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| A drawing of Joyce (with eyepatch) by Djuna Barnes from 1922, the year in which Joyce began the 17-year task of writing Finnegans Wake |
“Finnegans Wake has been ill-used by approaches that attempt to ‘decode’ it through what is absent: in ignorance of the sheer joy that the language embodies. There is no iceberg, no skeleton key; Finnegans Wake is not a cipher. It is only itself”, opines composer Alistair White thus giving us an intriguing lead-in to his ambitious thirteen-year project to create a cycle of works based on James Joyce’s epic, modernist novel.
White’s project is intended to lead up to the work’s centenary in 2039 (!) It is worth bearing in mind, however, that Joyce took 17 years to complete Finnegans Wake: he started sketching in 1922 and the work was finally published in book form in 1939. Joyce died twenty months later in Zürich, on 13 January 1941.
As an initial line in the sand, white is presenting the opening concert of the cycle, Finnegans Wake: Here Comes Everybody at the London Irish Centre on Saturday 5 September 2026.
This first instalment — a one-hour reimagining of an operatic overture — is performed by veteran avant-gardists Roger Redgate and Ensemble Éxposé. Ensemble Exposé was formed in 1984 by the composers Richard Barrett, Roger Redgate and Michael Finnissy, and is recognised for championing the most challenging of contemporary music.
Full details from the London Irish Centre’s website.
