A Foolish Figure

( T.S. Eliot's awesomeness beneath the cut )

I was trying to make a recording of two different versions of "Rejoice" from Handel's Messiah just to prove that my voice teacher is a sadist.  (Okay, he's actually the best voice teacher I've had to date...but a girl can complain!).  There is the common everyday version of "Rejoice" that everyone who knows the oratorio knows.  It's in quadruple meter.  But then, there is a version in a triple meter.  I know the normal version really really well.  So, my teacher gave me the triple meter version to learn today.

Now, I remember once in 5th or 6th grade I had to memorize the ten commandments (a.k.a. Exodus 20:1-19ish, not just summaries.)  I chose to memorize it in KJV, because the KJV is pretty.  In seventh grade, after I went back to private school (I was homeschooled 4th-6th) I had to memorize the ten commandments again.  In the NASB, because it is very accurate.  At this point in my life, I appreciate the accuracy of the NASB (well...actually, I go for ASV, because it's a wee bit accurate-er, and I don't mind the sometime stilted language).  Then all I could think was HOW WILL I DO THIS?  I'D RATHER START A WHOLE DIFFERENT PASSAGE, THAN CHANGE THE TINY THINGS.  And it was soooooo hard!

That is what it's like singing this new version of Rejoice!  Ack!  my poor brain!

Of course, the benefit is that as I'm fixing problems in my voice, it's good to start something as if it were new, because I have all sorts of bad habits attached to "Rejoice" since I've been singing it for years.

And then, there was the recording problem.

First I recorded the whole thing on my Sanza:

In four:  http://www.esnips.com/doc/76adbd3e-b728-4cab-8937-c2a417f127fd/rejoicein4
In three:  http://www.esnips.com/doc/6b3cc7b5-afbc-43e7-a122-dbe37a6ee316/rejoicein3

Can I get some sympathy?  (either for me having to learn the subtly different song...or my dog having to listen to me sing it a bzillion times)  Thank you.  :-P

The recording is TERRIBLE though.  I guess I could pretend I was one of those famous opera singers from the early 1900s.  Haha.

So I did the first 20ish seconds of each using my computer microphone:

In four:  http://www.esnips.com/doc/3b28322b-d022-4187-8c70-5db726ec1aff/rej4
In three: http://www.esnips.com/doc/ad950980-6941-4c14-8464-2dc2fb5a70cf/rej3

I think that might be marginally better...but I noticed some of the scratchy sound seemed to go away when I put the book in front of my face for the second one (can't sing it without the book...too confusing!)

So then I tried the first 20ish seconds of each with my book in front of my face the whole time.

In four:  http://www.esnips.com/doc/84a7a195-a1a5-47f8-9fbb-3f1993632fae/rej4a
In three:  http://www.esnips.com/doc/39721ba3-7810-43d2-a8e9-e67aa3de21d8/rej3a

Which just sounds...muffled.

I feel like there should be something not terribly expensive out there that I could use to record my own singing.  I don't want to make a CD.  I just want to hear it back accurately....because I certainly can't hear it when it's in my own head... 

Is there anyone who knows of something I could use?