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) secretSpeech, an experimental electronic band from Luxembourg, release their album winnegan’s fake; the album’s song titles are words found in the Wake. Creating an album from texts of Finnegans Wake, Phil Minton releases his Mouthfull of Ecstasy. (see 2017; also Vladimir Estragon, 1989)

In his autobiography Born to Run, Bruce Springsteen recalls how when Mike Appel first heard Springsteen’s early demos — the seeds of Greetings from Asbury Park—“he compared me to Dylan, Shakespeare, James Joyce and Bozo the Clown”. 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. Solitary Hotel” in Samuel Barber’s song cycle Despite and Still includes text from Ulysses. (see 1935, 1936, 1937, 1947, 1971, 1972) Richard Emsley composes “ …from swerve of shore to bend of bay…“, a title taken from the opening of Finnegans Wake. Joyce completed his final 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.)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) Jazz trumpeter Kenny Wheeler’s album Around 6 includes the song “ Riverrun“, 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”.Alfred Reed composed a clarinet rhapsody entitled “ Rahoon (After James Joyce)” inspired by Joyce’s poem “She Weeps Over Rahoon.” Was 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) Joyce was acquainted with music of all sorts, from grand opera to bawdy street ballads, and he interspersed countless allusions to these works throughout the body of his writings. What has long been rare in Joycean scholarship, however, is the opportunity to hear these songs performed in an historically accurate style that would be familiar to Joyce, and as his contemporaries would have heard them.

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) Posthumously published works entered or will enter the public domain 50 years (Canada) or 70 years (Australia) after the end of the calendar year in which they were first published. Brazilian composer Gilberto Mendes writes his “ Ulysses in Copacabana surfing with James Joyce and Dorothy Lamour, for chamber ensemble“.

Performances

Samuel Barber’s Opus 45, “ Three Songs,” includes Joyce’s translation of “Now I Have Fed and Eaten Up the Rose”, a poem first written in German by Gottfried Keller. (see 1935, 1936, 1937, 1947, 1968) 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. Nicholas Hopkins re-works his 1992 piece “Joyce Transcription I” as “ Double on Joyce Transcription I” for piano with modified 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.” 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 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).Beside helping our understanding of Joyce, studying his use of music is a wonderfully entertaining way to make the works more immediate and accessible. 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 powerpop band Sanglorians release their debut album Initiation. The band name is a reference to Finnegans Wake.