Boston is often dubbed a “literary city”, owing to its rich history. This moniker finds home in the city’s residents: bursting with endless creativity. A collective of artists, calling themselves Waywords & Meansigns, have decided to set James Joyce’s novel “Finnegans Wake” to music. A goliath project (or “proj”, as director Derek Pyle calls it), it’s set to be released on the author’s birthday, February 2nd.
The novel’s words find themselves in their entirety–unabridged–throughout the project. Coming in at over 600 pages, it lends itself to verbosity: 17 unique artists have each adopted a chapter and given it their own touch. The artists range from Minutemen’s Mike Watt, David Kahne, Maharadja Sweets, and so many more. The contributors come from all corners of the globe, with the project based in Canada.
The entire project is DIY–no money involved, and released and distributed for free via Creative Commons licensing. It clocks in at 40 hours, and the artists involved range from authors, to painters, to actors, and of course, musicians.
While each artist has their own reason for getting involved with the project, musician Maharadja Sweets in particular opted in because of what the novel means to him.
“James Joyce’s writing represented an insurmountable mountain for much of my life, ever since I struggled with Portrait and Dubliners in high school and couldn’t get much further than ‘moocow’,” the New York lo-fi artist said.
After tackling “Ulysses”, he decided to pursue other Joyce writings, taking him through “Finnegan’s Wake”. That’s when he found himself interested in Waywords & Meansigns, as a way to guide him through the book as he read it.
“Some recording projects have taken me years, decades even, with lots of frustration and failure. For whatever reason, working on this project was the most enjoyable recording experience I’ve ever had. I found myself on a journey through Joyce’s words–inhabiting the different characters and spaces he created.”
Maharadja Sweets said his goal for his contribution was to “create music that opens up the book to the listener,” and make it accessible for even those who aren’t familiar with Joyce’s writing.
Though the whole project isn’t set to be released for a couple more weeks, you can check out an excerpt Maharadja Sweets’s passage here today. If you want to learn more about the project, director of Waywords and Meansigns Derek Pyle will be speaking at Boston College on February 10th, in addition to a live performance of the project. Check out the event here.
Chapter I.6, Maharadja Sweets
Waywords and Meansigns: Recreating Finnegans Wake will premiere Feb 2. 2016. All audio freely distributed via waywordsandmeansigns.com.