“He heard the snow falling faintly through the universe.”

James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’ is the final short story in the early collection, Dubliners. The story is set in the early 1900s at Christmas Eve in a well-off Dublin house where friends have gathered to celebrate the festive season with drinks – just as they probably do every year.

The final paragraph of the story is a beautiful and profound evocation of snow falling as the evening darkens into softly lamplit night. The passage contrasts the intricate and secret emotions of the individual characters with the ineffably simple yet overwhelming background of nature. Snow falls with increasing momentum outside the window and indeed, across the universe.

In my setting I have shortened Joyce’s original text a little to emphasise the idea of ‘falling’ as both an observation of snow and as a metaphor for human experience. As the snow builds and drifts so the outer and the inner worlds also unfold in the music.

Falling was commissioned by Luminescence Chamber Singers with funding support from Geoff Stearn. The first performance was given by Luminescence, conducted by Roland Peelman, at St James’ Church, King Street, Sydney,  on 10 December 2026. The work is scored for six voices and is about 6 minutes duration.

Text

Falling faintly, faintly falling, dark and silver flakes.

A few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window.

It had begun to snow again.

He watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, against the lamplight.

The time had come for him to set out on his journey west.

It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly.

Farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous waves.

It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill.

It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones,

on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns.

His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow

falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling,

like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

 

“The Dead” (final paragraph) from Dubliners (1914) by James Joyce (adapted by Andrew Schultz).

View a sample page of the score here. To peruse and purchase the complete score: australianmusiccentre.com.au.

© www.andrewschultz.net 2026