Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2002. Vol. 8. Eger Journal of American Studies.(Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 28)
Studies - Péter Egri: (Per)chance: Joyce and Cage
PÉTER EGRI (PER)CHANCE: JOYCE AND CAGE The encounter of avant-garde literature with avant-garde music is always a momentous event. It proved doubly so when the author was James Joyce and the composer John Cage. The catalyst happened to be the noted mezzo-soprano, Janet Fairbank, who in 1942 requested Cage to set a text by Joyce to music. Cage accepted the commission, adopted and adapted a passage from page 556 of Finnegans Wake , and called it The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs. The title came from a phrase on that page, though it was not included in the excerpt itself. The selected words of the composition are as follows: night by silentsailing night Isobel wildwood's eyes and primarose hair, quietly, all the woods so wild, in mauves of moss and daphnedews, how all so still she lay, neath of the whitethorn, child of tree, like some losthappy leaf, like blowing flower stilled, as fain would she anon, for soon again 'twill be, win me, woo me, wed me, ah weary me! deeply, now evencalm lay sleeping; night, Isobel, sister Isobel, Saintette Isabelle, Madame Isa Veuve La Belle (Joyce 556) Here, as so often elsewhere in Finnegans Wake , Joyce's prose is poetically dense and musically rich. To increase the musical quality of the passage. Cage has rearranged and condensed Joyce's text. Péter Egri was the key-note lecturer at HUSSE 5 Conference in Eger. It was his last presentation. The publication of his lecture is a mark and expression of our Institute of English and American Studies' high respect and gratitude for his participation and contribution to the success of the conference. 69
