Tony Keegan, percussion; Lidia Chang, flute & Sean Connor, fiddle frequently accompany HCE Players performances

Music

Music was important to Joyce.  He himself was a tenor and sang frequently.  His literature is replete with references to music, excerpts from songs and musical sections.

Most of our performances include music, sometimes traditional Irish music or a tenor accompanied by a pianist.
 
Among the music performed at HCE Players shows have been the following:

• Nuvoletta, words by James Joyce, set to music by Samuel Barber
  
• The Low Back'd Car (Samuel Lover)
  
• Love's Old Sweet Song (J.L. Malloy & G. Clifton Bingham) 
  
• Oft in the Stilly Night  (Sir John Stevenson & Thomas Moore)
  
• Silent, O Moyle (N. Cliford Page & Thomas Moore)
• Finnegan's Wake
• The Rocky Road to Dublin
• Killarney (Michael Balfe)
• The Groves of Blarney
• 'Tis Youth and Folly
• The Meeting of the Waters (Thomas Moore)
• The Last Rose of Summer (Thomas Moore)
• The Rising of the Moon
• The Wexford Carol
• I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls (Michael Balfe)
• Ed io non Tornerò (Ch'ella mi creda), from La Faniciulla del West (The Golden Girl of the West) by Giacomo Pucini - Joyce heard rowers near Trieste singing this and was inspired to write the poem, Watching the Needleboats at San Sabba, (published in his Pomes Pennyeach collection)
• Multiple traditional Irish tunes