Anglo Saxon Aloud

Changes to Anglo-Saxon Aloud

I’ve become unhappy with how the recordings of my singing the Psalms have been coming out. The fact is, I don’t have the right kind of voice for singing these, they don’t sound good, and it takes an enormous amount of time to edit them into the form they are in, which still isn’t that good.

So I am going to change course.

I will post the rest of the Paris Psalter (Psalms 68 through 150) as spoken rather than sung recordings. Then I will go back and re-post Psalms 50-67 as spoken recordings.

That will give us the entire ASPR recorded and available on the web (I will put together a “Complete ASPR on CD,” but it will be expensive, unfortunately). I’ll then probably add a few poems that aren’t in the ASPR, such as “The Grave” and “Instructions for Christians.”

Then, I will simultaneously work to record the Psalter with one of my students who <em>is</em> a good singer for this type of music, and add some prose (starting with the Sermo Lupi, and maybe doing a “Daily Reading from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle” project).

At the same time, I have begun work on a CD, to sell, of poems in Old English, my own translations in Modern English, and a brief talk on each poem. I hope to have this done by the <a href=”http://www.alongexpectedparty.org/”>Long-Expected Party</a> event in Kentucky in September (though that may be too ambitious). Right now this is a “greatest hits of Anglo-Saxon poetry plus other poems that Drout likes” project: Dream of the Rood, Wanderer, Seafarer, Wife’s Lament, Husband’s Message, Fortunes of Men, Gifts of Men, Maxims, some riddles, Maldon, Brunanburh, Cædmon’s Hymn … I’ll see how it works out; I’d like this one to be just one disk.