The Beginning, Mariana Lanari and Sjoerd Leijten

Finnegans Wake is a circular text. Page 628 ends with the line “A way a lone a last a loved a long the” and book opens with “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs.” For our project setting Finnegans Wake to music unabridged, Mariana Lanari and Sjoerd Leijten took on both the final and the first chapters of the book, making a seamless transition from end back to beginning. Since the first chapter of Finnegans Wake is said to foreshadow the entire book — introducing all the major themes to come, as in symphonic exposition — Lanari and Leijten replicate this form brilliantly, by sampling from the other musical performances in Waywords and Meansigns.

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