Julia Wolfe: Fire in My Mouth cover

Julia Wolfe: Fire in My Mouth

Composer
Released

A vivid choral rendering of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, in which 146 immigrant women died in a New York sweatshop accident.  Eschewing linear narrative, composer Julia Wolfe depicts this pivot point in American labor history primarily through the accumulation of fragmentary and repeated vocal lines. Where her Minimalist forbears used this kind of repetition for conceptual explorations in perception, consciousness, and spirituality, Wolfe instead uses it to build kinetic energy and dramatic tension.  The techniques bring the listener to the scene of the crime, nowhere more searingly than in the third movement, “Protest.”

Sean Wood

Recommended by

Suggestions
Schumann: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3 cover

Schumann: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3

John Eliot Gardiner, London Symphony Orchestra
Philip Glass: The Fall of the House of Usher cover

Philip Glass: The Fall of the House of Usher

Wolf Trap Opera Company, Joseph Li, Inscape
Il Giardino Dei Sospiri cover

Il Giardino Dei Sospiri

Magdalena Kožená
Bach: Celebratory Cantatas cover

Bach: Celebratory Cantatas

Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
Speak, Be Silent cover

Speak, Be Silent

Riot Ensemble
Arvo Pärt: Lente cover

Arvo Pärt: Lente

Concerto Copenhagen, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tõnu Kaljuste
Bach: Violin Concertos cover

Bach: Violin Concertos

English Baroque Soloists, John Eliot Gardiner, Kati Debretzeni
Your Tuneful Voice: Handel Oratorio Arias cover

Your Tuneful Voice: Handel Oratorio Arias

Carolyn Sampson, Iestyn Davies, Robert King, The King's Consort
Beethoven: Missa Solemnis, Op. 123 cover

Beethoven: Missa Solemnis, Op. 123

Masaaki Suzuki, Bach Collegium Japan
Steve Reich: Drumming cover

Steve Reich: Drumming

Colin Currie Group, Synergy Vocals