Chamber Music - an exciting new choral series

Introduction to this new series by Dr. Desmond Earley.

'In 1907 Joyce wrote a letter to his brother Stanislaus candidly expressing the hope that his poems from Chamber Music would one day be put to music: ‘I hope someone will do so’, he wrote, ‘someone that knows old English music such as I like’. 

Joyce was an accomplished tenor, having won a bronze medal for solo singing in 1904 at the Dublin Feis Ceoil competition. The influence of singing is seen throughout Joyce’s work. In addition to mentioning John Dowland in Ulysses, Joyce references ‘Byrd (William) who played the virginals [...] Tomkins who made toys or airs and John Bull’, composers equally praised for their choral music. The imagery of Joyce’s lyrics – such as the ‘soft choiring of delight’ (XXVI), ‘the wise choirs of faery’ (XV), and ‘for many a choir is singing now’ (XVI) – calls for a new project, a full collection of choral settings of the poetry of Chamber Music. 

With the aim of fulfilling the wishes of James Joyce, I have commissioned eighteen composers from around the world in this Volume I collection. Volume II is already underway! Our composer- partners who have created new music for this first album hail from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Latvia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and the United States of America. Pairing each composer with their own Joyce poem seemed a fitting way to acknowledge the international aspect of the author’s personal journey. As Joyce was himself a singer, it became an important feature of the project that these pieces would be satisfying to sing: to compose music that respects singer, player and listener alike takes craft, and I am grateful to each of the composers for their collaborative approach as much as for their new music. 

Joyce was a graduate of our beloved University College. Choral Scholars are proud of our unique connection to Joyce’s Dublin story: not only do we hear and create the accents and speech patterns of his literary characters, but we also understand their cultural history. It is a pleasure and honour for us to be the first choral ensemble to wrap James Joyce’s ‘suite of songs’ in an Irish choral voice.'