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Recipe for success

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<p>TAYLOR &#8212; A Pulitzer Prize-winning composer returned to the region that helped shape her now-famous piece of music.</p><p>Julia Wolfe, a native to Montgomeryville, took a tour of the Lackawanna Coal Mine, gave a speech at the Anthracite Heritage Museum, and presented her awarding-winning &#8220;Anthracite Fields&#8221; on Saturday in Taylor and Kingston. Wolfe was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music in April of this year for the story she told of the Pennsylvania coal miner.</p><p>Years back, Wolfe was commissioned by the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia to write a new work for choir with her very own Bang on a Can All-Stars, Wolfe decided her work would lean toward the anthracite region.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s so interesting because it&#8217;s a very earthly piece and this is a fancy prize,&#8221; Wolfe said of her Pulitzer. &#8220;It brings attention to this life through this piece of music. It gives a little wind in the sails for the composition. It&#8217;s wonderful for people to know this story and know the lyric.&#8221;</p><p>Following a tour of the coal mine and a presentation about her work, Wolfe, the Bang on the Can All-Stars and the Choir of Trinity Wall St. played the first live performance of the work that was released back on September. Tickets to the performance were $10, with a portion of the proceeds going back to the coal mine tour.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot to this piece,&#8221; Wolfe said. &#8220;I want people to understand and to remember. I hope people don&#8217;t forget this life. This is poetic history to remember.&#8221;</p><p>The five parts of Anthracite Fields &#8212; Foundation, Breaker Boys, Speech, Flowers, Appliances &#8212; drew on oral histories, interviews, geography and coal advertisements. In Foundation, singers chant the names of former miners. Breaker Boys follows next with a telling of how many young boys worked in the mines. It includes the words of Anthony Slick, who worked in the mines.</p><p>Speech is the third movement in the piece. Its text is from an excerpt of a speech by the former president of the United Mine Workers of America John L. Lewis. Flowers was inspired by an interview with Barbara Powell, who had relatives in the mines. Wolfe said in this movement, Powell showed that she never felt poor and spoke highly of the miner gardens.</p><p>The piece finishes with Appliances, which ties the new to the old. The closing words of the piece are taken from an advertising campaign for the coal-powered railroad, which featured a fictitious New York socialite named Phoebe Snow.</p><p>&#8220;My gown stays white from morn till night. My gown stays white. On the road to anthracite.&#8221;</p><p>Wolfe used Northeastern Pennsylvania as one of the top backdrops to the work. She interviewed countless mining families, along with taking tours of some of the most historic anthracite fields in Pennsylvania. Seventy-five percent of all anthracite coal lies in Pennsylvania. There are approximately 485 square miles of anthracite coal fields in the Commonwealth.</p><p>Wolfe said her work, Anthracite Fields, was to honor people who persevered and endured in the Pennsylvania anthracite coal region during the time when the coal fueled the nation. During her time working on the piece, she was able to reveal who we are as American workers.</p><p>The piece itself draws from folk, classical and rock genres. Wolfe was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her 2009 composition of <em>Steel Hammer.</em></p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re not that different than the miners were who struggled through everyday issues,&#8221; Wolfe said. &#8220;It was so interesting to see how they worked together. The miners were very much dependent on each other.&#8221;</p><p>Erika Funke, a senior producer at WVIA-FM, moderated the presentation at the museum. Funke said it was remarkable what Wolfe was able to do in her composition.</p><p>&#8220;She was able to portray everyone in such a way,&#8221; Funke said. &#8220;It not only speaks to us, but it touches our human spirit. There are so many layers to this piece, including what we see here at the mine.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">The Choir of Trinity Wall St. performs Julia Wolfe&#8217;s &#8216;Anthracite Fields&#8217; at the Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Kirby Center on Saturday evening. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111515Miner2.jpg</photo0><caption0>The Choir of Trinity Wall St. performs Julia Wolfe&#8217;s &#8216;Anthracite Fields&#8217; at the Wyoming Seminary&#8217;s Kirby Center on Saturday evening. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111515Miner1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Erika Funke, of WVIA-FM, right, hosted a pre-performace discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe, left, and conductor Julian Wachner about the inspiration behind Wolfe&#8217;s composition &#8216;Antracite Fields&#8217; at the Wyoming Seminary Kirby Center on Saturday evening. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/web1_TTL111515Miner1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Erika Funke, of WVIA-FM, right, hosted a pre-performace discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe, left, and conductor Julian Wachner about the inspiration behind Wolfe&#8217;s composition &#8216;Antracite Fields&#8217; at the Wyoming Seminary Kirby Center on Saturday evening. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Nick Wagner</p><p>nwagner@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>Excerpt from Anthracite Fields:</strong></p><p><strong>FOUNDATION</strong></p><p>The briny seas rose and fell, wide shallow seas.</p><p>Thick steamy swamps covered the earth.</p><p>The leaves and branches buried deep. Think roots and trunks buried deep.</p><p>Buried deep inside the earth.</p><p>Layer upon layer upon layer buried deep.</p><p>Heat. Pressure.Time.</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Nick Wagner at 570-991-6406 or on Twitter @Dispatch_Nick</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Pulitzer Prize winner Julia Wolfe tours coal mine, hosts concert at Wyoming Seminary