I used Audacity's pitch shifting tool to create drones on other notes (B flat for Part II). The drone has been sitting around in my files since 29 March, 2008. I sang each Part in a single take (after several rejects).įor the drone, I sang a few Fs, lowered them an octave by resampling at half speed, and then created an ad hoc chorus by repeating and overdubbing copies of one or a few of the notes (I forgot how many). I used Core Sound CSB miniature microphones, clipped to a music folder on a stand with about 14 inches separation, and I stood one step away from the stand. I recorded on an Edirol R-09 portable digital recorder at 44.1 KHz, 24-bit samples, in stereo. I recorded and mixed Part I on 2009 March 25, Part II on 2009 August 14, and I intend to continue with Parts III-VI.īeing totally naive about studio technique, I winged it. I have seen the tune identified as 'My Dear and Only Love, Take Heed,' found in John Gamble's Commonplace Book from 1659, but I haven't been able to verify that it is the same tune that I heard on Louis Killen's recording. Louis Killen attributes the work to Robert Surtees, who apparently wrote the poem in 1807, and sent it to Walter Scott in the guise of a traditional ballad.

I have seen it called 'Child 208,' but that appears to be a completely different ballad about the same Lord Derwentwater. I pretty much remembered the tune from Louis Killen's recording on 'Old Songs, Old Friends,' Front Hall Records FHR-012, Voorheesville, NY, 1978. I took the tune from 'Derwentwater's Farewell,' and mangled it to fit Wilde's 6-line stanzas instead of the 8 lines of the original tune.

Prisoner C.3.3, known outside of prison as Oscar Wilde, wrote 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol.' Why not take the title on its face, and sing the poem as a ballad? 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol,' sung as a ballad.

Wilde the ballad of reading gaol