In the video for Joanna Newsom’s first new work in five years, “Sapokanikan,” the harpist-pianist-singer-composer-actor strolls through Manhattan in long takes while singing kaleidoscopic lyrics. Around her the city sparkles. As she moves, Newsom stares into the camera and offers a vivid recounting of James Joyce’s “Finnegans Wake.” ... Just kidding about that last part.
Ah, can you only imagine if Joanna Newsom had decided to set Finnegans Wake to harp and glockenspiel?
Of course, there have been actual attempts to capture the music of FW. Is there anything stranger than this video of Anthony Burgess singing "The Ballad of Perse O'Reilly"?
The caption of the video states, "Finding himself happily locked in the pub after closing time, Burgess sings from The Ballad of Persse O'Reilly (from Joyce's Finnegans Wake)." There's something distinctly creepy about this one.
Far more interesting for me is the project of Waywords and Meansigns. From the website's description: "Waywords and Meansigns is an unabridged musical version of James Joyce's famous text, Finnegans Wake. The book has been divided its 17 chapters, with a different musician or performance group assigned to each chapter."
Allowing each artist to interpret a chapter in his or her own way captures the essence of Finnegans Wake. This is the famous Work in Progress, a text so alive that you can encounter the word "googling" in a book written some 60+ years before anyone used Google to search for something. Stranger still, Joyce seems to be using the word correctly.
Above is the first chapter of Book II of FW by way of Waywords and Meansigns, and it gives you a good taste of what the project is all about. I think this is something Joyce himself would've got on board with!
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