
‘He heard the world more than he saw it’: Dr Gerry Smyth launches James Joyce’s Chamber Music Resource
In 2011 Dr Gerry Smyth of LJMU English set to music the thirty-six lyrics that comprise Chamber Music, published by the Irish author James Joyce in 1907. Although Joyce is one of the most studied authors of the modern era, his poetry remains relatively unknown.
The following year, Gerry recorded this material for a CD entitled James Joyce’s Chamber Music: New ‘Folkish’ Settings of the Thirty-Six Lyrics, and since then he has performed material from the album on numerous occasions, including events in Belgium, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
During the same period, Dr Smyth commenced work on a web-based learning resource, hosted by LJMU, which features a wide range of textual and video materials relating to Joyce’s original collection, and to the new musical version. This is an on-going project which will in time be fully integrated into LJMU English's teaching and research profile, and you can access it here, and via the 'Links and Resources' section of our site.
The website was launched at an event in...