Welcome to James Joyce's "Chamber Music"

A learning resource incorporating a new musical version of the 36-lyric sequence

This free-access learning resource is hosted by the School of Humanities and Social Science at Liverpool John Moores University, and is inspired by a new version of Chamber Music, a book of poems published by Joyce in 1907.

In 2012 Dr Gerry Smyth recorded an album entitled James Joyce’s ‘Chamber Music’: New ‘Folkish’ Settings of the Thirty-Six Lyrics.

This site provides video commentary on both the poetic and musical aspects of Chamber Music, as well as video performances of all thirty-six of the newly composed versions.

Use these links to access the various materials:

Introduction

Performances

Perspective

Timeline

News and Events

References and Links

Credits

Contact

"A page of 'A Little Cloud' gives me more pleasure than all my verses."

James Joyce:
"Until eighteen years old everyone writes poems. After that only two categories of people continue to do so: the poets and the idiots."

Benedetto Croce:
"All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music."

Walter Pater:
"Is it not strange that sheeps’ guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies?"

William Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing
"The lonely return to loneliness; the divine to divinity."

Plotinus: Enneads

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Welcome to James Joyce's "Chamber Music"

A learning resource incorporating a new musical version of the 36-lyric sequence

Use these links to access the various materials:

Introduction

Performances

Perspective

Timeline

News and Events

References and Links

Credits

Contact

"A page of 'A Little Cloud' gives me more pleasure than all my verses."

"Until eighteen years old everyone writes poems. After that only two categories of people continue to do so: the poets and the idiots."

"All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music."

"Is it not strange that sheeps’ guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies?"

"The lonely return to loneliness; the divine to divinity."