[OPEN][Biography/Music]My Musical Life by Walter Damrosch - kit

[bergmannw]

My Musical Life by Walter Damrosch (1862-1950)

This is the autobiography of the Prussian-born American conductor Walter Damrosch. It includes dozens of anecdotes about many of the great musicians of the 19th and 20th centuries. - Summary by Warren Bergmann

Source text (please read only from this text!): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58871

Deadline: Please submit your recording within 2 months of placing your claim. If you cannot complete the recording within this time, please post in the thread to relinquish your claim or to ask the BC for an extension. If your recording is not completed by the deadline, your claim will be reassigned at the BC's discretion.

Claiming sections: Look in the Magic Window below for the list of available sections. Post a reply in this thread asking for the section you would like to record.

Please check your chapters before you claim. Some chapters contain sentences in German, French, Italian and some other languages, so make sure you are comfortable with them. Help can be provided with a soundfile if needed.

New to recording? Please see our Newbie Guide to Recording for further instructions. A quick guide to our required technical settings can be found here. When you post your file, please tell the BC what name you would like to use in our catalog.

Prooflistening level: Standard
Prospective PLs, please see the Guide for Proof-listeners.

Please don't download or listen to files belonging to projects in process unless you are the BC or PL. Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!

Magic Window:

BC Admin
========================================

LibriVox recording settings: mono (1 channel), 44100 Hz sample rate, 128 kbps constant bit rate MP3. See the Tech Specs

Say:

"Section # of My Musical Life.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org."
[Optional: "Read by your name."]
"My Musical Life, by Walter Damrosch.
Section Title." [see MW for exact title]

End of recording:
Say:

"End of section #."
[Optional, and if not stated in the intro: "Read by your name, city, date."]

If you are recording the final section of the book, add:

"End of My Musical Life, by Walter Damrosch."

Leave 5 seconds of silence at the end.

Filename: mymusicallife_##_damrosch_128kb.mp3 where ## is the section number. (e.g. mymusicallife_01_damrosch_128kb.mp3)

Upload to the LibriVox Uploader: https://librivox.org/login/uploader

MC to select: Kitty

Copy and paste the file link generated by the uploader into a new post in this thread along with the file duration (mm:ss). Watch this thread for prooflistening notes.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! Just post in this thread.

[redrun]

Oh, did the generator finally work for you? I'd be curious as to what change it was that did the trick, so I can refine the help thread with the latest.

Regarding your post, though: the generator should have given you this "project code" within a larger bunch of text.
That larger text would be the "forum code" to make the usual first post in a project, complete with all the instructions, colored text and formatting.

Could we have you go back to that page, click the blue button on the right (it will do a "select all" and "copy" of that whole page of "forum code" for you), and then paste that back here?

[bergmannw]

Yes, I was able to make the generator work by entering only one copyright date, rather than listing the three dates that appear in the Gutenberg copy of the book. (I assume that's what did the trick. But it could be that the technology just happened to work right after I made that particular tweak. Correlation, rather than causation.)

Below is the full text of of what the generator gave me. Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks!

[ Moved to first post ]

[redrun]

Ah, that sounds like item #2 on that "Generator isn't working" thread: unfortunately, our date fields no longer take anything but digits. Not even a date range, like "1900-1920", but just the four-or-less digits of a year.
I believe the number we'd want is the year of the latest edition, but whoever picks this up as MC will be able to check that.

I've moved that forum code into the first post. If it looks a little funny, that's because I filled in some that was missing at the top.

[Kitty]

Hi Warren, this looks like an interesting project. I also like music-themed books, and I have not yet heard of this composer, so I'd like to volunteer as MC as well as DPL (unless you already have one lined up).

I see there are some German and French parts in the text, so if you need help with those, I'm fluent in both languages. Though judging by your name, maybe you speak German as well.

MW coming up soon....

Sonia

[Kitty]

ok MW is up and running, and you can fill out the section titles, I gave you a few to start you off.

Some of the chapters seem very long to me, so I have a hunch they may need to be split. Our maximum accepted file length is 74 minutes. If a chapters runs longer, we need to find a good spot where we can split somewhere in the middle, where a natural textual break occurs.

That is why I would suggest the wording "section" instead of "chapter" in the intro disclaimer, so in case one chapter has to be split, there won't be any confusion in the numbering.

If you have any further questions, don't hesitate.

We can move to Going Solo soon, if you are ok with all.

Sonia

[bergmannw]

Hello Sonia --

Thank you so much for taking on MC and DPL responsibilities! I'm very happy with how quickly it's coming along. Now -- there will be a pause. I have read parts of the book, but I am going to read the whole text thoroughly before I begin recording. Regarding language, I grew up hearing lots of Yiddish from my parents, and I took 4 years of German in high school, so I feel pretty confident about that. But it's good to know that I can ask you about French pronunciation.

Warren

[Kitty]

Now -- there will be a pause. I have read parts of the book, but I am going to read the whole text thoroughly before I begin recording.

probably a wise decision. And maybe you'll see where you have to make divisions already. You can of course also record an entire chapter and then see how long it runs and only then divide in case it runs over 74 minutes.

I'm not in a hurry, as long as you post from time to time that you are still interested in the project

Regarding language, I grew up hearing lots of Yiddish from my parents, and I took 4 years of German in high school, so I feel pretty confident about that. But it's good to know that I can ask you about French pronunciation.

I can also help in case there is the odd Italian or even Russian word.

Regarding DPL level, would you want me to point out a wrong pronunciation to be as accurate as possible, or will that be too picky for you ? I always check against the text, and usually point out deviations, but since you don't ask for "word perfect", of course I can omit those small errors that don't change the meaning. Usually I do prefer to point them out though and then the reader at least has the chance to decide for themselves whether they want it changed or not. Up to you.

Meanwhile I'll move us to Going Solo, and you can fill out the MW whenever you have time.

On to a good collaboration.

Sonia

[bergmannw]

Please do chime in with any suggestions you may have as you proof-listen, including help with pronunciation. I will post something now and then while I'm reading the text. Once I start recording, it will likely be pretty regular.

[bergmannw]

What do we do about illustrations? Read the caption? Briefly describe? Describe in detail? Ignore? If we do anything, would it be at the precise moment the illustration interrupts the text, or where a description makes most sense?

[Kitty]

What do we do about illustrations? Read the caption? Briefly describe? Describe in detail? Ignore? If we do anything, would it be at the precise moment the illustration interrupts the text, or where a description makes most sense?

illustrations don't need to be recorded, definitely not described, we only read what the author wrote And I don't think I've ever encountered anyone reading a caption. I would simply leave them out.

I see you have at least one score of notes in the text, and actually belonging to the text flow. Usually we don't include music, except when specifically in the text, like in this case. So if you are comfortable with notes (I think as music teacher you probably are), you can include the score by either humming the tune or playing it on a piano or something.

Sonia

[bergmannw]

Thanks! Yes, I look forward to including basic "performances" of the musical examples in the recordings.

[Kitty]

Update: received a PM from the reader to turn this into a group project.

I've decided not to record this book after all. Please go ahead and post this as a group project.

So this is launched as group project from now on. I will BC and DPL.

Sonia

[valroth]

Hello Sonia,

May I claim Chapter 8 please? This looks like an interesting book!

Val

[Kitty]

May I claim Chapter 8 please? This looks like an interesting book!

thank you so much, Val, for making a start here section 8 is yours, and yes, I am looking forward to hearing his interesting life. If you need help with some foreign language parts, let me know

Sonia