Roaratorio: An Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake (1979)
(Chapel of the Holy Innocents)




Presenters
Bob Bielecki, installation, and Peter Laki, commentary

Abstract
An extended meditation upon James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, John Cage’s Roaratorio is heard this weekend in an original installation conceived by Bob Bielecki for Bard College’s Chapel of the Holy Innocents. Roaratorio emerges out of a series of chance operations and symbolic decisions, incorporating traditional Irish instruments, mesostic writings read by Cage himself, and site-specific recordings culled from the 2,462 places mentioned in Joyce’s book. Peter Laki, who attended the 1981 Paris premiere, will speak at the close.