As an example of the uses of Prestidigitation, the 3.5e PHB lists "Common tricks with prestidigitations include producing tinklings of ethereal music". However, the rules text for Prestidigitation, as duplicated in the SRD, does not appear to make any references to sound or the means to create it. So, by RAW, how can Prestidigitation create sound?
[RPG] By RAW, how can Prestidigitation create sound
cantripsdnd-3.5espells
Related Solutions
Dweormerkeeper is one of the most powerful prestige classes in the game. Assuming you enter without losing spellcaster levels (using tricks to get around the dual-spellcasting requirement, which isn’t hard), very, very few things can keep up with it.
Is that unacceptable? In my games, yes. In yours? Probably. There are a few other classes that are similar in power to the dweomerkeeper; if everyone is playing one (and the DM can figure out how to challenge such a party) then there is no problem.
But that’s a very tall order. Out of the hundred or so base classes, only a handful are going to work in such a game. Out of several hundred prestige classes, maybe a dozen (and even that may be stretching it) can keep up. And then the DM has to figure out how to challenge such a party, when the overwhelming majority of monsters are going to be insignificant before them, and it takes extremely powerful (and complicated!) spells to stay on the same level.
These sorts of things are banned in my game because DMing is difficult enough without having to carefully design around all the myriad abilities such a party would have, when any one of dozens of spell can potentially solve an entire adventure (and a single spell solving a given encounter or problem is expected).
Yes, by RAW you can.
As per SRD, while starting bardic music is always a standard action, maintaining it is another story. Bardic music abilities requiring concentration to maintain explicitly say so, for example (emphasis mine),
Inspire Competence (Su)
A bard of 3rd level or higher with 6 or more ranks in a Perform skill can use his music or poetics to help an ally succeed at a task. The ally must be within 30 feet and able to see and hear the bard. The bard must also be able to see the ally.
The ally gets a +2 competence bonus on skill checks with a particular skill as long as he or she continues to hear the bard’s music. Certain uses of this ability are infeasible. The effect lasts as long as the bard concentrates, up to a maximum of 2 minutes. A bard can’t inspire competence in himself. Inspire competence is a mind-affecting ability.
Therefore, whether you can do something meaningful while maintaining Inspire Courage is up to the interpretation of the duration clause (why don't you just resort to these 5 rounds, or 1 minute?).
The effect lasts for as long as the ally hears the bard sing and for 5 rounds thereafter.
The description of the perform skill does not shed any light at this problem either (emphasis mine):
Action Varies. Trying to earn money by playing in public requires anywhere from an evening’s work to a full day’s performance. The bard’s special Perform-based abilities are described in that class’s description.
To sum up,
there is no action stated in the rules to maintain the Inspire Courage, so we can assume it is a free action. Therefore you're free to do whatever you want while singing (reciting, in your case), as long as you have requisite numbers of hands free (you probably do) and it is not prohibited by bardic music rules explicitly (cast spells, activate magic items by spell completion (such as scrolls), spell trigger (such as wands), or command word).
As a note,
the concentration on the bardic music is akin to the concentration on a spell; it even prohibits other casting. You could ask your DM if Extraordinary Concentration could be applied to the bardic music, too. Swift Concentration could also be useful for you, since it is already applicable.
Best Answer
Prestidigitation can perform any minor effect except as explicitly limited by its constraints.
The effect of prestidigitation is as follows:
Everything after this in the first paragraph of the spell description is a limitation, not an exhaustive list of what the spell can do. You can do anything with this spell, as long as it's a minor effect and doesn't exceed one of the listed limitations.
The second paragraph, which only appears in the Player's Handbook, describes only examples and shows the intent of the rules. Most of the examples given are not explicitly listed in the first paragraph, but are possible uses of prestidigitation because they are minor magical effects and do not exceed any of the first-paragraph limitations.
The second paragraph does not appear in the SRD because the SRD includes only rules text, and omits examples. Examples are not rules, but are text used to explain or clarify the rules. This supports the interpretation that prestidigitation can create ethereal music because it's a minor effect. The entire second paragraph is a series of examples for the purpose of rules clarification or flavor text, and this is the sole reason that paragraph is omitted from the SRD.
Put another way, the question arises from the assumption that paragraph 1 provides an exhaustive list of effects the spell is capable of, which is impossible to reconcile with the examples given in paragraph 2. If we assume that the examples are correct, the only valid interpretation of paragraph 1 is that it is not exhaustive, but defines limitations on an otherwise unbounded and largely freeform spell.