Let’s Get Spooky

Creating 2 minutes of content for this audio experiment was a fulfilling exercise. In the end I chose to present a reading of an old-timey poem in a sort of ode to the spooky autumn season. Before I reached that conclusion though, I ended up taking a recording tour of my house, capturing a collection of sounds like cats meowing and coffee brewing.  None of those clips actually made it into the assignment but I had a lot of fun sound-hunting. In terms of production, I’m using a Zoom H4 Handy Recorder to capture audio, and Audacity to mix.  Moody music was found on Looperman. In the future I want to create and record musical transitions myself, and to explore more deeply the idea of found sounds. My immediate goals are to improve my technical literacy around recording and production beyond the basics and into a realm of finesse, and to set up a small but effective recording nook in my home. Stay spooky!

 

TRANSCRIPT

(Piano chord plays). Are you ready to get spooky? (Sci-fi music plays, then fades out). Hey friends, I don’t know about you but I love this time of year. It is brief, so brief. The crispy autumn wind, the yellow rustling leaves, falling dead. That earthy, earthy smell of … well…decay? Summer is over, winter approaches and the shoulder season is here, it is present. But as I said, only for a blink. I like to appreciate it, I like to be in it, and I enjoy a cozy, comfortable sweater.  For all these reasons and more, I’ve chosen that as the topic of this audio experiment.  Let’s get spooky. (Creepy music plays).

Written by Robert Herrick sometime in the 17^th century, I present to you a reading of his poem “The Hag.” (Creepy piano music plays, and continues in the background throughout the poem).

     "The Hag is astride,
     This night for to ride;
 The Devill and shee together:
     Through thick, and through thin,
     Now out, and then in,
 Though ne'r so foule be the weather.
     A Thorn or a Burr
     She takes for a Spurre:
 With a lash of a Bramble she rides now,
     Through Brakes and through Bryars,
     O're Ditches, and Mires,
 She followes the Spirit that guides now.
     No Beast, for his food,
     Dares now range the wood;
 But husht in his laire he lies lurking:
     While mischiefs, by these,
     On Land and on Seas,
 At noone of Night are working,
     The storme will arise,
     And trouble the skies;
 This night, and more for the wonder,
     The ghost from the Tomb
     Affrighted shall come,
 Cal'd out by the clap of the Thunder." 

 Stay spooky my friends. (Sci-fi music plays).