Skip to main content

Roaratorio: an Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake takes us on a journey through the dreams and visions of James Joyce’s famous experimental novel. John Cage created a poetic, fragmented extract of the work. The composition is a mix of pre-recorded sound and live music. From a 16 channel surround sound set-up we hear Cage narrating his text and Irish singer Joe Heaney, mixed with a collage of sounds derived from Finnegans Wake. On stage, Irish music is played by four Irish musicians. A special feature of this particular concert at the Holland Festival is that two of the four musicians and the sound engineer were engaged at the world premiere. The other musicians have performed this work with Cage on later occasions.

  • © Ada Nieuwendijk

  • © Ada Nieuwendijk

credits

based on the work of James Joyce speaker (tape) John Cage violin Paddy Glackin voice (tape) Joe Heaney bodhrán Mel Mercier flute Seamus Tansey uilleann pipes Liam O’Flynn production advice Peter Behrendsen sound direction John David Fullemann collaboration ACHT BRÜCKEN | Musik für Köln