Chamber Music(poetry collection)
 First edition | |
| Author | James Joyce |
|---|---|
| Genre | poetry |
| Publisher | Elkin Mathews |
Publication date | 1907 |
| Publication place | Ireland |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 48 |
| ISBN | 0-224-00606-1(Jonathan Cape 1971 edition) |
| OCLC | 29065809 |
| Followed by | Dubliners(1914) |
Chamber Musicis a collection of poems byJames Joyce,published byElkin Mathewsin London in May 1907. The collection originally comprised thirty-four love poems, but two further poems were added before publication ( "All day I hear the noise of waters" and "I hear an army charging upon the land" ).
Summary[edit]
Although it is widely reported that the title refers to the sound of urine tinkling in achamber pot,this is a later Joycean embellishment, lending an earthiness to a title first suggested by his brotherStanislausand which Joyce (by the time of publication) had come to dislike: "The reason I dislikeChamber Musicas a title is that it is too complacent ", he admitted toArthur Symonsin 1906. "I should prefer a title which repudiated the book without altogether disparaging it."[1]: 124
Richard Ellmannreports (from a 1949 conversation with Eva Joyce) that the chamberpot connotation has its origin in a visit he made, accompanied byOliver Gogarty,to a young widow named Jenny in May 1904. The three of them drank porter while Joyce read manuscript versions of the poems aloud - and, at one point, Jenny retreated behind a screen to make use of a chamber pot. Gogarty commented, "There's a critic for you!". When Joyce later told this story to Stanislaus, his brother agreed that it was a "favourable omen".[2]: 154
InUlysses,Leopold Bloom reflects, "Chamber music. Could make a pun on that."[3]
In fact, the poetry ofChamber Musicis not in the least bawdy, nor reminiscent of the sound of tinkling urine. Although the poems did not sell well (fewer than half of the original print run of 500 had been sold in the first year), they received some critical acclaim.Ezra Poundadmired the "delicate temperament" of these early poems,[2]: 479 whileYeatsdescribed "I hear an army charging upon the land" as "a technical and emotional masterpiece".[2]: 391 In 1909, Joyce wrote to his wife, "When I wrote [Chamber Music], I was a lonely boy, walking about by myself at night and thinking that one day a girl would love me. "[1]: 161
Musical adaptations[edit]
In a February 1907 letter to his brother Stanislaus, prior to the publication of Chamber Music, Joyce wrote: "...[]It is a young man's book. I felt like that. It is not a book of love-verses at all, I perceive. But some of them are pretty enough to be put to music. I hope someone will do so, someone that knows old English music such as I like. Besides they are not pretentious and have a certain grace."[4]
Today, although the individual poems ofChamber Musicare less frequently anthologised than the laterPomes Penyeach,they continue to have - as Joyce hoped - an accessible lyricism which has led to a wide-ranging number of musical adaptations, including pieces bySamuel Barber,Karol Szymanowski,Luciano Berio,Juliana Hall,Ernest Moeran,Ross Lee Finney,[5]Aleksandar Simić,Ivan Božičević,Israel Citkowitz,Robin Williamson,Dr. Strangely Strange,Syd Barrett,Oswaldo Gonzalez,Martyn Bates ofEyeless in Gaza,andJim O'RourkeandSteve ShelleyofSonic Youth.In France,Nicolas Grenierand Torphy composed an ambient song about the collection.
In 2008,Fire Recordsreleased a two-disc compilation featuring all thirty-six poems set to music by contemporary alternative acts, includingMercury Rev,Gravenhurst,Ed Harcourt,andWilly Mason.
OnBloomsday2017,Node RecordsreleasedGoldenhair,featuring twenty-one of the thirty-sixChamber Musicpoems set to music by Irish composer, arranger, producer, and pianist Brian Byrne, performed byKurt Elling,Glenn Close,Julian Lennon,Judith Hill,Keith Harkin,Andrew Strong,Gavin Friday,Curtis Stigers,Kate McGarry,Sara Gazarek,Kristina Train,Jack Lukeman,Cara Dillon,Declan O'Rourke,Lisa Lambe,Cara O'Sullivan,Balsam Range,and theRTÉ Concert Orchestra.Byrne's music was originally a collection of chamber works composed over six years, which he then arranged forGoldenhairin a range of genres, including adult contemporary, jazz, big band, classical, bluegrass, and spoken word.[6]
Notes[edit]
- ^abEllmann, R. (Ed.), "Selected Letters of James Joyce", Faber, 1975.
- ^abcEllmann, Richard.James Joyce,Oxford University Press, 1959, revised edition 1983.
- ^Joyce, J., "Ulysses", p.364, Bodley Head, 1960
- ^Gilbert, S. (Ed.), "The Letters of James Joyce, Vol I", p.45, Viking, 1957.
- ^"Suite from Chamber Music".Music in the Works of James Joyce.Retrieved22 November2021.
- ^"Golden Globe-Nominated Composer Brian Byrne Announces James Joyce-Inspired Album Featuring Kurt Elling, Glenn Close, Julian Lennon, and Judith Hill".WiseMusicCreative.26 May 2017.Retrieved22 November2021.
External links[edit]
- A collection of Joyce's poetry in ebook formatStandard Ebooks
- Poems andExilesat themodernword
- Complete online version of the text
- Joyce, J.Chamber Music,Elkin Mathews, London, 1907,a digitized copy atInternet Archive.
Chamber Musicpublic domain audiobook atLibriVox