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
Schubert: Erlkönig cover

Schubert: Erlkönig

Andreas Haefliger, Matthias Goerne
The Call of Rome cover

The Call of Rome

The Sixteen, Harry Christophers
Jonathan Dove: In Damascus cover

Jonathan Dove: In Damascus

Charles Owen, Sacconi Quartet, Mark Padmore
Bach: Mass in B minor cover

Bach: Mass in B minor

Trinity College Choir, Cambridge, Stephen Layton
Passion cover

Passion

Philippe Jaroussky
Brahms, Bruckner: Motets cover

Brahms, Bruckner: Motets

Tenebrae, Nigel Short
Bob Chilcott: St. John Passion cover

Bob Chilcott: St. John Passion

Matthew Owens, Wells Cathedral Choir
Debussy – Rameau cover

Debussy – Rameau

Víkingur Ólafsson
Aleotti: Le Monache di San Vito cover

Aleotti: Le Monache di San Vito

Candace Smith, Cappella Artemisia
Portrait cover

Portrait

Suzie LeBlanc
Bent Sørensen: St Matthew Passion cover

Bent Sørensen: St Matthew Passion

Grete Pedersen, Ensemble Allegria, The Norwegian Soloists' Choir