On today's 11th annual St. Patrick's Day Special I serve up music for Samuel Beckett, on James Joyce, and by that great Irishman Dmitri Shostakovich. Join me for a whiskey breakfast this Wednesday from 8-11am Central Time on 101.5 in Winnipeg, http://www.umfm.com/ in the stream. Note the green and orange non-sectarian reconciliation bird.

i. Van Morrison: The Contract-Breaking Sessions (rec. 1967)

Van Morrison - vocals & guitar

Celebrities... at Their Worst Vol. 3.1: Van Morrison: The Contract-Breaking Sessions

Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God, DEC-27

(For the next three hours chance operations will determine the number and placement of unkind cuts from Van Morrison's contractual obligation album. Follow the results live on Twitter @vonwichert.)

Set #1 - 8:00am - 9:00am

1. Morton Feldman: For Samuel Beckett (1987)

Roland Kluttig - conductor, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin

CPO, 999 647-2

43:17

(Chandelier music. "Four layers clearly form the fabric of this music: a doubled woodwind quartet, a muted brass septet, a string quintet also arrayed with mutes, and in between a harp-piano-vibraphone trio." "Sound blocks, sometimes blurred, sometimes clearly contoured, in changing degrees of sharpness and blurredness.")

Set #2 - 9:00am - 10:00am

2. John Cage: Roaratorio: An Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake (1979)

John Cage - speaker, Joe Heaney - singer, Seamus Ennis - uillean pipes, Paddy Glackin - fiddle, Matt Malloy - flute, Peadher Mercier - bodhran, Mell Mercier - bodhran

Mode Records, 28/29

60:09

(Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerrronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk! A soundscape of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake. More details here.)

Set #3 - 10:00am - 11:00am

3. V/Vm [Leyland James Kirby]: Dimitri Shostakovich: The Missing Symphony (2003)

V/Vm Test Records, VVMTCD10

47:21

(Here's one of those "Why didn't I think of it first?" moments. "All fifteen Dimitri Shostakovich symphonies were downloaded digitally into a lap-top computer. The mean average in seconds of every symphony was worked out as being 2842 seconds. Each symphony dependant on length was either stretched* or compressed to that length and then layered on top of each other to create a unique classical piece." 2842 seconds are 47 minutes, 22 seconds, divided into four equal movements of 710.5 seconds (11 minutes, 51 seconds) each. Conclusion: the din of an infernal factory forging manacles for the 20th century.)

Where to buy CDs featured on today's show:

Morton Feldman - CD Universe

John Cage - CD Universe

V/Vm - History Always Favours the Winners