Waywords and Meansigns has released two editions of audio, each offering an unabridged musical adaptation of Joyce's book.
[2] The Waywords and Meansigns project began in 2014 with a goal of setting James Joyce's Finnegans Wake to music unabridged.
The second edition, which premiered in 2016, also offered an unabridged version of the book, performed by a different set of artists and musicians.
[8] Contributors to Waywords and Meansigns are a self-described collection of "musicians, artists, poets, scholars, weirdos, passionate Wake-heads, those totally ignorant of the Wake, and anyone generally adventurous.
216–59 - Street Kids Named Desire; with Derek Pyle, Parker McQueeney, Zach Leavitt & Samuel Nordli II.2 - The Studies, pp.
474–554 - Peter Quadrino, Jake Reading & Evan James III.4 - Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker and Anna Livia Plurabelle: Their Bed of Trial, pp.
169–216 - Mike Watt & Adam Harvey (reportedly delayed; forthcoming in 2016) I.8 - The Washers at the Ford (aka ALP), pp.
474–554 - Hinson Calabrese (formerly of Tom Fun Orchestra) III.4 - Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker and Anna Livia Plurabelle: Their Bed of Trial, pp.
[15] Contributors include: Krzysztof Bartnicki; Martyn Bates; Gregory Betts; John Wolf Brennan; Neil Campbell; Tim Carbone of Railroad Earth and Lou Rogai of Lewis & Clarke as Cedar Sparks; Joe Cassidy of Butterfly Child; Hayden Chisholm; Conspirators of Pleasure (Poulomi Desai and Simon Underwood); Steve Gregoropoulos of Lavender Diamond; S.A. Griffin; David Hurn and Abigail Hopkins; 90s duo Insides; Kinski; Ulrich Krieger of Metal Machine Trio; Little Sparta (Band) with Sally Timms and Martin Billheimer; Seán Mac Erlaine; Jason Merritt (Whip), Kenneth Griffin (Favourite Sons, Rollerskate Skinny), Jason Sebastian Russo, and Paul Dillon (Mercury Rev); Phil Minton; David Moss and Boris Hegenbart; Papa Sprain; Chris Rael; Schneider TM; Gerry Smyth; Thrum’s Monica Queen and Johnny Smillie as Tenement and Temple; Owen Tromans; Jon Wahl of Claw Hammer; Mike Watt and Adam Harvey; and many more.
[17][18] Writing for The Guardian, Billy Mills described Waywords and Meansigns as one of many Internet-based projects helping to make Joyce's famously obscure novel more approachable.
[20] While reviewing Neil Campbell's contribution in The Wire, Dan Barrow spoke positively of the overall project: "As a putative adaptation of the Wake, does the approach of Waywords and Meansigns work?
"[24] Open Culture wrote of the second edition: "these artists try to transcend ordinary ways of reading great literature, and clearly have lots fun in the doing".
[25] Aodhán Kelly and Tom De Keyser reviewed the first edition of Waywords and Meansigns for the James Joyce Quarterly.
[28] Paste's Jay Horton wrote of the third edition: "It’s soon enough made clear that there are as many varieties of musical renderings as there are interpretations of its prose, which sparks the likely-unavoidable problem concerning the songs and the book they’re taken from and the ideas it (barely) contains – there’s just too damn many.
"[29] In her PopMatters review, Maria Schurr wrote of the third edition: "the well of inspiration springing from Joyce's words is thrillingly infinite.