Work
Tell me all. Tell me now (2026)
Tell me all. Tell me now is a work composed by Philippe Manoury for woman’s voice and real-time electronics, based on a text by James Joyce — produced in collaboration with computer scientist and sound designer Miller Puckette and dedicated to Nicola Sani.
The piece was world premiered by Juliana Snapper on 2026, July 24th as part of the the Chigiana International Festival & Summer Academy, in Siena (Sant’Agostino’s church), Italy.
As part of a concert titled “Portrait de Philippe Manoury”, Juliana Snapper will also present the French premiere of this work — a performance that is scheduled for 2027, June 12th, at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique, in Paris, France.
A text by James Joyce…
The composer elaborates * :
“ To engage with a text by James Joyce is to embrace the musicality inherent in his work. The hermetic nature often attributed to this author (especially considering his recurrent neologisms) nevertheless gives rise to a resonant language that carries multiple meanings and, above all, reveals a musicality of phonemes that clash, provoke, reverberate, or influence one another. I have therefore chosen two excerpts, taken from the beginning and end of Chapter 8 of Finnegans Wake, in which two washerwomen evoke the vanished figure of Anna Livia Plurabelle. She eventually merges with the Liffey (the river that flows through Dublin before emptying into the Irish Sea) while the two washerwomen transform, one into stone and the other into a tree. The characters, who are also words, thus take on a legendary quality that can evoke ancient myths. ”
… For the voice of Juliana Snapper
“ The piece is written for the voice of American singer Juliana Snapper, for whom I had already composed Illud etiam in 2012.
I’ve known her for a very long time. We’ve collaborated extensively: she’s sung all my electronic works, and when I lived in the United States, we performed in numerous concerts together. Her voice is powerful yet very agile. She’s also an extraordinary narrative artist. She’s recorded several excerpts from this text, paying particular attention to the “Irish” pronunciation I use in Tell me all. Tell me now. Beyond that, she’s also open to all kinds of musical experimentation, and is capable of blending the traditions of classical singing with those of experimental music. ”
* Excerpts translated from an interview published by the online Italian magazine Music Paper (2026-07-20).
