce the latter, I don't know what happened there)
7: corrected when to then

All excellent! I wish I could do editing like this myself.

And all PL OK!

A wonderful collection!

I hope I haven't been too fussy with the listening. I've really enjoyed working with you!

Foon · Post by **Foon** » July 12th, 2019, 6:29 am

Thank you Kevin for your PLing! You're definitely not too fussy, this is what I asked for after all

It was a fun project to do, although I think Blake isn't really my jam after all. But that's ok, now I know, and will know better what I'm looking for in the future!

Post by **MaryAnnSpiegel** » July 12th, 2019, 11:44 am

This project is now complete. All audio files can be found on our catalog page: https://librivox.org/songs-of-innocence-and-experience-by-william-blake-2/