Talk:The Hunting of the Snark (1876)

Source: PG e-text, then some formatting by me, like changing -- to &mdash;, *was* to was etc. - Biggins 04:35, 24 Aug 2004 (UTC)


 * Is Wikisource interested non-text formats? I just uploaded Image:The Hunting of the Snark.ogg; perhaps it should be linked from the article? Dbenbenn 08:45, 21 March 2006 (UTC)

There is a fine performance on a vinyl LP performed by Redvers Kyle. I have found details of the recording but have not been able to locate a copy. Can anyone help? fredguyholmes@hotmail.com

HMV CLP 1672

In his excellent on-line G&S discography, Marc describes a 1963 recording of some Bab Ballads by Redvers Kyle, known only from a British HMV reel to reel tape. I'm happy to be able to confirm that the recording was also produced in LP format, although my copy has a sticker on one of the labels which reads "Factory Sample — Not For Sale", so I wonder whether very few of the LPs were pressed?

Redvers Kyle is best known as an early British TV announcer, but he also made a number of recordings and apparently even composed music — the 33 rpm recording (CLP 1672), featuring Kyle as both narrator and composer.

On side one Kyle narrates Lewis Carroll's poem, "The Hunting of the Snark" — his theme music played on the concertina by Alf Edwards. Side two features seven "Bab Ballads": "The Disagreeable Man", "To a Little Maid", "The Captain and the Mermaids", The Susceptible Chancellor", "The Reward of Merit", "Etiquette" and "The Terrestrial Globe", punctuated by his own theme played on the bassoon by Neil Levesley.

His warm, English tones are perfect for these readings, and he points the irony well, although I feel he misses an opportunity by not including the stage direction at the end of "The Terrestrial Globe", the tag line which makes it one of my personal BB favourites. The sleeve notes, written by the multi-talented Kyle and Denis C. Comper, draw an interesting link between Gilbert and Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), as apparently a copy of BB was found "in a prominent position" in Dodgson's library !

Issue History Date Label Format Number 1963 HMV LP CLP 1672 3.75ips two-track reel-to-reel TA-CLP 1672

Problem at page 40
At the boundary of pages 39 and 40, two verses are run together. Could someone who knows how this works fix it? Also on page 51 there's an extra blank line. --91.156.254.185 02:14, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

Cheers for noting it, I gave the run of pages a Q&D fix. Need to test it, but I think I can get blocks to align … another day. cygnis insignis 02:28, 13 November 2010 (UTC)