Julia Wolfe: Fire in My Mouth

Composer Julia Wolfe builds large structures out of propulsive musical materials that may often take on a sinister tinge. Her works are tremendous crowd-pleasers even as they take up often grim subject matter. Fire in My Mouth, an hour-long oratorio, is perhaps her most epic work yet. For two women's choirs and large orchestra, including a pair of scissors, the work involves a musical depiction of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911, in which 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, died after a fire ... Read More

Composer Julia Wolfe builds large structures out of propulsive musical materials that may often take on a sinister tinge. Her works are tremendous crowd-pleasers even as they take up often grim subject matter. Fire in My Mouth, an hour-long oratorio, is perhaps her most epic work yet. For two women's choirs and large orchestra, including a pair of scissors, the work involves a musical depiction of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911, in which 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, died after a fire broke out, and they found the building's doors locked. The fire itself, gripping indeed, comes in the final fourth movement, and the work is tightly constructed leading up to that terrifying moment. The first three movements mix the hopeful attitudes of the women with the maw of the industrial hell that awaits them. Wolfe's basic pulsing material is inflected in different ways as the music proceeds. The second movement, with a long percussion opening, represents the factory where the... Read Less

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