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Dead” from his short story collection titled Dubliners, his the collection is a substantial project that showcases a
characters enter a deep discussion on the health of the diverse range of musical styles, including jazz, classical,
opera scene in Dublin. and folk.
Scholars find evidence that Joyce could very well
have investigated musical sources at the National Li- Scheibe: What drew you to this particular book of po-
brary of Ireland. I find it useful to peek into Ulysses, etry?
where he specifically mentions John Dowland, William
Byrd, Thomas Tompkins, and John Bull. What’s inter- Earley: Looking at the poems of Chamber Music, I drew
esting in relation to Joyce’s knowledge of these English immense inspiration from the fact that Joyce refers to
Renaissance composers is that some of their music (and “choirs” and “singing” quite often. There are particu-
Elizabethan lyrics for songs) were available at the Na- lar references to choirs, for example “the soft choiring
tional Library of Ireland. It is thought that he probably of delight” from poem XXVI, or “the wise choirs of
read the poetry of some of Dowland’s lute songs there. fairy” from XV, and “for many a choir is singing now”
Instrumental music was also available: an edition of from XVI. It seems that Joyce had some conception
the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book was found there, hence such of voices together making harmony, and I thought to
references in Ulysses. This connection to old music— myself, as far as I know, there has not been a choral
and specifically older English music—is confirmed in project of this magnitude attempting to set all of these
a letter Joyce wrote to Irish composer Geoffrey Moly- Joyce poems in one project. And so the journey began.
neaux Palmer: “The book is in fact a suite of songs and
if I were a musician, I suppose I should have set them
to music myself.” 4
The Composers

Scheibe: Are there any other composers and projects
you have found that answered Joyce’s invitation to set Scheibe: In Volume 1 of the recording, I noticed that
movements from Chamber Music? the poems are not in the order they appear in Joyce’s
1907 published collection by Elkin Mathews. It’s clear
Earley: There are multiple projects where compos- to me that you had a thought process in the way you
ers set selections from the collection. I believe Geoffrey laid that album out—that the poems would not be pre-
Molyneux Palmer was the composer closest to setting sented numerically 1, 2, 3, etc., but rather there was a
the collection: he produced thirty-two of thirty-six in sonic aspect to the order of the program, much in the
composition. Joyce himself held Palmer’s settings in way that a conductor would program a concert. Can
high regard. In a 1934 letter to his brother, Joyce wrote: you tell us about that?
“Thirty or forty composers at least have set my little
poems to music. The best is Molyneux Palmer. After Earley: Well, here is my confession: the project evolved
him are Moeran and Bliss.” 5 organically and not in numerical order of the poems
included in the 1907 edition. The works included in
Scheibe: Luciano Berio also set music to some of Volume 1 are settings of poems that were chosen by
these poems. Are there other settings of Chamber Music each of the eighteen composers involved rather than
we might wish to mention? assigned. When it came to choosing an order of tracks
for the album, the works have been organized to take
Earley: Irish composer Brian Byrne’s project with the listener on a stylistically contrasting sonic journey. I
the RTÉ Concert Orchestra (Raidió Teilifís Éireann: hope Joyce would be pleased.
Ireland’s National Television and Radio Broadcaster) As we embark on Volume II, we have now recorded
Goldenhair, where he brings an orchestral sound and the eight poems, including those set by Kristina Arakelyan
solo voice of Kurt Elling to twenty-one settings from (UK), Oliver Davis (UK), David Downes (IRL), Paul

CHORAL JOURNAL May 2026 Volume 66 Number 8 9