''Chamber Music'' is a collection of poems by
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
, published by
Elkin Mathews in 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
Although it is widely reported that the title refers to the sound of urine tinkling in a
chamber pot
A chamber pot is a portable toilet, meant for nocturnal use in the bedroom. It was common in many cultures before the advent of indoor plumbing and flushing toilets.
Names and etymology
"Chamber" is an older term for bedroom. The chamber pot ...
, this is a later Joycean embellishment, lending an earthiness to a title first suggested by his brother
Stanislaus and which Joyce (by the time of publication) had come to dislike: "The reason I dislike ''Chamber Music'' as a title is that it is too complacent", he admitted to
Arthur Symons
Arthur William Symons (28 February 186522 January 1945) was a British poet, critic, translator and magazine editor.
Life
Born in Milford Haven, Wales, to Cornish parents, Symons was educated privately, spending much of his time in France an ...
in 1906. "I should prefer a title which repudiated the book without altogether disparaging it."
[Ellmann, R. (Ed.), "Selected Letters of James Joyce", Faber, 1975.]
Richard Ellmann
Richard David Ellmann, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (March 15, 1918 – May 13, 1987) was an American Literary criticism, literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and W. B. Yeats, William Butler Yeats. ...
reports (from a 1949 conversation with Eva Joyce, the author's sister) that the chamber-pot connotation has its origin in a visit he made, accompanied by
Oliver 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".
[ Ellmann, Richard. '']James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
'', Oxford University Press, 1959, revised edition 1983.
In ''
Ulysses'',
Leopold Bloom
Leopold Paula Bloom is the fictional protagonist and hero of James Joyce's 1922 novel '' Ulysses''. His peregrinations and encounters in Dublin on 16 June 1904 mirror, on a more mundane and intimate scale, those of Ulysses/Odysseus in Homer's ...
reflects, "Chamber music. Could make a pun on that."
In fact, the poetry of ''Chamber Music'' is 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 Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...
admired the "delicate temperament" of these early poems,
while
Yeats described "I hear an army charging upon the land" as "a technical and emotional masterpiece".
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."
Musical adaptations
In a February 1907 letter to his brother Stanislaus, prior to the publication of ''Chamber Music'', Joyce wrote: "...
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."
Today, although the individual poems of ''Chamber Music'' are less frequently anthologised than the later ''
Pomes Penyeach'', they continue to have – as Joyce hoped – an accessible lyricism which has led to a wide-ranging number of musical adaptations, including pieces by
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor (music), conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the mid-20th century. Principally influenced ...
,
Karol Szymanowski
Karol Maciej Szymanowski (; 3 October 188229 March 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist. He was a member of the modernism (music), modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Szymanowski's early w ...
,
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio (24 October 1925 – 27 May 2003) was an Italian composer noted for his experimental music, experimental work (in particular his 1968 composition ''Sinfonia (Berio), Sinfonia'' and his series of virtuosic solo pieces titled ''Seque ...
,
Juliana Hall,
Ernest Moeran,
Ross Lee Finney, Aleksandar Simić,
Ivan Božičević, Israel Citkowitz,
Robin Williamson,
Dr. Strangely Strange,
Syd Barrett
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Until his departure in 1968, he was Pink Floyd's frontman and primary songwriter, ...
Oswaldo Gonzalez Martyn Bates of
Eyeless in Gaza, and
Jim O'Rourke and
Steve Shelley of
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1981. Founding members Kim Gordon (bass, vocals, guitar), Thurston Moore (lead guitar, vocals) and Lee Ranaldo (rhythm guitar, vocals) remained together for the entire history of ...
. In France,
Nicolas Grenier and Torphy composed an ambient song about the collection.
In 2008,
Fire Records
Fire Records was an American independent record label, set up in 1959 by Bobby Robinson. Amongst others, it released records by Lightnin' Hopkins, Elmore James, Buster Brown and Arthur Crudup. At one point it was thought Fire had issued the l ...
released a two-disc compilation featuring all thirty-six poems set to music by contemporary alternative acts, including
Mercury Rev,
Gravenhurst,
Ed Harcourt
Edward Henry Richard Harcourt-Smith (born 14 August 1977) is an English singer-songwriter. To date, he has released ten studio albums, two EPs, and thirteen singles. His debut album, '' Here Be Monsters'', was nominated for the 2001 Mercury Pr ...
, and
Willy Mason.
On
Bloomsday
Bloomsday is a commemoration and celebration of the life of Irish writer James Joyce, observed annually in Dublin and elsewhere on 16 June. The day is named after Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Joyce's 1922 novel ''Ulysses (novel), Ulysses' ...
2017,
Node Records released ''Goldenhair'', featuring twenty-one of the thirty-six ''Chamber Music'' poems set to music by Irish composer, arranger, producer, and pianist Brian Byrne, performed by
Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling (born November 2, 1967) is an American jazz singer and songwriter.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church. He sang in cho ...
,
Glenn Close
Glenda Veronica Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress. In a career spanning over five decades on Glenn Close on screen and stage, screen and stage, she has received List of awards and nominations received by Glenn Close, numerous ac ...
,
Julian Lennon
Julian Charles John Lennon (born John Charles Julian Lennon; 8 April 1963) is an English musician, photographer, author, and philanthropist. He is the son of Beatles member John Lennon and his first wife Cynthia; Julian is named after his pate ...
,
Judith Hill,
Keith Harkin,
Andrew Strong,
Gavin Friday
Gavin Friday (born Fionán Martin Hanvey, 8 October 1959) is an Irish singer and songwriter, composer, actor and painter, best known as a founding member of the post-punk group The Virgin Prunes.
Early life
Fionan Hanvey was born in Dublin an ...
,
Curtis Stigers
Curtis Stigers (born October 18, 1965) is an American jazz singer. He achieved a number of hits in the early 1990s, most notably the international hit " I Wonder Why" (1991), which reached No. 5 in the UK and No. 9 in the US.
Career
S ...
,
Kate McGarry,
Sara Gazarek,
Kristina Train,
Jack Lukeman,
Cara Dillon,
Declan O'Rourke,
Lisa Lambe
Lisa Lambe is an Irish singer, actress, songwriter and folklorist. She was born in Dublin, the youngest in a family of ten children.
Acting career
Lambe graduated with a degree in acting from Trinity College Dublin. She was nominated for a Bes ...
,
Cara O'Sullivan,
Balsam Range, and the
RTÉ Concert Orchestra. Byrne's music was originally a collection of chamber works composed over six years, which he then arranged for ''Goldenhair'' in a range of genres, including adult contemporary, jazz, big band, classical, bluegrass, and spoken word.
Notes
External links
*
Poems and ''Exiles'' at themodernword.comJoyce, J. ''Chamber Music'', Elkin Mathews, London, 1907 a digitized copy at
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
.
*
{{James Joyce
1907 poetry books
Irish poetry collections
Poetry by James Joyce