saltar al contenido

Waywords y significados
Recreando Finnegans Wake [en su totalidad]

La historia de la música de James

Joyce: adaptaciones,
interpretaciones e inspiraciones
una cronología bibliográfica de
obras musicales inspiradas en Joyce,
recopilada por Derek Pyle, Krzysztof
Bartnicki y Tess Brewer

(Ilustración de Sara Jewell)

James Joyce amaba la música.  Como cantante tenor en su juventud, los

escritos de Joyce están llenos de referencias y alusiones musicales
(ver Bronze de Gold Heard  para más información).  ¡Y muchos músicos son
muy afi cionados a James Joyce!  El fantasma de Joyce se encuentra en casi
todos los géneros musicales, desde el ruido experimental y el rap coreano
hasta los pilares de la música clásica.  Quizás la música de James Joyce es
en realidad su propio género, completo con subgéneros:  música
de Finnegans Wake  ;  música de Ulises ; música de los dublineses ; Música de
Pomes Penyeach ; música de letras sucias;  y así.
This bibliography is a work-in-progress; we welcome your additions,
submissions, and corrections, so please  contact us . You can also read more
about Waywords and Meansigns , our project setting  Finnegans Wake to
music — listen  and get involved .

Most references here are self-evident. Whenever possible, we link audio

recordings. An old thread from the  I Love Music forum  provided a couple
dozen obscure references, and additional gems were found in a post from
the Moïcani – L’Odéonie blog . Sunphone Records has a great  website  dedicated
to both musical infl uences on Joyce and early adaptations of Joyce’s works.  The
LiederNet Archive  also has a great bibliography of classical music arranges of
Joyce. Thanks to John Kearns for suggesting the  Contemporary Music
Centre  database to identify Irish compositions and composers.

1850-1860
The Irish ballad “Finnegan’s Wake” arises in the music-hall tradition of
comical Irish songs. Its cyclical story  of hod-carrier Tim Finnegan’s fatal,
whiskey-prompted fall from a ladder and subsequent resurrection famously
provides the basis for Joyce’s novel  Finnegans Wake  (see 1959, 1962, 1998) .

1916
Joyce’s novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man   includes a nursery
rhyme, seemingly penned by Joyce, and sung by Stephen Dedalus, known as
“Brigid’s Song” or simply “Dingdong! The castle bell!”

1924
Joyce wrote alternative lyrics to the traditional Irish song “ Molly Brannigan “.
“Molly Bloomagain”, as Joyce titled his version, had two major versions: one
in 1924 and another in 1935. Erin Hollis has written  a paper  about the
versions, which includes Joyce’s lyrics.   (Thanks to Peter Chrisp and the James
Joyce Gazette for the info!)

1925
English composer Frank Bridge sets to music Joyce’s poem “ Golden Hair “.

1926
Karol Szymanowski , one of Poland’s most celebrated composers,
composed Siedem pieśni do słów Jamesa Joyce’a   ( Seven   Songs on Words by
James Joyce )  for voice and piano. An earlier variant is the fi rst four songs
only; songs fi ve through seven were completed by Adam Neuer.

1930
Israel Citkowitz adapts “Strings in the earth and air “, “When the shy star
goes forth in heaven “, “O it was out by Donnycarney “, “Bid adieu “, and “My
love is in a light attire ” as “Five songs from ‘ Chamber Music’   by James Joyce ”
for voice and piano.
1932
Joyce’s poetry book  Pomes Penyeach was set to music by in a collection  of
arrangements published as the Joyce Book, edited by Herbert Hughes. The
composers were Ernest Jones Moeran, Arnold Bax, Albert Roussel, Herbert
Hughes, John Ireland, Roger Sessions, Arthur Bliss, Herbert Howells, George
Antheil, Edgardo Carducci, Eugene Goossens, CW Orr, and Bernard Van
Diere. As Joyce remarked: “The best is Molyneux Palmer. After him are
[Ernest Jones] Moeran and [Arthur] Bliss.” (Over the course of three
decades Irish opera composer Geoff rey Molyneux Palmer set  Chamber
Music  to music, but the majority of his settings were not discovered until
the 1980s.) James Joyce Centre has the  story . Some of the songs can be
found on YouTube ; many of the songs can also be found on the  Pomes
Penyeach   album  released in 1987 by the Musical Heritage Society.  (see also
Antheil, 1933)

1934
Joyce completed his fi nal revision of the poem “Post Ulixem Scriptum” also
known as “Molly Bloomagain”. Based on an Irish drinking song, the piece
represents a transit from  Ulysses  to Finnegans Wake.  (Thanks to Peter Chrisp
and the James Joyce Gazette for  information  on this.)

Composer George Antheil set to music Joyce’s poem “I Hear An Army”. For a
period of time, while renting a room from Sylvia Beach,  Antheil worked on
an opera  based on the  “Cyclops” episode of Ulysses, and planned a
symphony based on the Wake‘s Anna Livia Plurabelle, but these ideas did
not come to fruition.

1935
American composer Samuel Barber sets two of Joyce’s poems, “ Of That So
Sweet Imprisonment ” and “Strings in the Earth and Air “.

Composer Humphrey Searle sought and received permission from Joyce to

set to music two of his poems, “Goldenhair” and “I Hear an Army”, although
the pieces were long considered lost. David Writght has written about  this
history , and recorded a realization of  the pieces .

1936
Samuel Barber’s “Three Songs, Op. 10 ” are also poems from Chamber
Music.  Throughout his career, Barber continued setting Joyce’s words to
music. (see 1935, 1937, 1947, 1968, 1971, 1972 )

1937
Samuel Barber sets to music Joyce’s poem “ In the Dark Pinewood “. (see
1935, 1936, 1947, 1968, 1971, 1972)

1942
Avant-garde composer John Cage wrote “ The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen
Springs “, which features text from  Finnegans Wake. Cage was a big fan of
the Wake, continually drawing on the text throughout his career. Luciano
Berio and Cathy Berberian would later incorporated Cage’s piece into their
repertoire. (see 1979, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1993, 1998, 2001; see Berio and
Berberian, 1942, 1953, 1958 and Crystal Castles, 2007)

1944
Pioneering American composer Harry Partch writes his “ Two Settings from
Joyce’s   Finnegans Wake “ . (see 1955)

1946
Irish composer Brian Boydell’s Opus 28 is “ Five Settings of Poems by James
Joyce “.

1947
Samuel Barber’s “Nuvoletta ” is adapted from Finnegans Wake.  (see 1935,
1936, 1937, 1968, 1971, 1972)

David Leo Diamond composes an arrangement of“Brigid’s Song”, from  A

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . (see Joyce, 1916)

Mátyás Seiber’s cantata  Ulysses is based on the questions and answers

between Leopold Bloom and Stephen Dedalus in the “Telemachus”
episode. (see 1958)

1949
Edmund Pendleton arranges Joyce’s poem “ Bid Adieu to Girlish Days “.

1951
Twelve-tone composer Humphrey Searle composes “ The Riverrun for
Narrator and Orchestra “, based on Finengans Wake. (see 1935)

As part of his “Separate Songs ”, celebrated composer Donald Martino set to

music Joyce’s poem “All day I hear the noise of waters”.  (see 1955)

According to Scott Klein , Joyce’s work was a key infl uence on  String Quartet
No. 1  from celebrated American composer Elliott Carter.

1952
Composer Ross Lee Finney writes his  Chamber Music   suite , setting Joyce’s
entire book of poems to music.

1953
Luciano Berio sets three poems from  Chamber Music to music, to be
performed by his wife Cathy Berberian.  (see Berio, 1959, 1961; Berio and
Berberian, 1942, 1953, 1958; Crystal Castles, 2007)

1954
Prolifi c Irish composer Gerard Victory writes “Five Songs of James Joyce”.
1955
Pioneering American composer Harry Partch writes his “ Ulysses at the
Edge “. (see 1944)

Celebrated composer Donald Martino writes  Three Songs, a setting of

Joyce’s poems “Alone”, “Tutto e sciolto”, and “A Memory of the Players in a
Mirror at Midnight”. (see 1951)

Composer Elizabeth Lauer writes “ Seven Songs on Poems from Chamber

Music “.

1958
Emerging as a pioneer of electro-music, Italian composer Luciano Berio
writes his Thema (Omaggio a Joyce), incorporating Cathy
Berberian reading  from Ulysses. According to Joyce professor Scott Klein,
the piece was derived from a never completed collaboration between Berio
and Umberto Eco. (see Berio, 1959, 1961; Berio and Berberian, 1942,
1953, 1958; the Beatles, 1968; Crystal Castles, 2007)

A 1958 photograph of composer Luigi Dallapiccola — who was one of

Berio’s teachers — shows the author holding his copy of  Ulysses. According
to Scott Klein , the composer had a lifelong appreciation of Joyce’s works.

Mátyás Seiber composes “Three Fragments from the Portrait of the Artist as
a Young Man “. (see 1947)

David Del Tredici wrote his Four Songs on Texts of James Joyce . In a 2002
interview  with Tom Voegeli, Del Tredici explained: “I’ve always been a
composer dependent on texts. For a number of years I set James Joyce
because I was a lapsed Catholic like Joyce. I was drawn to his tortured life,
which fi t my musical style at the time, which was dissonant and nearly
atonal.” (see 1959, 1964, 1965, 1966)

1959
Trumpeter and fl edgling composer Phil Lesh performs his big band
arrangement “Finnegan’s Awake ” at San Mateo College in Northern
California. According to Denis McNally’s  A Long Strange Trip another early
Lesh composition also refers the  Wake, “The Sound of a Man Being
Habitacularly Fondseed” (FW 4.31). In 1962 Lesh began studying with Berio
at Mills College in Oakland, where he was classmates with a young Steve
Reich. In 1964 Jerry Garcia convinced to Lesh to give up trumpet and play
bass in Garcia’s rock band. This band later became the Grateful Dead.  (see
1968, 1975, 1986, 2005, 2009, 2013; Berio,  1942, 1953, 1958, 1959, 1961)

The Clancy Brothers release  a rendition of the traditional Irish

ballad  Finnegan’s Wake with Tommy Makem on  an album of traditional Irish
drinking songs.   The song becomes a staple for the group.  (see 1850-1860,
1962, 1998)
Vincent Persichetti sets to music “Brigid’s Song” from  A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man. The piece is part of Persichetti’s three James Joyce Songs,
which also feature arrangements of “Unquiet heart” and “Noise of
Waters”. (see Joyce, 1916)

Irish singer Dominic Behan releases  Finnegan’s Wake – The Songs Of James
Joyce .

David Del Tredici composes “Two Songs on Poems of James Joyce “, revising
the work again in 1978. (see 1958, 1965, 1965, 1966)

Pianist and composer Don Shirley writes the symphonic tone poem  Recorso
of Finnegans Wake . (Thanks to Sara Jewell for info!)

1960
Although Pierre Boulez never formally set Joyce’s works to music, the
composer once referred to Finnegans Wake  as “almost a totem”. As Scott
Klein highlights , Boulez discussed Joyce’s works on a number of occasions,
most notably in the 1960 essay examining his third sonata,
entitled,  Sonate, que me veux-tu?

From 1960-1964 Lou Reed studied literature with Delmore Schwartz at

Syracuse, and Schwartz remained a lifelong infl uence on Reed. In 2012,
Reed wrote the introduction for one of Schwartz’s posthumuous books: “We
gathered around you as you read  Finnegans Wake. So hilarious but
impenetrable without you. You said there were few things better in life
than to devote oneself to Joyce.” For more information, check out  this
post  from Peter Chrisp.

1961
Luciano Berio completes his work Epifanie , for mezzosoprano and
orchestra. The piece includes text from  Ulysses  and A  Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man. Berio revised the work again in 1965. Berio
described Epifanie as “a cycle of orchestral pieces into which a cycle of
vocals pieces has been interpolated. The two ‘cycles’ can be combined
together in various ways; they can also be performed separately… The
signifi cant connection between the vocals pieces can thus appear in
diff erent lights according to their position in the instrumental
development.” In 1961 Berio also remixes his 1959 work  Thema (Omaggio a
Joyce) in his a new piece, called Visage. (see Berio, 1942, 1953, 1958, 1959,
1961; Crystal Castles, 2007)

1962
Irish folk band The Dubliners is founded in Dublin, named after Joyce’s
short-story collection. In 1966, The Dubliners record a live album
titled Finnegan Wakes, featuring one of the best-known renditions of the
ballad “Finnegan’s Wake “. (see 1850-1860, 1959, 1998)
1963
Allan Sherman’s song “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh! (A Letter from Camp) “,
released as a single and then included on the album  My Son, the
Nut,  includes the lyric “the head coach wants no sissies/ So he reads to us
from something called Ulysses“.  (Thanks to Jonathan Goldman for this!)

Inspired by Joyce, Polish composer Tadeusz Baird writes  Epiphany Music .

1964
David Del Tredici’s arranges Joyce’s poem “ I Hear An Army ” for soprano and
string quartet. (see 1958, 1959, 1965, 1966)

After reviewers compared his book  In His Own Write  to the works of Joyce,
John Lennon became interested in the author , buying a copy of
the Wake  and subscribing to the James Joyce Quarterly. Discovering the
works of Joyce, Lennon is quoted by biographer Tim Riley as saying, “was
like fi nding Daddy.” (see the Beatles, 1967, 1968; Lennon, 2000)

1965
David Del Tredici’s “Night Conjure-Verse ” is a song cycle based on two
poems from Pomes Penyeach.  (see 1958, 1959, 1965, 1966)

Elliot Kaplan composes the score for Mary Manning and Mary Ellen Bute’s
fi lm Passages from James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake .

Alfred Reed composed a clarinet rhapsody entitled “ Rahoon (After James

Joyce) ” inspired by Joyce’s poem “She Weeps Over Rahoon.” Was

1966
Prior to becoming a songwriter, Leonard Cohen was a novelist. His second
novel, Beautiful Losers, was decreed Joycean by the Boston Sunday Herald:
“James Joyce is not dead. He lives in Montréal under the name of Leonard
Cohen.” This quote was subsequently  used to promote  Cohen’s 1967 debut
album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. (see 1986)

Choreographer Jean Erdman’s The Coach with the Six Insides   is a musical

play based on Finnegans Wake, with music by Teiji Ito.

André Hodeir releases Anna Livia Plurabelle , a jazz cantata based

on Finnegans Wake.  (see 1972)

David Del Tredici sets two of Joyce’s  Penyach  poems as “Syzygy, Two Songs
for Two Groups “.(see 1958, 1959, 1964, 1965)

1967
After Bathing at Baxter’s, the album by psychedelic San Francisco band
Jeff erson Airplane, includes a song about Leopold and Molly Bloom entitled
“Rejoyce “.
Although there are varying accounts on the exact information, James Joyce
was considered for inclusion  on the cover of the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band.   (see 1968; Lennon, 1964, 2000)

1968
“Solitary Hotel ” in Samuel Barber’s song cycle Despite and Still includes text
from Ulysses.  (see 1935, 1936, 1937, 1947, 1971, 1972)

According to David Shenk and Steve Silberman in their  Skeleton Key: A

Dictionary for Deadheads,  while the Grateful Dead were recording their
album Anthem of the Sun, “instead of the ‘one, two, three’ that kicks off
most recording sessions, Robert Hunter would recite sections of James
Joyce’s Finnegans Wake by heart”. As Robert Hunter, the Dead’s primary
lyricist, explained to Steve Silberman in a  1992 interview : “Before I was
writing songs, I was a stoned James Joyce head,  Finnegans Wake head. I can
still recite the fi rst page and last couple of pages of that thing. There was
something in the way those words socketed together, and the wonderful
feel of reciting them, that very, very deeply infl uenced me.”  (see 1959,
1968, 1975, 1986, 2005, 2009, 2013)

The Producers, a fi lm and subsequent musical by Mel Brooks, stars Gene

Wilder as Leo Bloom. Bloom’s co-star is Max Bialystock, played by Zero
Mostel. In the fi lm, the two characters fi rst met each other on June 16,
which is the date Ulysses  also takes places (and the day is now celebrated
as Bloomsday).

Missa Sur L’Homme Armé by Peter Maxwell Davies was inspired,  according to
Scott Klein , by the “Cyclops” episode in  Ulysses.

Side A of the Firesign Theatre’s  How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When
You’re Not Anywhere at All concludes with a recitation of Molly Bloom’s
soliloquy from Ulysses.

Fred Lerdahl composes his piece “ Wake ” based on Joyce’s book. In

his program note , Lerdahl writes, “The main action of the piece resides in
the cycles, which rise to parallel climaxes and which are meant to refl ect
the novel’s themes of recurrence and metamorphosis.”

According to Scott Klein , Paul McCartney was inspired to write the Beatles’
“Revolution #9 ” after attending a 1966 lecture on Luciano Berio’s  Thema
(Omaggio a Joyce). (see Berio, 1958; the Beatles, 1967; Lennon, 1964,
2000)

1969
Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Requiem für einen jungen Dichter  (Requiem for a
Young Poet) includes text from Molly Bloom’s soliloquy.
Irish composer Bernadette Marmion writes “ Music Sweet “, a setting of fi ve
poems from Joyce’s Chamber Music.

Dr. Strangely Strange’s album  Kip of the Serenes  includes a setting of Joyce’s
poem “Strings in the Earth and Air “. (see Robin Williamson, 1972)

1970
Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd releases his solo album  The Madcap Laughs.  The
album features “Golden Hair “, a poem by Joyce from  Pomes Penyeach, set to
music by Barrett. (see Slow Dive, 1991; Alice, 2003)

1971
Samuel Barber’s “Fadograph of a Yestern Scene ” features text
from Finnegans Wake. (see 1935, 1936, 1937, 1947, 1968, 1972)

British composer John Buller composes “ Two Night Pieces from   Finnegans
Wake “. In The Guardian‘s  2004 obituary for Buller, Martin Wainwright wrote,
“John’s discovery of Joyce fuelled him for most of his creative life, and I
think what became fundamental to everything he composed was the
Joycean notion that imagination is nothing but extended memory, that the
commonplace of our musical or aural consciousness is virtually infi nite, so
that the task of the composer is to go down to the elements of musical
consciousness and reorder them.” (see 1972, 1978, 1988)

1972
André Hodeir and the Swingle Singer’s  Bitter Ending  is based on Finnegans
Wake. (see 1966)

Vincent Persichetti sets to music Joyce’s poem “ O Cool is the Valley “.

Samuel Barber’s Opus 45, “Three Songs ,” includes Joyce’s translation of

“Now I Have Fed and Eaten Up the Rose”, a poem fi rst written in German by
Gottfried Keller. (see 1935, 1936, 1937, 1947, 1968)

Robin Williamson records a version of Dr. Strangely Strange’s arrangement

of “Strings in the Earth and Air “. (see Dr. Strangely Strange, 1969)

The prominent Polish-born composer Roman Haubenstock-Ramati

composed at least two pieces inspired by Joyce , both graphic scores for
ensemble: Poetics I für James Joyce, The Moon Is Still Blue  and Poetics II für
James Joyce, Speload Mc.

John Buller composes  Finnegan’s Floras for fourteen voices, hand

percussion and piano.  (see 1971, 1978, 1988)

1973
The song “Not Faking It ” by Scottish hard rock band Nazareth includes the
lyric “James Joyce was a mudslinger / Jesus Christ was a forgiver / me, I’m
just a rock’n’roll singer”.

1974
Composer Joel Thome’s Time Spans  includes text from the Wake.  Time
Spans  also incorporates radio signal from outer space, and is said to be the
fi rst piece of music to do this. In his music classes at SUNY–Purchase,
Thome encourages students to read  Finnegans Wake  to heighten
creativity.  (Thanks to Will Prinz for info.)

1975
Electro-music composer Ned Lagin worked with an all-star cast of rock ‘n’
rollers to create an experimental music piece entitled  Seastones , which
includes spoken passages allegedly infl uenced by  Finnegans Wake. Featuring
David Crosby; Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead;
and Grace Slick, David Freiberg and Spencer Dryden of Jeff erson Airplane.
Lagin also performed “Seastones ” on-stage with the Grateful Dead
numerous times in 1974. (see 1959, 1968, 1986, 2005, 2009, 2013)

1976
Describing the composition of the Sex Pistols punk rock classic “Anarchy in
the UK”, in 2018 John Lydon aka  Johnny Rotten said , the song was written
“almost spontaneously … [with] what Robin Williams described as
‘overfl owing madness’ … Mix that with a bit of James Joyce and out it
comes. Repression, [anti-Irish] racism, the belief that class was all
important … I’d seen what was coming: Ikea-made shopping centres, the
destruction of personality. I was lucky to have words to express what a lot
of people were feeling.”

Titled after a quote from Book I, chapter 8 of Finnegans Wake, a piano

composition by Benjamin Boretz  “…My chart shines high where the blue
milk’s upset,”  was released. The score for the piece was published as a
single staff across 85 pages of Volume 14 of “Perspectives of New Music” in
1976. Thanks to Neal Kosaly-Meyer for information on this.

1977
Composer Roger Marsh’s Not a soul but ourselves… includes text
from Finnegans Wake.  In recent years, Walsh has overseen the James Joyce
audio books produced by Naxo.

Stephen Albert composes his piece  To Wake the Dead: Six Sentimental Songs
and an Interlude after ‘Finnegans Wake’ . Albert, a highly celebrated
composer, drew inspiration from Joyce throughout his career.  (see 1983,
1985, 1988, 1989, 1992)

 
1978
Canadian punk band Nomeansno forms, originally consisting of brothers
Rob and John Wright. Rob Wright is reportedly a huge fan of Joyce and at
least one of the band’s album covers is said to contain a  Finnegans
Wake  quote.  (If you know which album has the quote,  please get in touch !)

Composer Robert Erickson’s piece “ Quoq ” takes its name from the Wake.

John Buller composes  The Mime of Mick, Nick & the Maggies , a celebrated
piece of new music based on Part II of the  Wake. (see 1971, 1972, 1988)

1979
John Cage writes perhaps the most famous musical setting of  Finnegans
Wake. Roaratorio, an Irish circus on Finnegans Wake   premieres on Klaus
Schöning radio programme for West German Radio. Modern dance
choreographer Merce Cunningham, a longtime collaborator with John Cage,
created a dance piece  for Roaratorio  in 1983.  [tha nk s to H ug o   Tr uy en s f or mo re in fo ;
Braz en He ad ha d the s to ry bu t si te is no w d ef un ct]   (see 1942, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1993,
1998, 2001)

1980
Toru Takemitsu, the great 20th century Japanese composer, composes  Far
calls. Coming, far! for violin and orchestra. The piece takes its title from the
closing passage of Finnegans Wake.  (see 1981, 1984, 2009)

Composer Bernard Rands writes “Canti Lunatici ” for soprano and chamber
ensemble. The piece uses texts, including Joyce, about the moon.

Inspired by Joyce, Tomasz Sikorski composes “ Struny w ziemi ” (String in the

Earth), for 15 strings.

Serge Gainsbourg read something from Joyce in an episode of the French

television show “Ah vous, écrivez? ”  (Thanks to Nigel Bryant for this!)   (see
1984)

Jazz trumpeter Kenny Wheeler’s album  Around 6  includes the song

“Riverrun “, a reference to Finnegans Wake.

Composer and inventor Tod Machover’s “ Soft morning, City! ” is based on

text from Finnegans Wake.

Irish composer Walter Beckett writes a song cycle based on Joyce’s poems
entitled “Goldenhair “.

Discussing the Police’s 1980 song “ De Do Do Do De, De Da Da Da “, Sting

said, “Almost eveck yone who reviewed it said, Oh, this is baby talk. They
were just listening to the chorus alone, obviously. But they’re the same
people who would probably never get through the fi rst paragraph of
Finnegan’s Wake, because that’s ‘baby talk’, too.”  (see Stewart Copeland,
2013)

1981
Taking his title from the  Wake‘s closing passage, Toru Takemitsu
composes A Way a Lone   for string quartet. The piece is later arranged for
orchestra, A Way A Lone II .  (see 1980, 1984, 2009)

Irish composer Douglas Gunn writes “ A Joyce Collection of Ayres ” based on

Joyce’s poems.

Polish composer  Paweł Szymański  writes Villanelle, for alto tenor, 2 violas

and harpsichord, to the words by James Joyce.

Polish musician Jan Castor’s song “ Welladay ” takes its lyrics from Joyce.

1982
“My House “, a song on Lou Reed’s album  The Blue Mask, includes the lyric
“My Dedalus to your Bloom, was such a perfect wit/ and to fi nd you in my
house makes things perfect”.

The British rock band Baby Tuckoo is formed, talking their name from a line
in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Roger Reynolds’s experimental electronic piece “ Voicespace III: Eclipse ”

includes text from Joyce.

Author Anthony Burgess wrote a radio play for the BBC based on  Ulysses,
entitled Blooms of Dublin.

John Cage’s radioplay “James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An

Alphabet ” premieres on WDR Cologne.  (see 1942, 1979, 1984, 1985, 1993,
1998, 2001)

Irish singer-bard Van Morrison’s song “ Summertime in England ” references

James Joyce. (see 1993)

1983
Pat Metheny’s album Rejoicing, with Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins, is a
seeming reference to Joyce. The album includes the track “Humpty
Dumpty”; Humpty Dumpty is a major character in the  Wake.

Stephen Albert composes two works inspired by Joyce; his fi rst symphony,
entitled RiverRun , and his work TreeStone. The symphony is highly regarded,
receiving the Pulitzer Price for Music.  TreeStone is based on Joyce’s re-
telling of the Tristan and Isolde story.  (see 1977, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1992)
1984
One of his “Waterscape” pieces, Toru Takemitsu
composes riverrun ,  borrowing the title from the  Wake‘s opening. (see
1980, 1981, 2009)

Southern California hardcore punk group Minutemen release their magnum

opus, Double Nickels on the Dime . Minutemen bassist Mike Watt has
emphasized over the years how the album was infl uenced by “Jim Joyce” in
numerous ways, most obviously on the song “ June 16th .” (see 1991, 1997,
2008, 2017)

John Cage composes “Nowth upon Nacht “, based on text from Finnegans

Wake  and in memoriam for singer Cathy Berberian.  (see 1942, 1979, 1982,
1985, 1993, 1998, 2001; Berberian, 1942, 1953, 1958)

Serge Gainsbourg’s “I’m the Boy” is built around a refrain that occurs in
Joyce — the lyrics “I AM THE BOY/ THAT CAN ENJOY/ INVISIBILITY” appear
in Ulysses, as Stephen Dedalus recalls a song from the musical  Turko the
Terrible.  (Thanks to Nigel Bryant for this!)  (see 1980; Sonic Youth, 1984)

“Water Torture “, included on Scraping Foetus Off the Wheel’s album Hole,
includes a reference to Ulysses.

1985
John Cage’s solo organ piece  ASLSP  takes its title from the Wake. Written on
the score of the piece: “The title is an abbreviation of ‘as slow as possible.’
It also refers to ‘Soft morning, city! Lsp!’ the fi rst exclamations in the last
paragraph of Finnegans Wake (James Joyce).” By deduction Cage’s 1987
adaptation of ASLSP — a 24-hour piece entitled Organ²/ASLSP (As SLow aS
Possible) — also takes its name from the  Wake. (see 1942, 1979, 1982, 1984,
1993, 1998, 2001)

Stephen Albert composes “ Flower of the Mountain “, an adaptation of Molly

Bloom’s soliloquy from Ulysses. (see 1977, 1983, 1988, 1989, 1992)

Richard Emsley composes “…from swerve of shore to bend of bay… “, a title

taken from the opening of  Finnegans Wake.

Ryszard Szeremeta  composes his “James Joyce Variations”.

British post-punk band The Wake released their album  Here Comes
Everybody.

Game Theory’s album Real Nighttime  opens with a brief introductory track

entitled “Here Comes Everybody “, a Finnegans Wake  reference.

Current 93 and Sickness of Snakes release a  12″ split  with a quote

from Finnegans Wake  written on the album’s spine: “Brékkek Kékkek Kékkek
Kékkek! Kóax Kóax Kóax! Ualu Ualu Ualu! Quaouauh!” Current 93’s song
“Killy Kill Killy (A Fire Sermon) ” is dedicated to James Joyce.

1986
Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead join mythologist Joseph
Campbell and Jungian analyst John Weir Perry for  “Ritual and Rapture, From
Dionysus to the Grateful Dead ”, a day of discussion and music at San
Francisco’s Palace of the Fine Arts. When asked about his meeting with
Campbell in a 1987 interview , Garcia explained: “I was a Joseph Campbell
fan back in the early ’60s when I read the Skeleton Key to Finnegans
Wake. Which I was fascinated by, and  Finnegans Wake — I was fascinated by
James Joyce in the early ’60s.” (see 1959, 1968, 1975, 2005, 2009, 2013)

Barry Truax composes “Riverrun ” using granular synthesis.

“Secret Girls ” on Sonic Youth’s EVOL album has an

apparent Ulysses reference with the lyric “My mother used to say/  You’re
the boy that can enjoy invisibility.” The lyrics “I AM THE BOY/ THAT CAN
ENJOY/ INVISIBILITY” appear in Ulysses, as Stephen Dedalus recalls a song
from the musical Turko the Terrible;  the lyrics also appear two years earlier
in Serge Gainsbourg’s “I’m the Boy”.  (see Text of Light, 2008; Serge
Gainsbourg, 1984)

Asked about James Joyce’s infl uence on his songwriting, Leonard

Cohen explains  that a select few passages from Joyce had great impact on
him: “‘The Dead.’ That paragraph. It’s not the work of an author, but maybe
fi ve lines. It’s those fi ve lines that will get me reluctantly to explore the rest
of the guy’s work. But that paragraph I’ve never forgotten. There’s that
paragraph “Snow was general all over Ireland.” It described the snow. It’s
Montréal. It’s our snow, our black iron gates in Montréal. It was perfect and
the other one was – I believe it was from the Portrait. He sees this women
with seaweed on her thigh. That passage, and snow general all over Ireland,
and David seeing Bathsheba on the roof. There are three or four scenes
like that that destroyed my life. I couldn’t escape those visions. Now I feel
I’m overthrowing them. (see 1966)

Hans Zender premieres his Joyce-inspired opera  Stephen Climax.

1987
Current 93’s album Swastikas for Goddy includes a quote from from Joyce in
the liner notes: “When all vegetation is covered by the fl ood there are now
eyebrows on the face of the Waterworld.” (This quote is inaccurately
attributed to Finnegans Wake; we believe it comes from one of Joyce’s
letters to Harriet Shaw Weaver.)

Myron Myers and Erik Levi release Pomes Penyeach: Settings Of Poetry By

James Joyce on the Musical Heritage Society label.
Charles Peake and Company performed a concert entitled “Song
in Finnegans Wake” at the University of Leeds, exploring various songs
found in the book. A few recordings can be found online: “ Mrs. Hooligan’s
Christmas Cake “; “When McCarthy took the Flure at Enniscorthy “; and of
course, “The Ballad of Persse O’Reilly “.  (Thanks to Peter Chrisp for info!)

1988
The band Nation of Ulysses forms in the Washington D.C. post-punk scene.

The North American version of The Pogues’  If I Should Fall from Grace with
God  includes a picture of James Joyce on the album cover.  (see Fearnley,
2012)

Irish singer-songwriter Barry Moore dons the new performance name of

Luka Bloom in 1987, releasing his eponymous album in 1988. “Luka” is said
to be a reference to the Suzanne Vega song, “Bloom” a reference
to Ulysses‘s Leopold Bloom. (In recent years, Suzanne Vega also told  The
Guardian  that she enjoys reading James Joyce.)

Brazilian composer Gilberto Mendes writes his “ Ulysses in Copacabana

surfi ng with James Joyce and Dorothy Lamour, for chamber ensemble “.

The Da Capo Chamber Players celebrate ” A James Joyce Birthday

Celebration ” at Merkin Concert Hall, featuring  John Buller’s ”Two Night
Pieces from Finnegans Wake” and Stephen Albert’s To Wake the Dead. The
evening also included staged readings from DearKnows — a New York
theatre company named after a Joycean phrase — and discussion led by
Robert Kelly. (see Buller, 1971, 1972, 1978; Albert, 1977, 1983, 1985,
1989, 1992)

1989
Eclectic pop musician Kate Bush requested permission from the James
Joyce Estate to use Molly Bloom’s soliloquy (the fi nal passage in  Ulysses) on
the title track of Bush’s album  The Sensual World.  Her request was fi nally
approved, in 2011 .

Named after a line from Ulysses, The Sweets of Sin release their eponymous
debut album with Jarra Hill Records.

Carly Simon’s critically acclaimed song “ Let the River Run ” is inspired from
the opening word of Finnegans Wake. While working on the song for the
movie Working Girl, Simon felt creatively stuck; to her husband,  Jim Hart ,
suggested phrases from Walt Whitman and James Joyce.  (see 1999)

The song “Sick Fish Belly Up ” from legendary Southern California indie band
Claw Hammer is a reference to Finnegans Wake. (see Jon Wahl, 2017)
Polish composer  Ryszard Szeremeta ‘s “Mirror I” and “Mirror II” rely on texts
from Joyce.

Hector Zazou’s Géologies contains the tracks “…Livia…”, “ …Plurabelle”, and

“Anna…”. (“Anna…” was only included on the CD version.)

Composer Stephen Albert’s Distant Hills Coming Nigh  includes text

from Ulysses, including his previous work “Flower of the Mountain”, an
adaptation of Molly Bloom’s soliloquy.  (see 1977, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1992)

The band Vladimir Estragon releases  Three Quarks for Muster Mark  taking
the album’s title from Finnegans Wake. (see Phil Minton, 1996, 2017)

The 7″ record Terrorism  from Tucson punk band Head Cheese is a tribute to

the Wake.  The three songs  are How The Castle, Ballad Of Persay O’Earwig,
and Irish Ballad (Funeral March).

1991
Bassist Mike Watt’s band fIREHOSE releases the song “ Up Finnegan’s
Ladder ” on their album Flying the Flannel.  (see 1984, 1997, 2008, 2017)

Derelicts of Dialect, the second album from the hip hop group 3rd Bass,
features the song “Portrait of the Artist as a Hood “.

Dream pop / shoegaze band Slow Dive  perform a cover  of Syd Barrett’s
“Golden Hair” during their Peel Session. Another version of the song was
included on the 2005 re-issue of their 1991 album  Just For A Day. (see
Barrett, 1970; Alice, 2003)

Deacon Blue’s album Fellow Hoodlums  includes the song “James Joyce

Soles “.

The lyrics of “Endless Art “, a song on A House’s EP Bingo, are a list of

famous artists who have died. This list includes James Joyce.

Musical group Everything But the Girl’s song “ Gabriel ” features refrain “the
longest way round is the shortest way home,” a line from  Ulysses.

1992
Nicholas Hopkins composes “Joyce Transcription I ” for piano: “what I want
to achieve most of all in this work is the multiplicity of sense that Joyce so
astutely developed in his fi nal book”.  (see 1994)

Peter Myers publishes The Sound of Finnegans Wake , arguing that there is a

“genuinely musical layer” in Joyce’s book.

The Northern Irish band Therapy? releases their album  Pleasure Death.  The
song “Potato Junkie ” repeats the refrain “James Joyce is fucking my sister.”
Able Tasmans’ song “A Conversation with Mark Byrami ” on their Somebody
Ate My Plant  album includes the lyric “James Joyce, the lost people’s voices/
how do you say things so radically stupid and wise”.

Composer Stephen Albert’s “ Ecce Puer ” is a setting of Joyce’s poem. (see

1977, 1983, 1985, 1988, 1989)

1993
Punk rocker Joey Ramone recorded a rendition of “ The Wonderful Widow of
Eighteen Springs “, a piece written by John Cage in 1942. Joey’s recording
was included on Caged/Uncaged—A Rock/Experimental Homage to John Cage ,
an album that also featured David Byrne, Lou Reed, and Debbie Harry.  (see
1942, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1998, 2001)

John Wolf Brennan’s  Text, Context, Co-Text & Co-Co-Text   for solo piano is
inspired by Finnegans Wake  and to a lesser extent, Ulysses.  (see 1994, 2005)

Finnegans Break, the Times album featuring Tippa Irie, is a seemingly

reference to Joyce.

Musique concrète pioneer Otto Luening composes his  Joyce Cycle, based on
Joyce’s poems. Luening was a friend of Joyce  in Zurich, where they worked
together on Joyce’s theatre company the English Players.

Alfred Crumlish created chance structure “instructions for composing songs

derived from Finnegans Wake by James Joyce” entitled “ 26 Songs
from   Finnegans Wake “.

A rare live performance  of Dream Theater’s song “Eve” included audio
samples from A Portrait of the Against as a Young Man.

Van Morrison’s song “Too Long in Exile ” mentions James Joyce. (see 1982)

The Hell’s Kitchen Opera Company produced an opera based on one of

Joyce’s short stories entitled “The Dead: a one-act opera”. Directed by Linda
Lehr, with music by Murray Boren and libretto by Glen Nelson.

Belgium musicians Jean-Louis Aucremanne, Alain Lemaître, Richard

Redcrossed, Henry Krutzen name their new prog band Finnegans Wake.

Irish jazz guitarist Louis Stewart releases his Joyce-inspired

album Joycenotes.

Papa Sprain’s fi nal commercial single, the 7″  Tech Yes, includes a sampling

of Finnegans Wake  on the title track . The sample is taken from a RTÉ
documentary on Joyce, and the audio is thought to be Joyce reading from
the Wake. Papa Sprain also recorded an album for Rough Trade
called Finglas Since The Flood , based entirely on Finnegans Wake, which was
never released. The album allegedly has two versions, one recorded in 1993
and one in 1996. This post  from Bubblegum Cage III discusses the
unreleased album, with a good deal of additional information provided
(and debated) in the comments.  (see also 2017)

Butterfl y Child releases Onomatopoeia, which is heavily infl uenced by Joyce.

Like Finnegans Wake, the album is cyclical, starting wih the song “Ave and
ending with “Eva”. Joe Cassidy of Butterfl y Child also described the opening
lyrics of “Queen Glass” as particularly Joyce-inspired.  (see also Joe Cassidy,
2017)

1994
Nicholas Hopkins re-works his  1992 piece “Joyce Transcription I” as “ Double
on Joyce Transcription I ” for piano with modifi ed tape: “Double on Joyce
Transcription I is the sixth in a projected cycle of pieces that act as musical
commentaries on James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. Each piece in the cycle is
based on one of the seventeen chapters of the book, and in each I attempt
to transcribe Joyce’s literary operations into musical ones.”

John Wolf Brennan’s  Epithalamium  for chamber ensemble is inspired

by  James joyce’s poems, Chamber Music.  (see 1993, 2005)

Martyn Bates set Chamber Music  to music, released in two volumes.

The fi rst volume  appeared in 1996 on the Sub Rosa record label.  (see 1996,
2017)

David Bowie acquires Le Brocquy’s painting  of James Joyce for his personal
art collection.

1995
Irish composer Frank Corcoran writes “ Joycespeak-Musik “, an electro-
acoustic piece for tape. In an article published by the CMC , Axel Klein
recalls another piece by Corcoran
called Aportraitoftheartistasayoungmanwhowantedtosingbutwroteinstead . (see
2015)

1996
Martyn Bates set Chamber Music  to music, released in two volumes.
The second volume  appeared in 1996 on the Sub Rosa record label.  (see
1994, 2017)

Creating an album from texts of  Finnegans Wake, Phil Minton releases

his Mouthfull of Ecstasy.  (see 2017; also Vladimir Estragon, 1989)

New Zealand free improv trio Sandoz Lab Technican’s album “ Unhemmed
As It Is Uneven ” takes its title from a line in Finnegans Wake. (see Tim
Cornelius, 2017)
The Kevin Norton Trio’s album  Integrated Variables, with Mark Dresser and
George Cartwright, includes the song “Flow to Riverrun”.

Composer Michael Hynes’s “ The softest mourning ” is based on the closing

lines of Finnegans Wake. (see 1997)

Indiana band emiLy releases their album  riverrun. The original album art
design  featured text from the Wake  and the title track begins with the
melody of “Finnegan’s Wake”. The track “Talking God, Talking Girls” includes
a recording of Joyce reading from the  Wake.

1997
Mike Watt releases his fi rst solo album, a punk rock opera
entitled Contemplating the Engine Room. Describing the daily life of his
father, Watt reports that his album takes structural and content cue from
the Odyssey and Ulysses. (see 1984, 1991, 2008, 2017)

After the Joyce estate denied Mathew Rosenblum permission to use text
from Finnegans Wake, Roger Zahab wrote a parody of the  Wake  for use in
Rosenblum’s piece “Maggies “.

Composer Michael Hynes’s “ 4four ” is said to be based on the Mamalujo

motif found in Finnegans Wake.  (Reference: Moïcani – L’Odéonie blog
post .)  (see 1996)

1998
Dropkick Murphys, the pride of Boston, record a version of the traditional
ballad “Finnegan’s Wake “. (see 1850-1850, 1959, 1962)

The New Millennium Ensemble release their album “ H.C.E – Here Comes
Everybody “, borrowing the titled from  Finnegans Wake. The album includes
a piece by noted Wake  reader John Cage. (Cage, see 1942, 1979, 1982,
1984, 1985, 1993, 2001)

The title of Romanian spectral composer Ana-Maria Avram’s “ Chaosmos ” is

a reference to Finnegans Wake.

Australian anonymous band This Is Serious Mum (TISM) reference Joyce in

the opening lines of “Whatareya? “: “You’re a yob or you’re a wanker, take
your fucking choice / who is your favorite genius, James Hird or James
Joyce?”

Spanish post-rock band Migala releases a single  Finnegans Late.

1999
James Joyce’s The Dead , a musical by Richard Nelson and Shaun Davey,
based on Joyce’s short story “The Dead”. Premiered on Broadway in 2000,
winning a Tony for “Best Book of a Musical”.  (see Davey, 2015)
Andreas Vollenweider’s “Your Silver Key ” on the album Cosmopoly features
Carly Simon singing text from  Finnegans Wake. (Simon, see 1989)

Alfred Heller arranges Joyce’s  Chaiber Music  as part of his album Great

Poets in Song with Marc Heller.

2000
Celtic punk band Black 47 released “ I Got Laid on James Joyce’s Grave “, on
their album Trouble in the Land.

Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek’s hip hop duo Refl ection Eternal reference James
Joyce on their Train of Thought album. The song “Memories Live ” includes
the lyric “it kinda make me think of way back when/ I was the portrait of the
artist as a young man”.

Composer Timothy Sullivan’s A Soft and Golden Fire includes arrangements

of Joyce’s poems.

The Florida indie band PopCanon, fronted by M. David Hornbuckle, record

their song “Bloomsday “. (see M. David Hornbuckle, 2017)

Joe Pytka directed a posthumous music video for John Lennon’s “ (Just Like)
Starting Over “. The video is framed as a scrapbook of Lennon’s life, and
features a copy of Finnegans Wake. (Some sources claim that Lennon
directed the video before his death in 1980; this was not the case.)  (see
Lennon, 1964, the Beatles, 1967, 1968 )

The title of Wilco’s never completed  album, Here  Comes Everybody,  is a

reference to Finnegans Wake  reference. Some of the album’s material was
later included on Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. (see 2008)

2001
Amber’s song “Yes! ” was number one on the US Dance charts. The song was
based on Molly Bloom’s soliloquy in Ulysses  and the lead single to Amber’s
2002 album Naked.

John Cage’s “James Joyce, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie: An Alphabet ” is

adapted for stage by Laura Kuhn, with Cage’s original sound score being
developed by Mikel Rouse.  (see Cage, 1942, 1979, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1993,
1998)

Athenaeum’s eponymous album was originally entitled  Plurabelle, a

seeming reference to Finnegans Wake.

Ted Leo and The Pharmacists song “ M¥ Vien iLin “, on their album The
Tyranny of Distance, includes two verses referencing Joyce: “We make our
days as they make us/ As I must as Odysseus/ Make myself my own
Telemachus/ ‘Bous Stephanos, Stephanoumenos Dedalus!'” followed by
“And if it hasn’t been a bust/ Then land-ho, Ulysseus/ And all of us like
Dedalus/ Dead, dead all of us”.

2002
The band Two Gallants forms, taking their name from the short story
in Dubliners.

Presumably taking their band name from Joyce’s posthumously published

book, Stephen Hero releases their fi rst full-length album  Darkness & The
Day.

Kristin and Golly Hertlein record “ The Ballad Of Persse O’Reilly / Gander At
The Praitee Hole “.  (Thanks to Adam Harvey for this!)

Composer Theodore Morrison  wrote a song cycle based on Chamber Music,

commissioned by countertenor David Daniels.

2003
Sean Walsh’s fi lm Bloom featured soundtrack written and produced by
David Kahne. Kahne is a noted record producer and composer, as well as
Joyce enthusiast.  (see 2016)

On her album Viaggio In Italia, Italian artist Alice covered Syd Barrett’s

version of “Golden Hair “. (see Barret, 1970; Slow Dive, 1991)

W.A.C.O. aka Wild Acoustic Chamber Orchestra releases  Finnegan’s

W.A.C.O. (see Steve Gregoropoulos, 2016, 2017)

2004
DJ Spooky aka Paul D. Miller’s book  Rhythm Science  references Joyce a
couple times. The book’s accompanying CD includes a remix track of Joyce
reading from the Wake, “Oval vs Yoshihiro Hanno April Remix mixed w/
James Joyce Anna Livia Plurabelle (Finnegans Wake) “. (see 2008)

In the fi rst volume of his autobiography,  Chronicles: Volume One, Bob Dylan
described a conversation with Archie MacLeish, with reference to James
Joyce: “Goddard Lieberson, president of Columbia Records, had given me
[Ulysses] as a gift, a fi rst-edition copy of the book and I couldn’t make hide
nor hair of it. James Joyce seemed like the most arrogant man who ever
lived, had both his eyes wide open and great faculty of speech, but what he
say, I knew not what. I wanted to ask MacLeish to explain James Joyce to
me, to make sense of something that seemed so out of control, and I knew
that he would have, but I didn’t” (p. 130).   (Goddard Lieberson
reportedly composed choral arrangements of Joyce’s text, but little
information is available on this — if anyone has more info, please
let us know.)  (see 2009)
The album Speak  from art pop duo No-Man includes the song “ Riverrun “, a
reference to the Wake.

According to an interview  with the Contemporary Music Centre, Irish

composer Michael Holohan’s “The Snotgreen C for fl ute” is “based on the
fi rst chapter of Ulysses… [the] piece was composed for the Centenary of
James Joyce. The premiere was given in the Joyce Tower, Sandycove on
Bloomsday 2004″.

French composer Armand Amar soundtrack for the fi lm  La terre vue du
ciel includes the song “Chaosmos “, a reference to Finnegans Wake.

Composer James Yannatos releases  Symphonies Sacred & Secular: Strings in

the Earth and Air, a seeming reference to Joyce’s poem “ Strings in the Earth
and Air “.

Ben Watson dedicates his Resonance FM show “ Late Lunch With Out To
Lunch ” to juxtaposing recordings of Frank Zappa’s guitar solo with readings
from Finnegans Wake. (Ben Watson also mentions  Finnegans Wake  in his
book The Complete Guide to the Music of Frank Zappa. )

In an interview , musician Trey Gunn remarked, “I don’t know exactly how
[Joyce] infl uenced me, but I’ve found it some of the most striking things I’ve
encountered.”

Russian poet and translator  Anri Volokhonsky collaborated with

musicians  Leonid Fedorov and Vladimir Volkov on two albums Joyce
material. The fi rst album,  Joyce, features Anri Volokhonsky reading what he
called a Russian “arrangement” (translation) of  Finnegans Wake.  The second
album, Mountains and Rivers, features Volokhonsky’s poems inspired by
Joyce; for this album Fedorov and Volkov are joined by Dimitri Ozerski.
Fedorov, Volkov, and Ozerski are members of the Russian band Auktyon
(АукцЫон) and the album was released on Fedorov’s label, Ulitka
Records.  (Big thanks to Roman Tsivkin for information on this!)

2005
When asked by Chicago Tribune  reporter Nina Metz , “What reading material
would we fi nd in your bathroom?”, former Grateful Dead bassist simply
answers “Finnegans Wake by James Joyce”. (see 1959, 1968, 1975, 1986,
2009, 2013)

The Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble performs a  musical

adaptation  of Finnegans Wake.

John Wolf Brennan’s song “Looking for Mr Ulysses” is released on his

album I.N.I.T.I.A.L.S. – Sources along the Songlines 1979-91 . (see 1993, 1994)
Beck’s song “Qué Onda Guero ” on his album Guero  features a man
unexpectedly saying “James Joyce” and then shouting “Michael Bolton”.

John Ellis’s album One Foot In The Swamp  includes the songs “Work in
Progress” and “Michael Finnegan”, which may be references to the  Wake?

South Korean hip hop duo Epik High reference James Joyce and  Finnegans
Wake  in their “Follow the Flow “, a song featuring MYK and D-Tox.

Los Angeles indie band Fragile Gang’s song “ James Joyce ” is about hanging
out with the author.

Ben Moore’s arrangement of “ Bright Cap and Streamers ” is recorded by

singer Deborah Voigt.

Barry Gleeson, who sang in a Bloomsday radio show rendition of Finnegans

Wake in 2012, released a “new old-fashioned album” of Irish music
entitled I Heard a Bird at Dawn , which features several Irish folk songs, such
as “Loves Old Sweet Song” which is heavily referenced throughout Ulysses.

2006
The song “Finnegans Wake ” by singer-songwriter Barry Bender uses the
book as a metaphor for the confusion that is love.  (see 2017)

Pinetop Seven’s song “Fadograph of a Yestern Scene ” is a reference to

the Wake.

Sacramento jazz band Kairos Quartet release their album  riverrun. The
band subsequently changed their name to riverrun.

Jazz singer Susanne Abbuehl’s album  Compass  includes three arrangements

of Joyce’s poems — “The Twilight Turns from Amethyst “, “Bright Cap And
Streamers “, and “In the Dark Pine-Wood ” — and “Sea, Sea! “, a song with text
from Finnegans Wake.

2007
Electronic band Crystal Castles released “ Air War “, which features sampling
from Luciano Berio and Cathy Berberian’s adaptation of  Ulysses. (see Berio,
1959, 1961; Berio and Berberian, 1942, 1953, 1958)

Danish composer Hans Henrik Nordstrøm’s piece  Finnegan’s has two parts:

“Riverfun ” and “Livifl eksion “.

2008
UK label Fire Records released a compilation album of various musicians
performing the poems of Chamber Music. The album includes Monica
Queen, War Against Sleep, Ed Harcourt, Jessica Bailiff , Venture Lift, Virgin
Passages, Htrk, Califone, Mike Watt, Owen Tromans, Airport Studies, Text of
Light, Mary Lorson, Willy Mason, Noahjohn, Ian Kearey, Abigail Hopkins and
David Hurn, Coldharbourstores, The Minus 5, Lori Scacco, The Great
Depression, Puerto Muerto, Mercury Rev, Flying Saucer Attack, Sweet Trip,
Little Sparta and Gerry Mitchell, Sphyr, Mountain Men Anonymous,
Tenebrous Liar, Green Pajamas, Gravenhurst, Christian Kiefer, Duke
Garwood, The Lovetones, and Kinski. Jim O’Rourke, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco,
Wayne Kramer, Bark Psychosis, and the Silent League were all rumored to
be involved in earlier stages.  (Monica Queen, see Tenement & Temple,
2017; Mary Lorson, see 2015; Mercury Rev, see Old Fiends, 2017; Text of
Light, see Sonic Youth, 1986, and Ulrich Krieger, 2017; Tweedy/Wilco,
see 2001; Watt, see 1984, 1991, 1997; many artists also involved in
Waywords and Meansigns, see 2017)

DJ Spooky aka Paul D. Miller’s book  Sound Unbound refers Joyce in passing,

and the book’s accompanying CD features a remix track of Erik Satie and
James Joyce reading the Aeolus speech from  Ulysses: “James Joyce/Erik
Satie, ‘Eolian Episode/Gnossiene (DJ Spooky Dub Version)’ “. (see 2004)

secretSpeech, an experimental electronic band from Luxembourg, release

their album winnegan’s   fake ; the album’s song titles are words found in
the  Wake.

The song “Helpless Corpses Enactment “, on metal band Sleepytime Gorilla

Museum’s album In Glorious Times, is written entirely with lyrics
from Finnegans Wake.

2009
I’m listening to Billy Joe Shaver/And I’m reading James Joyce/Some people tell
me I got the blood of the land in my voice . A lyric from Bob Dylan’s song “I
Feel A Change Comin’ On”, featured on the album  Together Through Life. The
entire album was co-written with former Grateful Dead lyricist and noted
Joycean Robert Hunter. In an interview with Rolling Stone , Bob Dylan
explained how he fi rst heard Billy Joe Shaver’s song through Waylon
Jennings. “Waylon played me ‘Ain’t No God in Mexico,’ and I don’t know, it
was quite good… Shaver and David Allen Coe became my favorite guys in
that [outlaw country] genre. The verse came out of nowhere. No … you
know something? Subliminally, I can’t say that this is actually true. But I
think it was more of a Celtic thing. Tying Billy Joe with James Joyce. I think
subliminally or astrologically those two names just wanted to be combined.
Those two personalities.”  (see 2004)

Handsomeboy Technique, the DJ moniker of  Yoshitaka Morino, releases his

album Terrestrial Tone Cluster, containing the song “Guiding Lights (Far
Calls, Coming, Far) “. The phrase “Far calls. Coming, far!” appears in the
closing passage of the Wake, although Morino could have encountered the
title by way of Toru Takemitsu’s  1980 piece.  (If anyone has information
on how to contact Yoshitaka Morino, please  let us know .)
French experimental musician Rotkappchen records a song “Finnegans
Wake “.

Electronic musician Scanner’s album  Rockets Unto The Edges of

Edges includes the song “Anna Livia Plurabelle”.

2010
Ambient artist Robert Haigh’s album  Anonymous Lights  includes the song
“Along the Riverrun “.

Indie pop band Trevor Sensitive and the Locals include the song “I’ve read
Finnegans Wake” on their album  Sensitive .

Lithuanian band Elektrik Sketches release their song “ Chaosmos “, a

reference to Finnegans Wake.

Noise band Eigenstate’s album In Blotch and Void includes the songs “A Way
A Lone A Last A Loved A Long” and “His Mouthful Of Ecstasy”.

Boston Spaceships  borrow a phrase from Joyce for the title of their
album Our Cubehouse Still Rocks.

Crossover Prog musician Sand Snowman’s song “ Riverrun ” is reference

to Finnegans Wake.

British musician Daniel Land begins a series of recordings called “ riverrun “,

which he describes as ” heavily-composted landscape recordings”.

2011
Chris Rael’s song cycle “Araby” retells the stories of  Dubliners.  Produced
twice Off -Broadway, “Araby” won the New York International Fringe
Festival’s Excellence in Music Composition Award in 2011. Some of the
performances are available online  here ; the original demos for the song
cycle can be heard here . (see 2017)

Early electronic music pioneers Tangerine Dream release an album

entitled Finnegans Wake.

William Averitt composes “From Dreams ” for choir with piano and viola. The
piece has three movements, each incorporating text from Joyce’s poems:
“Gentle lady, do not sing Sad songs”; “Sleep now, O sleep now”; and “O cool
is the valley”.

Estonian computer game designer and musician Andrei Zavidei arranges a

version of Joyce’s “Ecce Puer “.

Toronto minimalist jazz band  Riverrun  release their fi rst album,  Errunriv.
The Bermuda Triangle’s Diff erent Strokes for Diff erent Folks includes an
instrumental dance track “Finnegans Wake (Extended Mix) “.

Polish minimalist composer Benicewicz’s song “ riverrun ” is a reference

to Finnegans Wake.

Michael Heumann releases riverrun, a concept album about battling

netherworld zombies.

Citing James Joyce as one of his  favorite authors , Car Seat Head Rest
references Joyce in his song “ The Drum “.

Der Nino aus Wien’s album  Schwunder  includes the songs “Plurabelle” and
“Finnegans Wake”.

The Curiously Strong Peppermints’ concept album  Echoes from the

Ultraviolet Fuzz includes the rise and fall of Anna Livia Plurabelle.

2012
Composer Robert Paterson’s  A New Eaarth warns about the dangers of
climate change with relying on “poems and quotes from around the world,
including texts by Wendell Barry, James Joyce, Percy Bysshe Shelly and
William Wordsworth. The text and poems allude to the four ancient,
classical elements—earth, air, fi re and water.”

“The King of Ithaca “, the fi nal track on Chris Lewis’s album  Paradise and Vu
Du  is an homage to James Joyce.

James Fearnley of the Pogues references the  Wake  in the title of his
memoir, Here Comes Everybody: The Story of the Pogues .  (Thanks to Peter
Chrisp on this!) (see the Pogues, 1988)

Composer and ESP-Disk manager Steve Holtje records a song-cycle of

Joyce’s Pomes Penyeach .

Jork Weismann’s book  Asleep at the Chateau  is a collection of celebrities

photographed while asleep at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. Patti Smith
is seen snoozing with Finnegans Wake. (see 2016)

Polish industrial duo Monstergod set to music Joyce’s poem “ Bright Cap and
Streamers “.

Composer and conductor Martin Pearlman debuts his  Finnegans Wake: An

Operoar with the Boston Baroque, with readings and recitation from Adam
Harvey. (see Harvey, 2017)

Polish translator of Finnegans Wake  Krzysztof Bartnicki publishes  Da Capo al

Finne. The text removes all characters from  Finnegans Wake  except for A B C
D E F G H, thus turning the text into a musical score. (In German key
notation, B is B fl at and H is B natural.) Bartnicki’s  Soundcloud  page
includes excerpts of this score, which  bear resemblance to Star Wars ,
Chopin, the Star Spangled Banner and more. Bartnicki has sent numerous
letters to John Williams, seeking to determine who is the author of the Star
Wars pieces — Joyce, Williams or Bartnicki?  (see 2014, 2016, 2017)

New York indie folk duo The Waking release their song “ Riverrun “.

Italian band Laventunesimafobia’s song “ Jarl Van Hoother ” is a seeming

reference to Finnegans Wake.

Metal band Slaw record their song “ Finnegan’s Baked “, perhaps a reference
to Joyce?

Dylan Mattingly composes “ A Way A Lone A Last A Loved A Long the

Riverrun “, commissioned and performed by the group contemporaneous.

Adrian Freeman and Ravi record their song “ riverrun “, an instrumental

piece for tenor fl ageolet and African kora.

2013
Stewart Copeland, best known as drummer of the Police, has an
“obsession” with Joyce. According the Herald , Copeland wrote at least half
the libretto for an opera based on  Finnegans Wake,  but was ultimately
unable to obtain permissions from the Joyce Estate. “It got as far as
negotiating with the opera company but he had rather an exaggerated idea
of what opera can pay. That’s where it fell apart.”   (Copeland approached the
Estate in 2013; thanks to Finn Fordham for the year.)  (see the Police, 1980)

Composer Victoria Bond premieres “Cyclops”  scored for speakers, choir,

violin, clarinet and piano, at Symphony Space as part of the opening event
of the Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival in New York City.

The London band Jarl Von Hoother and the Pranquean  release their debut
album Mister Magpie. The band takes their name from  Finnegans Wake.

Andrew Basquille re-imagined Ulysses as a folk song, “ Ballad of Bloom and

Stephen ”. (see 2015)

Gregor von Holdt arranges a playful version of “ Anna Livia Plurabelle “.

Italian electronic duo 12 Inch Plastic Toys include the song “ Winnegan’s
Fake ” on their album 1994. 200

Wakean printmaker and artist Nicci Haynes creates sound piece “ James
Joyce reading from Finnegans Wake read by James Joyce, arranged for 20-
note paper strip musical movement “. (see 2016)
Lyricist Indi Riverfl ow penned “ Riverrun “, a song about the Wake, for John
Kadlecik. Kadlecik is best known as a Grateful Dead-styled guitarist, playing
in Dark Star Orchestra and Furthur. Riverfl ow also wrote a song “ Here
Comes Everybody “. (Grateful Dead, see 1959, 1968, 1975, 1986, 2005,
2009)

Folk metal band Kernunna’s album “ The Seim Anew ” is a reference to

the Wake  and includes the songs “The Seim Anew”, “The Keys to. Given!”
and “Ricorso”.

The band Zijnzijn Zijnzijn! takes their name from  Finnegans Wake; the cover
on their Demos album is a reproduced page of the  Wake. Their
album Wordwounder  also takes its titles from the  Wake.

The Australian band Cats of Copenhagen include the song “Riverrun” on

their Wheatgrass  EP.

Los Angeles powerpop band  Sanglorians release their debut

album Initiation .  The band name is a reference to  Finnegans Wake.

Dublin based musical duo Fathers of Western Thought compose and record
“Re: Joyce — A Musical Interpretation of James Joyce’s Four Major Works .” A
selection of songs from the project were performed at the 2013 Bloomsday
celebration in Dublin in collaboration with the James Joyce Centre.

2014
English composer Stephen Crowe sets the infamous love letters to
music: The Dorty Letters of James Joyce .

Irish musician Ken Cotter releases  Anatomy of a Goddess , an album inspired

by Ulysses.

In an interview  with York’s The Press, the British rapper and poet Kate
Tempest cites James Joyce as an infl uence: “William Blake cuts me to the
core, and it’s the same with James Joyce; I couldn’t believe how he wrote. It
was the same when listening to Wu-Tang Clan at 14; I’d never heard
language like that in storytelling.”

Priest Father Micéal Noone recites Finnegans Wake as Rosary .  (Thanks to

Gavan Kennedy for this.)

Romanian electronic group Plurabelle releases their debut album “ Phantom

Pyramid “.

Alanna Takes a Solo record a wonderful piece, “ Song Celebrating My

Genealogical Connection to James Joyce “.
The dance company Riverdance uncharacteristically adds a new song to
their repertoire, entitled “Anna Livia “.

Riverrun Country Dance Band  takes their name from the Wake. The band
plays traditional celtic music, contra and country dance.

The Purple Gherkins album  From Genre Salad and Baked Beans on
Pizza includes an instrumental track “ Finnegans Wake “.

Paweł Paide Dunajko remixes Krzysztof Bartnicki’s Finnegans Wake-derived

music for Radio Alternator .

Krzysztof Bartnicki publishes  James Joyce: Finnegans ake. Suite in the Key of E ,
using cross-cultural musical notation systems to seek a musical score with
the Wake, claiming that only 4% of the  Wake  cannot be deciphered
musically. (see 2012, 2016, 2017)

Elling Lein creates “Finnegans Sleep “, a punchcard music box piece based
on consonants in Finnegans Wake  for RPM Challenge 2014.

2015
Waywords and Meansigns releases the  First Edition , setting Finnegans
Wake  to music unabridged. Each chapter is recorded by a separate artist or
group. Contributors mentioned elsewhere in this bibliography include
Hayden Chisholm and Peter Quadrino.

The title track on composer Wiel Conen and singer Charlotte Gilissen’s
album Charlotte’s Drone  includes text from Ulysses. (see 2017)

Joanna Newsom’s song “Time, a Symptom ” on her Divers album contains

reference to the closing passage of the  Wake: “Joy! Again, around–a pause,
a sound–a song: a way a lone a last a loved a long “.

Woodwind instrumentalist and composer Seán Mac Erlaine

performs Alas  Awake in Dublin, a site-specifi c homage to the  Wake. (see
2017)

Shaun Davey and Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill write a  song cycle  about Nora
Barnacle.  (Thanks to the James Joyce Gazette for this!)   (see Davey, 1999)

UCD professor Fran O’Rourke and classical guitarist John Feeley collaborate
on the album JoyceSong: The Irish Songs of James Joyce .

Subtle Monkey records the song “ Wake Again, Finn “, using text from
the Wake.

Andrew Basquille and Eric Sweeney adapted  Ulysses as an opera. (see

Basquille, 2013)
The Science of Deduction’s album   Blue Ocean Rising, Red Blood
Running  includes a track “James Joyce is Going Blind “. (see 2017)

Composer Julia Barnes created a  song cycle  with nine poems of

Joyce’s Pomes Penyeach with select accompanying Dutch translations.  (see
2017)

Sheffi eld band Nixon release their song “ Finnegans Wank “.

Composer Jesse Solomon Clark named one of his instrumental

compositions “Riverrun “. The composition was created for the  RadioEight
project , which sets to music the dreams of children from around the world,
as narrated by the children themselves.

The title track on Tom Robinson’s  Only the Now   is inspired in part
by Ulysses.

The James Joyce Centre in Dublin celebrates composer Frank Corcoran’s

70th birthday with a program dedicated to his music, and to his
connections to Joyce. During the program , Corcoran debuts a new piece,
entitled Rhapsodietta Joyceana. (see 1995)

Melanie O’Reilly’s celtic-jazz album  Ceol Ceantair/District Music is inspired in

part by the work James Joyce.

Black metal band Nihilo Machina release their song “ riverrun “, a reference
to Finnegans Wake.

Sound artist Rui Gato’s EP Chaosmos  borrows its title from the  Wake.

Nick Roth composes “A Way A Lone A Last, for recorder trio ” for Trio
Invento. (see 2017, 2018)

2016
Waywords and Meansigns releases the  Second Edition , setting Finnegans
Wake  to music unabridged a second time. Each chapter is recorded by a
separate artist or group. Contributors mentioned elsewhere in this
bibliography include Steve Gregoropoulos, Nicci Haynes (cover art), David
Kahne, Mary Lorson, Mr. Smolin and Double Naughty Spy Car, and
Maharadja Sweets.

Maharadja Sweets releases The Caprice of Young Gods, featuring “ The Giant
Awakes Again “, a song inspired by the  Wake. (see previous entry, and
2017)

The Irish hip hop comedy duo the Rubberbandits learn how to become true
artists from James Joyce and Samuel Beckett in the Rubberbandit’s  Guide to
the Internet , produced by RTÉ.
Josephine Foster releases No More Lamps in the Morning  on Fire Records,
featuring a musical arrangement of Joyce’s poem “ My Dove, My Darling “.

The Japandroids album Near to the Wild Heart  borrow its title from Joyce.

“Descent of Their Last End “, a song from the shoegaze band Kestrels, takes
its title from Joyce’s short story “The Dead”.

Albanian musician Jona Xhepa’s “ Asaman ” uses a distorted cassete of Jim

Norton reading Finnegans Wake.

Beta Harem MC’s “Finnegan’s Bake ” is about getting high with James Joyce.

Jonathan Brielle premieres his musical  Himself and Nora, about the
relationship between Joyce and his wife Nora Barnacle.

Montréal noise band  Demoiselles release their album Wake , which includes

the track “riverrun”.

Grant Morgan, a sophomore at The Peak School in Frisco, wins the  Summit
Music and Arts Young Composer Competition  for his Joyce-inspired piece
“Finnegans Fall”.

When asked about the legacy of the Allman Brothers Band, drummer Butch
Trucks said, “What I’m most proud of is taking the door that Cream opened
with rock improvisation and adding John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charlie
Parker and jazz into the mixture… Charlie Parker is probably the greatest
example of this. I mean, listening to Charlie Parker is like reading James
Joyce. You’ve got to really dig into it, and if you really climb into what he’s
doing, the melody is there, it’s like deep listening.”

(photo by Jork Weismann)

The Wall Street Journal   photographs Patti Smith’s copy of  Finnegans Wake.
“The book is a fi rst edition… signed by James Joyce in green ink. The book is
almost unreadable—but as an object it’s beautiful.”  (see 2012)

The River Has Many Voices  cites Joyce as an inspiration for his songwriting:
“Books and poems have been some of my favorite music. They reach a
depth of musicality that much music is too limited to reach… James Joyce
showed me how the number of chords are endless in prose.”

Composer Dave Malloy is working on “ Impossible Novels Trilogy “, which

includes setting Moby Dick and Ulysses  to music.

Liam Wade composes an  eight-song cycle for tenor and piano , based on
James Joyce’s Chamber Music.

Composer and saxophonist Hayden Chisholm released  Finn Again Wakes, an

album setting passages of the  Wake  to music.

David Mowat’s Comprivations, performed at Saint Stephen’s Church on

Bloomsday,  combines musical improvisation and readings of Joyce.

Mr. Smolin and Double Naughty Spy Car release an instrumental version of
their recording for Waywords and Meansigns, entitled  That Tragoady
Thundersday .  (see Mr. Smolin, 2017, 2018)

Rapper Vince Staples includes the lyric  “I write the James Joyce/ Don’t need
the Rolls Royce” in his song “Loco ” off his Prima Donna  EP.

Camille O’Sullivan and Paul Kelly’s Ancient Rain   recounts 100 years of Irish
writing, set to music. The performance includes an acted out scene from
Joyce’s short story “The Dead”.

Taylor Mac’s drag and cabaret inspired “ A 24-Decade History of Popular

Music ” includes what one reviewer  called “a surreal dance-off between a
group of ukulele-strumming Tiny Tims and a bunch of tap-dancers dressed
in Grecian robes in a fanciful homage to James Joyce’s  Ulysses.”

In his autobiography  Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen recalls how when Mike
Appel fi rst heard Springsteen’s early demos — the seeds of  Greetings from
Asbury Park — “he compared me to Dylan, Shakespeare, James Joyce and
Bozo the Clown”.

Los Angeles band Night Talks releases a song about Leopold Bloom called
“Mr. Bloom “.

Jazz guitarist Larry Coryell was working on an opera based on  Ulysses.  It is

unclear whether he fi nished the work before his death in 2017. In
September 2016 Coryell told the  Maui Time, “Joyce is more like a jazz
musician than most authors… I wouldn’t go through the trouble except my
initial musical ideas in the early going of the so-called ‘story’ seem to be
eff ective, so I will soldier on, slowly extracting content from the book and
converting it to music.”

Austin Classical Guitar’s performance  nocturne [end]  includes passages

of Finnegans Wake, read by Peter Quadrino and Derek Otto.  (Peter
Quadrino, see 2015, 2017)

Krzysztof Bartnicki performs a concert of  Finnegans Wake-derived music in

Bytom, Poland. The highlight is an imitation of David Bowie’s “ Warszawa “.
Bartnicki’s work is also presented in Warsaw’s National Gallery.  (see 2012,
2014, 2017)

Roger Doyle’s Frail Things in Eternal Places   culls song titles from lines
of Finnegans Wake.

In an interview for RockUrLife.net , Manuel Gagneux of black metal band

Zeal & Ardor cites James Joyce as an artistic infl uence in the making of  The
Devil is Fine , an eclectic album that mixes metal, electronic, spiritual music
genres.

2017

Waywords and Meansigns releases the  Opendoor Edition , featuring 125

artist and musicians collaboratively setting  Finnegans Wake  to music.
Contributors mentioned elsewhere in this bibliography include Krzysztof
Bartnicki and Bouchons d’oreilles with Wojtek Kurek, Matt Battle, Barry
Bender, Joe Cassidy, Hayden Chisholm, Coldharbourstores, Wiel Conen and
Charlotte Gilissen, Tim Cornelius, Steve Gregoropoulos, Abigail Hopkins and
David Hurn, M. David Hornbuckle, Kinski, Little Sparta, Seán Mac Erlaine,
Phil Minton, Mr. Smolin, Old Fiends, Papa Sprain, Ulrich Krieger, Maharadja
Sweets, Peter Quadrino, Chris Rael, The Science of Deduction, Kamil
Szuszkiewicz featuring Pictorial Candi, Tenement & Temple, Owen Tromans,
Venture Lift, Jon Wahl, Mike Watt and Adam Harvey.

Nick Roth’s “A Loved A Long ” is a solo fl ute adaptation of his piece his  “A
Way A Lone A Last”. The piece was commissioned by the dlr LexIcon and
composed for fl autist Lina Andonovska.  (see 2015, 2018)

Matt Battle’s album What’s it all about?  includes the track “Ulysses “. (see
fi rst entry, 2017)

The music video for Pictorial Candi’s “ Got Things To Do ” is subtitled

“Portrait of an artist as an insurance salesman”.  (see fi rst entry, 2017)

Composer Alan Theisen’s “Sleep Now, O Sleep ” is performed a Late Night at

the National Sawdust. The instrumental piece is inspired by Joyce’s poem.
Axel Bloom releases an album inspired by  Ulysses, entitled Ein Tag mit Joyce .

Journalist James McNair writes  that Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold

took time off from the band to study Walt Whitman and James Joyce at
Columbia University in New York.

Krzysztof Bartnicki produces  the album   -Y? , an original compilation album

featuring 12 Polish artists’ “sound reactions to Joyce”, plus two bonus
tracks. The album features pieces from Brda; Korine Sky Riot; Projekt
Karpaty Magiczne; CzeT Minkus; BestremyDuo; Bogdan Mizerski; f-Bac;
Edward Pasewicz; ASI MINA; Experimental; Sylwester Krysztopik, Adam
Leszkiewicz, Agnieszka Noga; and Wojciech Kucharczyk. The bonus tracks
are re-releases of the 2017 Waywords and Meansigns recording from
Krzysztof Bartnicki and Bouchons d’oreilles with Wojtek Kurek and the track
“Helpless Corpse Enactment ” by Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.  (see 2012,
2014, 2016; Waywords and Meansigns, 2017; Sleepytime Gorilla
Museum, 2008)

Julia Barnes’s settings of  Pomes Penyeach  are released on CD as Old Heart’s

Wisdom . The pieces were performed in conjunction with an artistic
exhibition, as part of the Pomes Penyeach Project.  (see 2015)

Composer Roger Alsop’s “Finnegan’s Wake Ava Reading ” [sic] is a computer-

generated reading of the Wake.

Noise band ego arcadia releases their album “ riverrun “.

Joni Mitchell biographer’s David Yaff e  says  he modeled Reckless Daughter: A

Portrait of Joni Mitchell  on Ellman’s biography of James Joyce. On Mitchell’s
website, there is also a biographic piece fi rst published by Billboard in
1995, entitled “Joni Mitchell: A Portrait of the Artist “. Incidentally, according
to Frank McGuinness , Joni Mitchell once narrated  A Portrait of the Artists as
a Young Man  for broadcast on the BBC — if anyone has more info on this,
please contact us !

Actress Aedín Moloney and musician Paddy Moloney release a double-

album “Refl ections of Molly Bloom Vol. 1 and 2 “.

Crashing Sunset’s album  The Warmth of the Glow included the spoken word
poem “Papers (After James Joyce) “.

The University of North Carolina Charlotte performs an original “dance-

opera,” entitled “Wake-Lucia ,” exploring the relationship between James
Joyce and his daughter. The piece is scored by Professor Leonard Mark
Lewis, choreographed by Kathy Lawson, and directed by Kelvin Chan.

Donna Greenberg composes a song cycle from the poems of Chamber

Music entitled “Love Songs of James Joyce .”
Pete Quinn, pianist of the London-based folk band Artisan Row, was
inspired by the musicality of Joyce’s “Chamber Music.” The song  “Sleep
Now”  adds original musical acccompanmnet to Joyce‘s poem of the same
name. It features on their album “Wild Winds.”

The Wide Afternoon, an album from singer-songwriter Jack Harris, includes

the song “Molly Bloom ,” a reference to Ulysses.

2018
Waywords and Meansigns continues to add tracks to the  Opendoor
Edition.  New contributors mentioned elsewhere in this bibliography include
Nick Roth, included in the Opendoor Edition as O’Connor / Roth / Tokar /
Doherty. (see Roth, 2015, 2017)

Mr. Smolin releases an instrumental version of “ The Mookse & The Gripes “,
fi rst recorded for the Waywords and Meansigns Opendoor Edition.  (see
2016, 2017)

Stephen Gardner’s Ulysses Extended is performed at the James Joyce

Centre  in Dublin. The extended score includes opportunityies for
improvisation.

Polish musicians Pan Przecinek & Zespół Depresyjny record the song
“Finnegans Wake   by James Joyce “, which includes Z. Allan’s translated text of
“Brigid’s Song” from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man . (see Joyce, 1916)

M8N aka Miron Grzegorkiewicz records an album based

on Ulysses  entitled The ULSSS .

The Centre National de Création Musicale Albi hosted a festival to

showcase the plurality of musical approaches. The event was
entitled riverrun, in reference to the opening of Finnegans Wake, and
featured experimental Dedalus Ensemble , paying homage to Stephen
Dedalus of Joyce’s works.

Isaac Weiss of Wayne State University composed a viola piece to

accompany “Rain Has Fallen ” from Joyce’s Chamber Music.

2019

French classical composer Camille Pepin and musical group Ensemble

Polygons release their fi rst album entitled “ Chamber Music, ” which sets
several of Joyce’s poems to original musical compositions. (Thanks to the
James Joyce Gazette for information on this!)

Writer and guitarist Eric Jackson composes  “III. Proteus,”  an ambient guitar
piece inspired by the third episode of Ulysses.
Share this:

 Email




Todo el audio se distribuye gratuitamente a través de Attribution-
NonCommerical-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND
4.0). Básicamente, esto signifi ca que todo el audio de Waywords y
Meansigns se puede compartir libremente, siempre que se dé crédito a los
creadores. No se permiten trabajos derivados, ni usos
comerciales. Finnegans Wake recibe el estatus de dominio público en
Canadá, donde se encuentra Waywords and Meansigns.  Los usuarios fuera
de Canadá son responsables de conocer las leyes de derechos de autor de
su propio territorio. (Para obtener más información sobre las fallas de las
leyes de derechos de autor corporativos en la era digital, recomendamos
la información de Cory Doctorow no quiere ser libre  ) . Haga clic aquí  para
ver nuestra política de privacidad.