The Choir of Trinity Wall Street - Julia Wolfe: Anthracite Fields (2015) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Anthracite Fields: I. Foundation
02. Anthracite Fields: II. Breaker Boys
03. Anthracite Fields: III. Speech
04. Anthracite Fields: IV. Flowers
05. Anthracite Fields: V. Appliances



Haunting, poignant and relentlessly physical, Julia Wolfe's Anthracite Fields is a lovingly detailed oratorio about turn-of-the-20th-century Pennsylvania coal miners, and a fitting recipient of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. NPR Music's Tom Huizenga describes the piece as "...almost a public history project and a music project at the same time". Weaving together personal interviews that she conducted with miners and their families, along with oral histories, speeches, rhymes and local mining lore, Wolfe sought to honour the working lives of Pennsylvania's anthracite region. "It's not necessarily mainstream history," she told NPR shortly after she received word of winning the Pulitzer. "The politics are very fascinatingthe issues about safety, and the consideration for the people who are working and what's involved in it. But I didn't want to say, 'Listen to this. This is a big political issue.' It really was, 'Here's what happened. Here's this life, and who are we in relationship to that?' We're them. They're us. And basically, these people, working underground, under very dangerous conditions, fuelled the nation. That's very important to understand."

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