A tech-enabled experiment!
Poem: A selection of the gnomic verses from the Exeter Book as found in "The Earliest English Poems," trans. Michael Alexander, Penguin Books 1991.
Music: A progression of open fifths: DAda (x4), CGcg (x4), repeat for one minute ending on DAda
Recording software: Audacity
Microphone: Initially, the mic on the webcam was picking up too much noise so I tried the directed mic-on-a-stick I have (a $10 cheapie). Noise problem solved, audio quality fairly wretched. On a different computer, I did once get a good recording off of this thing...
Recording Notes: Place mic near harp soundboard to record music. Place mic near mouth to record words.
Mixing: I recorded the music and spoken word components separately, in different Audacity files. Then I copy-pasted the spoken word track into the music project and "Saved As" a third project. I had to balance the two tracks a bit, turning down the harp and turning up the words.
Technical Difficulties: Make sure Windows Vista Defender is NOT running before doing ANYTHING.
Result: Can be heard here (MP3, ~ 1 Mb).
Conclusion: It's not exactly a show-stopper, but there's nothing wrong with the very simple progression as an underlay. I stress again that they were recorded separately, with no attempt to align the words with the shifts in the music. The recording itself is fairly crap, but it does let me hear roughly what I sound like without me having to play, recite and listen all at the same time.
Future Work: Try it with lyre. Also, memorize the selection of text.
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