• First published: Some of the poems were previously published in various periodicals.
• Book publication: London: Elkin Matthews, 1907

by Natascha Mendoza and Martin Mühlheim

Chamber Music was Joyce’s first book publication and, as such, a crucial step in his career as a writer.

How to Get Published?

For years, Joyce had struggled to get his poetry into print. While some of the poems made it into periodicals such as the short-lived Dublin-based magazine Dana or the British weekly The Speaker, other verses submitted by the fledgling author were flatly rejected.

Similarly – and despite the support of Arthur Symons, a highly regarded poet and critic – Joyce failed to convince the publisher Grant Richards to take up the collection Chamber Music (though he did later publish Joyce’s Dubliners). The publisher who did eventually accept Joyce’s first book was Elkin Matthews, and Chamber Music finally appeared in May 1907.

Of Love and Music

Joyce’s collection had originally been titled A Book of Thirty Songs for Lovers. Why exactly the title was changed to Chamber Music remains unknown. We do know, however, that both the title as well as the order of the poems were chosen by Joyce’s brother Stanislaus, to whom James entrusted the final arrangements for the book publication (Witen 86).

In its final form, Chamber Music comprises 36 poems. Most of the poems revolve around the twin themes of love and music – like “Strings in the earth and air,” for example, the poem that opens the collection: “There’s music along the river / For Love wanders there.”

It is fair to say that Chamber Music has not become one of Joyce’s best-known or frequently discussed works. However, Joyce – who was an accomplished amateur tenor – himself described the collection as “pretty enough to be put to music” (letter by Joyce to Stanislaus, March 1, 1907). And indeed, since its publication, Chamber Music has inspired countless musical adaptations.

Moreover, in different ways, music would remain important in all of Joyce’s future works, from the songs in Dubliners to the “Sirens” chapter of Ulysses to the multivocal language of Finnegans Wake.

^{Sources: Joyce, James. Letters of James Joyce Vol. II. Edited by Richard Ellmann, The Viking Press, 1966.｜Witen, Michelle.James Joyce and Absolute Music. Bloomsbury, 2018.}

The opening poem of Chamber Music:

Strings in the earth and air
Make music sweet;
Strings by the river where
The willows meet.

There’s music along the river
For Love wanders there,
Pale flowers on his mantle,
Dark leaves on his hair.

All softly playing,
With head to the music bent,
And fingers straying
Upon an instrument.