Click to view the track list for CD #1
James Joyce at the Piano in Paris, 1939 James Joyce: Music in the Novels and Poems
CD #1 Songs
Artwork for CD #1 cover
Click to play music clip of track 12

From CD #1:
M'appari
(or, "Martha, Martha, O Return Love!")

Music by Friedrich von Flotow;
translation by Charles Jeffereys;
arranged by Charles W. Glover

Liner Notes

This is the title song from the Flotow opera Martha. In the Sirens episode of Ulysses, Bloom hears the song sung by Simon Dedalus in the Ormond Bar just as Bloom is at the low point of his day, the hour of Molly's assignation with Boylan. Bloom is in the process of writing a letter to Martha Clifford and, as Simon sings the words, each line is compared to an event in Bloom and Molly's history through Bloom's stream of conscious thought. Bloom then notes the coincidence between the song title and the name of his pen pal, Martha Clifford, which effectively means that all of Bloom's love life is somehow tied up with the words and music sung by his curious counterpart in fatherhood, Simon Dedalus. (The words on this recording are the words of Charles Jeffereys' English version, which Simon sings in Ulysses.)
[from CD liner notes, contributed by Prof. Zack Bowen]


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