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
Dvorák: Slavonic Dances Opp. 46 & 72 cover

Dvorák: Slavonic Dances Opp. 46 & 72

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jiří Bělohlávek
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms cover

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Pierre Boulez
Il Giardino Dei Sospiri cover

Il Giardino Dei Sospiri

Magdalena Kožená
Mendelssohn. Elias cover

Mendelssohn. Elias

Wolfgang Sawallisch, Bavarian State Orchestra, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos cover

Bach: Brandenburg Concertos

Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini
Rising w/the Crossing cover

Rising w/the Crossing

The Crossing, Donald Nally
Time and Space: Songs by Holst and Vaughan Williams cover

Time and Space: Songs by Holst and Vaughan Williams

Jack Liebeck, Mary Bevan, Roderick Williams, William Vann
Romaria: Choral Music from Brazil cover

Romaria: Choral Music from Brazil

Geoffrey Webber, Choir of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Behind the Lines cover

Behind the Lines

Eric Schneider, Anna Prohaska
Couperin L’Alchimiste: Les Années de jeunesse cover

Couperin L’Alchimiste: Les Années de jeunesse

Jean-Luc Ho, Bertrand Cuiller, Les Meslanges
Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites cover

Poulenc: Dialogues des Carmelites

Kent Nagano, Orchestre De L'Opéra National De Lyon