Friday, October 8, 2021

Finnegans Swing

 

In Brazil we have an expression called comer pelas beiradas, literally "eating around the edges", which has been my approach to Joyce's ouevre. Dubliness, Chamber Music, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (superb), essays, letters, etc, basically everything but Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. Maybe someday I'll build the confidence to read them, maybe not, but until then the mystic around those two works is quite enough to entice me. 

That's the case with this record, a "jazz cantata" composed and conducted by Andre Hodeir, based on Joyce's final and most challenging work. Unfortunately the quality's not that great (ripped by yours truly), and to be perfectly honest the sung part can get a bit tiresome at times. That said, it still can be an interesting listen, a jazzy audiobook excerpt.

3 comments:

  1. thanks for this. I finally read ulysses a year ago... out loud, with a friend. great way to do it. this is a good 2nd option:
    https://www.rte.ie/culture/2020/0610/1146705-listen-ulysses-james-joyce-podcast/

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