Anthracite Fields (2014) 65'

program note

I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania – Montgomeryville. When we first moved there the road was dirt and the woods surrounding the house offered an endless playground of natural forts and ice skating trails. At the end of the long country road you’d reach the highway — route 309. A right turn (which was the way we almost always turned) led to the city, Philadelphia. A left turn on route 309 (which we hardly ever took) led to coal country, the anthracite region. I remember hearing the names of the towns, and though my grandmother grew up in Scranton, everything in that direction, north of my small town, seemed like the wild west.

When the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia commissioned me to write a new work for choir and the Bang on a Can All-Stars, I looked to the anthracite region. Anthracite is the diamond of coal — the purest form. At the turn of the century the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania became the power source for everything from railroads to industry to heating homes. But the life of the miner was difficult and dangerous. I had been immersed in issues of the American worker — composing Steel Hammer, an evening length work on the legend of John Henry. For Anthracite Fields I went deeper into American labor history — looking at both local and national issues that arose from coal mining. I went down into the coal mines, visited patch towns and the local museums where the life of the miners has been carefully depicted and commemorated. I interviewed retired miners and children of miners who grew up in the patch. The text is culled from oral histories and interviews, local rhymes, a coal advertisement, geological descriptions, a mining accident index, contemporary daily everyday activities that make use of coal

power, and an impassioned political speech by John L. Lewis, the head of the United Mine Workers Union.

My aim with Anthracite Fields is to honor the people who persevered and endured in the Pennsylvania Anthracite coal region during a time when the industry fueled the nation, and to reveal a bit about who we are as American workers.

In the first movement, FOUNDATION, the singers chant the names of miners that appeared on a Pennsylvania Mining Accident index 1869-1916. The list is sadly long. I chose only the Johns with one-syllable last names in alphabetical order. The movement ends with a setting of the very colorful multi-syllabic names. The miners were largely from immigrant families and the diversity of ethnicity is heard in the names. At the center of Foundation is text from geological descriptions of coal formation.

BREAKER BOYS follows next. There were many boys working in the Pennsylvania coal mines. The younger ones worked in the breakers, which were large ominous structures. The coal would come running down the chutes of the breakers, and the boys had the painful job of removing debris from the rush of coal. They weren’t allowed to wear gloves, and as a result their fingers were cut and bleeding. The central rhyme of this movement, Mickey Pick-Slate, is from the anthracite region. Others were adapted from children’s street rhymes. In the center of this movement are the words of Anthony (Shorty) Slick who worked as a breaker boy. The interview is taken from the documentary film, America and Lewis Hine directed by Nina Rosenblum. Hine worked for the National Child Labor Committee, and served as chief photographer for the WPA.

SPEECH is the third movement. The text is adapted from an excerpt of a speech by John L. Lewis who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America. Lewis was an impassioned spokesperson for the miners and fought hard-won battles for safer working conditions and for compensation.

The fourth movement FLOWERS was inspired by an interview with Barbara Powell, daughter and granddaughter of miners. She grew up in a Pennsylvania patch town and had many stories to tell about her family life. She never felt poor. She had an amazing sense of community. Barbara talked about how everyone helped each other. In one interview Barbara said, in order to brighten their lives, “We all had gardens”, and then she began to list the names of flowers.

The last movement APPLIANCES ties the new to the old. I was struck by John L. Lewis’ line “those of us who benefit from that service because we live in comfort.” Our days are filled with activities that require power. Even today coal is fueling the nation, powering electricity. When we bake a cake or grind coffee beans we use coal. The closing words of Anthracite Fields are taken from an advertising campaign for the coal-powered railroad. In 1900 Ernest Elmo Calkins created a fictitious character, a New York socialite named Phoebe Snow, who rode the rails to Buffalo It used to be a dirty business to ride a train But with the diamond of coal her “gown stayed white from morn till night, on the road to Anthracite” — a stunning contrast to the coal darkened faces underground.

— Julia Wolfe

Libretto

FOUNDATION

(all last names preceded by John)

John Ace, John Art, John Ash,… Ayers, Bab, Backs, Baer, Bail, Bains, Ball, Ban, Banks, Barnes, Barr, Bath, Baum, Bax, Bean, Beck, Bee, Bell, Best, Big, Bike, Birch, Bird, Black, Blain, Blair, Blick, Bloom, Blough, Bock, Boggs, Boltz, Bone, Book, Boone, Booth, Boots, Boss, Bork, Boyd, Boz, Brass, Bray, Breem, Brenn, Briggs, Brill, Brink, Britt, Broad, Brooks, Brown, Brush, Buck, Budd, Bull, Bunn, Burke, Burns, Burt, Burt, Bush, Cain, Camp, Carl, Carp, Carr, Case, Char, Chase, Childs, Christ, Clark, Clem, Cline, Cluff, Clune, Coates, Cole, Cone, Conn, Coon, Coots, Cope, Cox, Coyle, Coyne, Crabb, Craig, Crane, Cray, Creech, Cresh, Croll, Crook, Cross, Crow, Cruse, Crush, Cull, Dale, Danks, Dash, Dawe, Day, Deal, Dean, Deck, Derk, Derr, Dice, Dowe, Doyle, Drake, Drew, Duke, Dumm, Dunn, Dykes, Eck, Edge, Emes, Erb, Fair, Faith, Farr, Faust, Feets, Fern, Fife, Fink, Finn, Fitch, Flack, Fleas, Flesh, Flinn, Float, Flute, Folk, Forbes, Ford, Fox, Frank, Freel, French, Frick, Frill, Fritz, Fry, Fuke, Gantz, Gaul, Gell, George, Gish, Glinn, Gluke, Glump, Goff, Gold, Good, Grant, Grass, Gray, Green, Gregg, Grim, Grimes, Grip, Groom, Gross, Grove, Guy, Gwynn, Hall, Hand, Hane, Hawk, Hayes, Head, Heal, Heist, Helm, Hess, Hill, Hines, Hog, Holt, Homes, Hood, Hope, Howe, Hughes, Hunt, James, Jones, Joy, Judge, Lair, Lake, Lamb, Lane, Lang, Lappe, Leach, Lee, Left, Link, Linn, Lloyd, Lock, Long, Lord, Loss, Lott, Lowe, Luke, Lume, Lutz, Lynch, Lynn, Mack, Marks, Mates, Maul, May, Meck, Meese, Mick, Miles, Mill, Moore, Moss, Mott, Nash, Neil, Ney, Nick, Niles, Noke, Noll, Noon, Nutt, Nye, Orr, Ortz, Paff, Pap, Parks, Paul, Peace, Peel, Pierce, Pink, Pitz, Plant, Please, Plow, Pluck, Plum, Point, Pool, Pope, Posh, Pratt, Price, Prone, Prush, Pyle, Pyne, Quinn, Rage, Rand, Rape, Ray, Read, Reap, Reese, Rhodes, Rice, Rich, Ridge, Ring, Ripp, Rist, Roach, Robb, Rock, Roe, Roots, Rose, Ross, Rouse, Rudd

The briny seas rose and fell, wide shallow seas.

Thick steamy swamps covered the earth.

The leaves and branches buried deep. Thick roots and trunks buried deep.

Buried deep inside the earth.

Layer upon layer upon layer buried deep.

Heat. Pressure. Time.

Massimino Santiarelli, Nicholas Scalgo, Edward Scutulis, Alfred Seabury, Jonathan Shoemaker, Josiah Sibley, Emanuel Skidmore, Martin Sladovick, Andrew Smalley, Thomas Snedden, Sylvester Sokoski, Benjamin Spade, Charles St. Clair, Ignatz Stancheski, James Henry Sullivan, Anton Svanevich, Augustus Swanson, Olif Sweedbury, Anthony Sweeney, Lathrie Symmons, Julius Tamanini, Lino Tarillia, Premo Tonetti, Bladis Tonatis, Rofello Tironzelli, Anthony Tonery, Christian Ulrich, Theodore Valentine, Isaac VanBlaragan, Constantine Vickerell, Edwin Wagstaff, August Yeager, Henry Youngcourt, Martian Yunman, Victor Zaimerovich, Ezekiel Zamoconie,

Ezekiel, Ezekiel, Ezekiel, Ezekiel.

The names above appear on the list of the Pennsylvania Mining Accidents index 1869-1916 (from the Denver Public Library Digital Collections) with the exception of Massimino Santiarelli who appeared in Growing Up in Coal Country by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. The geographic description was adapted from information in the book Big Coal by Jeff Goodell.

BREAKER BOYS

Mickey Pick-Slate

early and late

Mickey, Mickey

that was the poor little breaker boys fate.

mickety pickety rickety tickety lickety splickety

kickety, kickety, kick, kick, kick, kick

Mickey, Mickey, Mickey, Mickey

eight years, nine years, ten years, twelve years,

six years, seven years, thirteen, fifteen, fourteen,

eleven, seventeen, eighteen, sixteen

Mickey, Mickey, Mickey, Mickey

mickety pickety rickety tickety lickety splickety

“Oh what a place, you sat on a hard seat.

You didn’t dare cushion it, no matter.

You had to sit on that plain plank, no matter,

with your feet in the shoot, on a plain plank

bent over like this.

Well I’ll tell you it was very scary.

Believe me, believe me.

“I don’t know how in the world I got the nerve to go there in the first place.

You didn’t dare say anything.

You didn’t dare quit,

because it was something to have a job at 8 cents an hour.

You didn’t wear gloves.

You didn’t dare.

You weren’t allowed to wear gloves.

“Your fingernails, you had none.

The ends of them would be bleeding ever day from work,

bleeding ever day.”*

Mickey Pick-Slate

early and late

that was the poor little breaker boys fate.

A poor simple woman at the breaker still waits

to bring home her poor little Mickey Pick-Slate.

inor minor mona mai

pascor lahra bonor bai

eggs butter cheese bread

stick stock stone dead

Stick ‘em up and stick ‘em down.

Stick ‘em in the old man’s crown.

Snail, snail come outa your hole

or else I’ll beat you black as coal,

black as coal, black as coal

stone dead stone dead

Once a man and twice a boy,

oh you are my pride and joy.

Twice a boy and once a man,

catch me catch me if you can.

catch me, catch me

mickety pickety rickety tickety lickety splickety

slate picker, mule kicker, air thicker,

make you sicker,

sicker, sicker, sicker, sicker, sicker, sicker, sicker, sicker

mickety pickety rickety tickety lickety splickety

Ten little angels dressed in white

tryin’ to get to heaven on the tail of a kite,

but the kite string broke and down they fell.

Instead of going to heaven they went to…

heaven, heaven, heaven, heaven

nine little angels, eight little angels

heaven, heaven, heaven, heaven

seven little angels, six little angels

I am king of the castle. I am king.

I am king of the castle,

king of the castle, I am king.

I am king of the castle you are a dirty rascal.

* everything in quotes excerpted and adapted from an interview with Anthony (Shorty) Slick (breaker boy) from the film America and Lewis Hine directed and produced by Nina Rosenblum, Daedalus Productions, Inc. Other text based on children’s street rhymes.

SPEECH

If we must grind up human flesh and bones

in the industrial machine that we call modern America,

then before God I assert

that those who consume the coal

and you and I who benefit from that service because we live in comfort,

we owe protection to those men and we owe the security to their families

if they die.

I say it, I voice it, I proclaim it

and I care not who in heaven or hell opposes it.

That is what I believe.

That is what I believe, I believe, I believe.

And the miners believe that.*

*excerpt from a speech by John L. Lewis (head of the United Mine Workers) to the House Labor subcommittee

FLOWERS

We all had flowers. We all had gardens.

Flowers, flowers, flowers, flowers.

Roses and lilies and violets and asters and

lilacs and tulips and dahlias and poppies and

pansies and bluebells and foxglove and

heather and larkspur and dogwood and zinnias and

lavender, irises, daffodils, peonies, crocuses, sunflowers,

hyacinth, hollyhocks, touch-me-not, baby’s breath,

azaleas, petunias, nasturtium, narcissus,

marigolds, snap dragons, sweet williams, bleeding hearts, magnolias,

chrysanthemums, wisteria, rhododendrons, geraniums, forsythia,

forget-me-not, gladiolas, portulacas, mountain laurel,

forget-me-not, forget-me-not, forget me, forget me, forget,

forget me not.

Inspired by an interview with Barbara Powell – daughter and gradndaughter of coal miners, who grew up in a patch town in the Anthracite region.

APPLIANCES

Bake a cake. Drill a hole. Go to the gym. Heat your house.

Blend a drink. Blast your guitar. Dry your clothes. Turn on the light.

Ring me up. Toast a slice. Blow out your hair. Lock the safe.

Grind the beans. Shave your face. Run the dishwasher. Order a book.

Charge it to my card. Purify the air. Listen to your favorite song.

Call your girlfriend on the phone.

Juice an orange. Set your clock. Make some popcorn. Test your blood.

Watch a movie. Wash your clothes. Ride the subway. Boil some water.

Push the buzzer. Get directions. Replace a knee. Vacuum the rug.

Take a hot steaming shower. Send a message.

Grind, shave, run, blow, heat, drill, blast, turn, ring, blend, lock, dry

Bake, bake, bake, bake, bake a cake, bake a cake.

Phoebe Snow about to go

on a trip to Buffalo

Phoebe Phoebe

“My gown stays white from morn till night. My gown stays white.

On the road to Anthracite.”*

*Phoebe Snow was a fictitious New York socialite created by Ernest Elmo Calkins (D.L.&W.) in 1900 for an advertising campaign for the Lakawana coal-powered railroad. Her image was accompanied by short rhymes like the one in the last paragraph above.

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