Fire in my mouth (2019) 48'

program note

Fire in my mouth is based on the garment industry in New York City at the turn of the century, with a focus on the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and its aftermath. Drawing upon contemporary accounts of immigration, labor, and activism amongst the garment workers of the Lower East Side, Fire in my mouth brings the world and words of the garment workers to the forefront.

The work features 146 vocalists — a number commemorating the total who perished in the fire.

For Wolfe, Fire in my mouth was an opportunity to recast the women not as voiceless victims, but as protagonists whose actions and sacrifices had a profound effect on United States history. Wolfe writes:

I had been thinking about immigrant women in the workforce at the turn of the century. They fled their homelands to escape poverty and persecution. The garment workers arrived to these shores with sewing skills. Many of the women wound up working on these huge factory floors — hundreds of women sitting at sewing machines.Fire in my mouth tells the story of the women who persevered and endured challenging conditions, women who led the fight for reform in the workplace.

The piece also incorporates elements derived from protest chants, courtroom testimonials, Yiddish and Italian folk songs, and an elegiac recitation of all 146 victims’ names.

Upon its premiere, critics notedFire in my mouth for its sensitivity to the subject matter, as well as its emotional impact and inventiveness.David Hajdu of The Nation called Fire in my mouth“a monumental achievement in high musical drama, among the most commandingly imaginative and emotively potent works of any kind that I’ve ever experienced.”Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times noted that Wolfe’s “choice of choral texts, mostly drawn from oral histories and speeches, shows great sensitivity.” In reference to Wolfe’s incorporation of folk song into the sonic factory sound of the orchestra Tommasini writes, “The way these songs are embedded in Ms. Wolfe’s agitated, heaving orchestra, they seem like alternative coping mechanisms for the oppressed.”

Fire in my mouth is the third in a series of compositions about the American worker. Wolfe’s first, 2009’s Steel Hammer, examined the folk-hero John Henry, reveling in the contradictions of over 200 different versions of his life to tell a story that transcends time and space. Her 2015 oratorio Anthracite Fields honored the workers of the Pennsylvania Anthracite coal region at a time when the industry fueled the nation. The piece consists of five movements, each based on a source text describing a way the coal industry affected life in America on a local and national scale.The Los Angeles Times wrotethat the work “captures not only the sadness of hard lives lost…but also of the sweetness and passion of a way of daily life now also lost. The music compels without overstatement. This is a major, profound work.”Anthracite Fields won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2015. A 2016 recording of Anthracite Fields was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

score preview

libretto

Fire in my mouth​
libretto

I. Immigration

adapted from an interview with Mollie Wexler, oral history:

Without passports or anything we took a boat
a big beautiful boat
and off we went
five of us girls.
It took about ten days
we went third class
with the poverty stricken
and off we went
five of us girls.
But it was lively
everyone talking
and looking
to God knows what kind of future it was going to be.

II. Factory

adapted from a Yiddish folk song:

Mit a nodl, on a nodl Ney ikh mir b’kovid godl Zitsn zits ikh mir
A fis oyf a fis
Vayl mayn arbet
iz tsiker zis

With a needle, without a needle I do my sewing with great dignity I sit on my work-table
With my legs crossed under me Because my work
Is sugar sweet

adapted from an Italian Pizzica folk song:

e com’ aggiu fare ca vulia te vasu pigliate ’na paletta e va allu focu
e ca’ pe la mamma dice ca hai ’tardatu dinne ca’ e’ stata ‘na spitta te focu
e spitta te focu, nun e’ stata mai qualche figiu te mamma me l’ha vasata

[Girl:] What can I do to give you a kiss?
[Boy:] Tell your mother that you have to fetch some fire and if she says that you are late
tell her a spark of fire burned you
[Mother:] It never was a spark of fire
Someone kissed her

III. Protest

Women’s Choir

I want to talk like an American
I want to look like an American
I want to sing like an American
I want to walk like an American
I want to dream like an American Scheme like an American
I want to stand like an American
I want to smile like an American
I want to pray like an American Play ball like an American
Cook like an American
I want to laugh like an American
I want to dance like an American Have a chance like an American
I want to feel like an American
I want to shout like an American
I want to scream like an American I want to cry like an American
I want to try like an American
Hurt like an American
Bleed like an American
Burn like, burn like, burn like, burn

Girls’ Choir
excerpt from a speech by Clara Lemlich, November 22, 1909:

I want to say a few words.
I am a working girl.
One of those striking against intolerable conditions.

adapted from ​The Jobless Girls, ​written by Theresa Malkiel, in the ​New York Call​, December 29, 1909:​

We laid down our scissors
shook the threads off our clothes
and calmly left the place that stood between us and starvation.

Women’s Choir

hem stitcher, sleeve setter, cuff maker, lace runner, ironer, yoke setter, plain stitcher, belt maker, finisher, sample hand, back maker, dampener, stamper, starcher, sample maker, steamer, front maker, rag sorter, labeler, baster, binder, cleaner, closer, cutter, draper, hemmer, joiner, mender, buttonhole maker, buttonhole marker, buttonhole stitcher, buttonhole sewer, presser, plaiter, trimmer, tucker, facer, sorter

Girls’ Choir

I WANT TO FEEL LIKE AN AMERICAN

Women’s Choir
from an interview with Clara Lemlich:

Ah — then I had fire in my mouth

Girls’ Choir

fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire fire

IV. Fire

Women’s Choir

I heard someone cry fire Everyone said fire

adapted from the testimony of Kate Alterman, ninth floor worker, at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire trial:

And then I saw her bending down on her knees. Her hair was loose.
And the trail of her dress was a little far from her. Then a big smoke came.

I noticed the trail of her dress, and the ends of her hair, began to burn like, burn like, burn like, burn like, burn like, burn

adapted from the eyewitness account of William Shepherd, reporter for the M​ ilwaukee Journal, March 27, 1911:

Those of us who were looking,
saw her put her arms about him
and kiss him.
And then he dropped her into space. Then quick as a flash, he jumped.

All Voices

I see them falling
see them falling

Women’s Choir
excerpt from a speech by Rose Schneiderman at The Metropolitan Opera House, April 2, 1911:

I would be a traitor
to those poor burned bodies
if I were to speak
of good fellowship.
I have tried you good people of the public, and I have found you wanting.

The names of the workers who perished in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, listed in T​ he Triangle Fire, ​by Leon Stein:

Lizzie Adler, Anna Altman, Annina Ardito, Rose Bassino, Vincenza Benanti, Yetta Berger, Morris Bernstein, Jacob Bernstein, Essie Bernstein, Gussie Bierman, Vincenza Billota, Abraham Binowitz, Rosie Brenman, Sarah Brenman, Ida Brodsky, Sarah Brodsky, Ada Brooks, Laura Brunetti, Josephine Cammarata, Francesca Caputo, Josephine Carlisi, Albina Caruso, Annie Ciminello, Rosina Cirrito, Anna Cohen, Annie Colletti, Sarah Cooper, Michelina Cordiano, Bessie Dashefsky, Josie Del Castillo, Clara Dockman, Kalman Donick, Celia Eisenberg, Dora Evans, Rebecca Feibisch, Yetta Fichtenholz, Daisy Fitzie, Mary Floresta, Max Florin, Jennie Franco, Rose Friedman, Diana Gerjuoy, Molly Gerstein, Catherine Giannattasio, Celia Gitlin, Esther Goldstein, Lena Goldstein, Mary Goldstein, Yetta Goldstein, Rosie Grasso, Bertha Greb, Rachel Grossman, Mary Herman, Esther Hochfeld, Fannie Hollander, Pauline Horowitz, Ida Jukofsky, Ida Kanowitz, Tessie Kaplan, Beckie Kessler, Jacob Klein, Beckie Koppelman, Bertha Kula, Tillie Kupferschmidt, Benjamin Kurtz, Annie L’Abbate, Fannie Lansner, Maria Lauletti, Jennie Lederman, Max Lehrer, Sam Lehrer, Kate Leone, Mary Leventhal, Jennie Levin, Pauline Levine, Nettie Liebowitz, Rose Liermark, Bettina Maiale, Frances Maiale, Catherine Maltese, Lucia Maltese, Rosaria Maltese, Maria Manaria, Rose Mankofsky, Rose Mehl, Yetta Meyers, Gaetana Midolo, Annie Miller, Beckie Neubauer, Annie Nicholas, Michelina Nicolosei, Sadie Nussbaum, Julia Oberstein, Rose Oringer, Beckie Ostrovsky, Annie Pack, Provindenza Panno, Antonietta Pasqualicchio, Ida Pearl, Jennie Pildescu, Vincenza Pinelli, Emilia Prato, Concetta Prestifilippo, Beckie Reines, Fannie Rosen, Louis Rosen, Israel Rosen, Julia Rosen, Yetta Rosenbaum, Jennie Rosenberg, Gussie Rosenfeld, Nettie Rosenthal, Emma Rothstein, Theodore Rotner, Sarah Sabasowitz, Santina Salemi, Sarafina Saracino, Teresina Saracino, Gussie Schiffman, Theresa Schmidt, Ethel Schneider, Violet Schochet, Golda Schpunt, Margaret Schwartz, Jacob Seltzer, Rosie Shapiro, Ben Sklover, Rose Sorkin, Annie Starr, Jennie Stein, Jennie Stellino, Jennie Stiglitz, Sam Taback, Clotilde Terranova, Isabella Tortorelli, Meyer Utal, Catherine Uzzo, Frieda Velakofsky, Bessie Viviano, Rosie Weiner, Sarah Weintraub, Tessie Weisner, Dora Welfowitz, Bertha Wendorff, Joseph Wilson, Sonia Wisotsky