Program Notes
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Fire in my mouth Julia Wolfe ulia Wolfe did not set her sights on a mu- hold (2008) for eight double basses, Lad Jsical profession until something clicked (2007) for nine bagpipes, and Traveling Mu- while she was an undergraduate at the Uni- sic (2009) for a hundred or more musicians versity of Michigan. Not long after complet- of any type. In 2015 she won both the Pulit- ing her studies there, she met the composers zer Prize for Music for her work Anthracite Michael Gordon and David Lang during a Fields (which was performed by Bang on a visit to New York City — a fateful encounter Can All-Stars as part of the 2014 NY PHIL BI- all around. They encouraged her to apply ENNIAL) and a Herb Alpert Award, given in to the Yale School of Music, which they had collaboration with the California Institute of attended. She did, and earned a master’s the Arts. In 2016 she received a MacArthur degree there, studying composition with Fellowship and in 2019 she has been lauded Martin Bresnick. She married Gordon. And, as Musical America’s composer of the year. in 1987, the three young composers — Wolfe, Anthracite Fields, an hour-long oratorio Gordon, and Lang — created the Bang on a for chorus with chamber ensemble, was a Can Marathon. Bang on a Can would grow powerful, haunting evocation of the hard- into what is today one of the nation’s essen- scrabble, often perilous lives of coal min- tial new-music associations, with the sextet ers in northeastern Pennsylvania during Bang on a Can All-Stars anchoring a variety the 19th and early-20th centuries. Wolfe of musical activities. The three composers’ compiled its libretto from interviews, oral entrepreneurial spirit also led them to found histories, and other historical texts. Her Red Poppy Music, a publishing and printing interest in labor history had previously company for composers, and the recording inspired Steel Hammer (2009), for three label Cantaloupe Music. The Wolfe-Gor- sopranos and chamber ensemble; in the don-Lang troika has sometimes produced collaborative works, including the opera Carbon Copy Building (1999), in which they IN SHORT worked with comic-strip artist Ben Katchor; the staged spectacle Shelter (2005), which Born: December 18, 1958, in Philadelphia, featured the vocalists Trio Mediaeval; and Pennsylvania Road Trip (2017), a celebration of Bang on a Resides: in New York City Can’s 30th anniversary. Work composed: 2018, on commission from Wolfe also gained distinction as a com- the New York Philharmonic, Jaap van Zweden, poser on her own. She was named professor Music Director; Cal Performances at the of music composition at New York Universi- University of California, Berkeley; Krannert ty’s Steinhardt School in 2009, and in 2012 Center for the Performing Arts / University she was granted a doctorate in composition of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign; and the by Princeton University. She has produced University Musical Society of the University of a hefty catalogue of works for orchestra: Michigan; with the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and of Linda chamber pieces for established combina- and Stuart Nelson tions (including four string quartets and two works for string orchestra); groupings of un- World premiere: these performances expected musical forces, including Strong- Estimated duration: ca. 60 minutes JANUARY 2019 | 30A In the Composer’s Words For years I have been walking by the site of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire on Washington Place in downtown New York. The building, originally named the Asch building, later renamed the Brown Building, is around the corner from where I teach at New York University. There are three small plaques on the out- er wall that inform the public of the tragic fire that took the lives of 146 garment workers on March 25, 1911. The Triangle Shirtwaist Facto- ry fire, and the protests that came both before and after, ignited a public outcry for change. The majority of the victims Union workers protest in the wake of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of the Triangle fire were young (Photos courtesy of the Kheel Center at Cornell University) immigrant women, Eastern Euro- pean Jews and Southern Italians, who had fled their homelands to escape persecution and poverty. They arrived to these shores with sewing skills and were eager to work on the large factory floors. They sat at long tables, working long hours, amidst the roar of hundreds of sewing machines. The garment workers had no recourse against intolerable conditions, no worker protections. They began to organize. I became fascinated by the young women who led the fight for reform — Clara Lemlich, Rose Schnei- derman, and others, who persevered against extreme obstacles. After being beaten by hired thugs, and having six ribs broken, Lemlich quickly bounced back into action. Years later, in an interview, when asked about her activism, she declared, “Ah, then I had fire in my mouth.” In Fire in my mouth, I weave fragments of oral history, the clatter of factory sounds, Yiddish and Italian folk songs, words of protest, and stories of loss and grief. With my collaborators, projection artist Jeff Sugg and director Anne Kauffman, I follow the story of these women who rose up to demand a more human existence. This piece is dedicated to their memory. Special thanks to: Jaap van Zweden David Cossin Jacqueline LeClair Tenement Museum Deborah Borda Adam Cuthbert Mike McCurdy Isaac Thompson Linda and Stuart Eric Dudley Donald Nally Ken Thomson Nelson James Egelhofer Francisco Núñez Kate Sheeran Bang on a Can Italian American Museum Elizabeth Núñez Steinlauf & Stoller Kenny Savelson Kheel Center for Chris Otto Matthew VanBesien Michael Gordon Labor-Management Brian Petuch Kevin Vondrak David Lang Documentation and Stephanie Richards Pamela Walsh Amanda Ameer Archives at Cornell Mike Ross Alex Weiser Molly Barth University Elissa Sampson Ed Yim Justin Brown Tammey Kikta Ruth Sergel YIVO Jay Campbell Michael Kondziolka Matías Tarnopolsky — Julia Wolfe 30B | NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC course of about 80 minutes it explored the now part of the campus of New York Uni- conflict of man and machine in the develop- versity. Faced with deplorable deficiencies ing Industrial Age, as exemplified by multiple of safety, including doors that were locked accounts of the legend of John Henry. Such to prevent employees from taking unau- works showcase her eclectic tastes as a com- thorized breaks, 146 workers perished from poser as the sounds of old-time folk music fire, smoke, or jumping out of the windows. rub elbows with the modern impulses of Most of them were young immigrant wom- post-minimalism. en, largely of Jewish or Italian heritage. It Fire in my mouth continues Wolfe’s musi- remains the deadliest industrial catastrophe cal investigations into American labor histo- in New York City’s history. The fire galva- ry with a libretto that draws on oral history nized the city and state governments as well interviews, and on folk and protest songs. as labor advocates and led to essential legis- Her subject in this oratorio — that seems lation that improved the safety of worksites. a fair descriptor — is the Triangle Shirt- Wolfe has said: waist Factory fire. On March 25, 1911, fire consumed the factory, which occupied the Writing music for me is a constant evolu- eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of a building tion. I go through an intense search process that still stands at 23-29 Washington Place, at the beginning of each piece to figure out The Work at a Glance Julia Wolfe has cast Fire in my mouth in four movements. The first, “Immigration,” sets a snippet of oral history of a survivor named Mollie Wexler, who recalls the trepidation and excitement of head- ing for a new life in New York. Wolfe looks deeply into Wexler’s words (see Text, page 30E). “As you take the sen- tences apart,” she says, “it’s fun to look at the meaning of each phrase.” At the beginning of the second movement, “Factory,” strings make a crunching, Geiger-counter kind of sound — “It’s probably the clos- est thing I could find to a sewing Conditions inside a garment factory, ca. 1900 machine, which is what I was looking for,” says the composer — after which two songs enrich the texture, one a Yiddish folk tune about sewing with a needle, the other a lively Italian tarentella. “So you have music that represents the two most representative communities, in the midst of all this factory noise.” The third movement delves into the idea of “Protest,” with Wolfe using the women’s own words about the dreams of becoming American, but also their growing awareness of inequitable work- ing conditions. The work concludes with “Fire,” in which Wolfe offers an overlay of the victims calling out in panic, a reporter phoning in his story, people perishing, and, finally, a recitation of the names of all those who perished in the fire as a haunting reminder of lives and dreams lost. JANUARY 2019 | 30C just what the piece is about. I work up horns, three trumpets, three trombones, a kind of maniacal focus. My music has tuba, timpani, tubular bells, snare drum, been described as “breathless” or “relent- tom toms, bass drum, suspended cym- less.” I always try to tap into an urgency bals, tam-tam, whistle, puili (Polynesian and intensity of expression. slit bamboo stick), vibraphone, crotales, kick bass drum, hi-hat, crash cymbals, siz- Instrumentation: three flutes, three zle cymbal, sleigh bells, two maracas, two oboes, (one doubling English horn), three tambourines, wind machine, orchestra clarinets (one doubling E-flat clarinet and bells, large triangle, harp, piano, electric one doubling bass clarinet), three bas- guitar, electric bass, strings, women’s choir soons (one doubling contrabassoon), four (amplified), and girls’ choir.