Friday, October 15, 2010

Joycean scholorship

Joyce considered his poems music and encouraged the setting of them to music. One of the first to do so was G. Molyneaux Palmer in 1907.
Joyce told Palmer "I hope you set all of Chamber Music"
I don't know if they have all been set.
The ones I set were;
Lean out of the window, Goldenhair,
In the dark pine-wood,
Dear heart, why will you use me so?,
Ecce Puer.
Ecce Puer wasn't part of Chamber Music or Pomes Pennyeach. It was written much later on the occasion of his grandson's birth and his father's death.
Chamber Music was a portrait of a love affair that ended.
The four poems I set were an encapsulation of that affair.
Plus Ecce Puer.
I think often of setting the whole pile (50 altogether), but I always get stuck reading "I hear an army Marching on the land"  because that first line reads so well to the tune of Lili Marlene.

8 Comments:

Anonymous James Joyce said...

Alone

The noon's greygolden meshes make
All night a veil,
The shorelamps in the sleeping lake
Laburnum tendrils trail.

The sly reeds whisper to the night
A name-- her name-
And all my soul is a delight,
A swoon of shame.

James Joyce

9:41 AM  
Blogger Glenn Buttkus said...

Thanks for alerting me to the
important fact that James Joyce
also wrote poetry. That information
was somehow missing in my
meager education. It is so cool
that we all are still teaching and
learning from each other.
I posted Ecce Puer on FFTR
and folks can peruse it.

9:57 AM  
Blogger Jannie Funster said...

Ahhh, I see how this connects to Glenn's recent post.

Never read any Joyce, I like the modern poets best.

xo

1:34 PM  
Blogger Glenn Buttkus said...

Just about the instant that I
assume, making an ass out
u & me, that I have you figured
out, pigeon-holed, categorized,
labeled, partially understood,
you come out left field with
some new idea, some new
data, some new perspective.
Either you really are as smart
as I assumed your were when
you looked into Mensa affiliation,
and we were both still too young
to have wisdom, or I am the
dullard that is still wandering
about, eyes open, mouth slightly
agape, in awe of all he senses and'
visualizes and hears, a poet who
processes his world while in it,
and you are still the good friend
who gently steers the ship of my
mind when it needs to avoid the
shoals and reefs of ignorance.

10:11 AM  
Blogger Glenn Buttkus said...

The word verification for the
last post was "twipe"--now
that is a very cool nonsense
word. Maybe it is time to start
recording and keeping track
of some of these lovely word
mosaics, and get back to our
nonsense poetry competition.

10:14 AM  
Blogger Glenn Buttkus said...

Busy, blue, constipated, in absentia?
You always worry me when too
much time moves by between the
drippings from the finest wit
in the Northwest.

Willow has already put out
the Magpie challenge on this,
10/20/10, her birthday, so
you might join in on the
birthday greetings, and add
to the challenge list.

Melva's birthday is tomorrow.
We are packing up for the
weekend at Pac Beach, for
the 7th Annual Miss Melva's
Birthday Bash.

10:57 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hallo, Lane!!
Are your compositions of Joyce's poems sung?? I'd love to hear a CD of them the next time I'm inSeattle!!
Tschüß,
Anonomann

8:06 AM  
Blogger Lane Savant said...

Brian Stratton sang them and Adrienne Varner accompanied on piano at a salon in Soundbridge but my recorder didn't work so there is no CD.
They did a damn good job of it, too.

10:32 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Web Counter
My worth as a human being