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
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fair Child of Beauty cover

Ralph Vaughan Williams: Fair Child of Beauty

Britten Sinfonia, John Hopkins, Alan Tongue, Joyful Company of Singers, Philip Smith
Jonathan Dove: In Damascus cover

Jonathan Dove: In Damascus

Charles Owen, Sacconi Quartet, Mark Padmore
Pious Anthems & Voluntaries cover

Pious Anthems & Voluntaries

St. John's College Choir, Cambridge, Andrew Nethsingha
Te Deum: Charpentier & Lully cover

Te Deum: Charpentier & Lully

Vincent Dumestre, Le Poème Harmonique, Capella Cracoviensis
Lassus: Chansons cover

Lassus: Chansons

Dominique Visse, Ensemble Clément Janequin
Shadows cover

Shadows

Ensemble Pamplemousse
Pärt: And I Heard a Voice… cover

Pärt: And I Heard a Voice…

Jaan-Eik Tulve, Vox Clamantis
William Mundy: Sacred Choral Music cover

William Mundy: Sacred Choral Music

Choir of St. Mary's Cathedral, Duncan Ferguson
To You Through cover

To You Through

India Gailey
Ramon Llull: Temps de conquestes, de diàleg i desconhort cover

Ramon Llull: Temps de conquestes, de diàleg i desconhort

Jordi Savall, La Capella Reial de Catalunya, Hespèrion XXI