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Chamber Music by James Joyce: A Choral Commissioning Project

sense of melancholy. The instrumental accompani- The Recording Sessions
ment momentarily recedes into an organ-like timbre,
reinforcing the reflective quality. David then strategi-
cally foregrounds the cello and violin once more, inten- Scheibe: How do you plan the recording sessions?
sifying the piece’s emotional depth before the choir’s
dramatic proclamation—“for many a choir is singing Earley: We typically schedule five three-hour sessions
now”—pierces the introspection. His music thought- each recording patch, starting on an evening, which al-
fully mirrors the poem’s tension between memory and lows for sound balance, fixing the mics, etc. This is usu-
loss, deliberately resisting resolution. (Listen to a sam- ally followed by two full days of recording. You know,
ple of this track by scanning the QR code on page 8.) the tradition—or the way we do it anyway, certainly in
Ireland and in the UK—is a three-hour session with
Scheibe: I note as well that you were inspired to set a twenty-minute break included in the middle of the
one of the poems yourself. Can you tell us about Poem session. This is then followed by lunch, then another
XXIV “Silently, she’s combing, combing her long three-hour session with a break in the middle. There
hair?”

Earley: This poem evoked an image of the Rapunzel
story for me, with an imagined mirror (in my mind’s
eye), suggesting a duet structure about the choir: one
soprano line the person, the other the reflection.

Silently she’s combing,
Coming her long hair,
Silently and graciously,
With many a pretty air.

I wanted to create a sonic mirror that suggests two
selves: a literal reflection and a metaphorical introspec-
tion. Hopefully the vocal interplay mirrors this duali-
ty, enhancing the reflective atmosphere. Joyce’s poetic
reference to “witchery” later in the poem gave me the
idea to include a harpsichord. In this context the sound
of the harpsichord—other than the fact that it is my
primary instrument—evokes a magical ambiance.
Another reason I included the harpsichord is be-
cause an engraving of one appears on the half-title
page of the Elkin Mathews first edition (Photo 1). Be-
cause I used the entire Solstice Ensemble (plus harpsi-
chord), I could introduce a tonal shift during an instru-
mental interlude, which features a lyrical French horn
solo, momentarily shifting the piece’s emotional center
to add harmonic contrast and depth.

Photo 1. Title page of the original Chamber Music collection.

16 CHORAL JOURNAL May 2026 Volume 66 Number 8