Composer Julia Wolfe
Peter Serling
Before she took an undergraduate music class that prompted a change of careers, composer Julia Wolfe intended to study political or labor history, or perhaps a related field in the social sciences. She’d grown up surrounded by history books, a favorite subject of her father’s, and has “always been a very politically minded, socially conscious person,” Wolfe said in a recent interview. ‘
“I’ve always been fascinated with our relationship to history. Why do we look back at who we were before? How does the past resonate with the present? Have we made any progress? Have we not?”
Her latest orchestral work, Liberty Bell, evokes the symbolism and legacy of the famed bell in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were debated and adopted by the nation’s founders. Co-commissioned by several American orchestras to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Liberty Bell receives its Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut in concerts Nov. 19-21.
“I’m from just north of Philadelphia, so it’s my home city,” said Wolfe. “The bell is certainly an iconic image for the whole country, maybe for the world in a certain sense, but certainly for Philadelphia.”
History has inspired Wolfe’s music since she first began composing. Several of her early instrumental works, such as Amber Waves of Grain, Arsenal of Democracy and Window of Vulnerability, take their titles from historical events. Later in her career, “I really embraced [history] in a bigger way by incorporating text, doing research and telling the history more directly,” she said.
Wolfe employed this textual approach in her 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning oratorio Anthracite Fields, which draws on oral histories of Pennsylvanian coal workers, and Fire in my mouth, a 2019 oratorio based on the young immigrant women who worked in New York City’s garment industry during the early 20th century. In 2023, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lorelei Ensemble and conductor Marin Alsop gave memorable performances of Wolfe’s Her Story, a CSO co-commission about the U.S. women’s suffrage movement.
Although Liberty Bell doesn’t feature any text, Wolfe’s program note references the biblical passage that’s enscribed on the bell itself: “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof.”
This idea of offering liberty for all inhabitants resonates throughout U.S. history, Wolfe said. “It’s quite a while ago, and we’re still grappling with these subjects and some of these issues.”
The Liberty Bell, originally called the State House Bell and renamed by abolitionists in the 1830s, was cast in 1752 and likely rang in Philadelphia when the Declaration of Independence was first read to the public in 1776. That same year, Abigail Adams wrote a letter to John Adams (from which Wolfe quotes in Her Story), urging her husband to advocate for women’s rights in the newly formed nation — rights that would take many more years to be realized.
Wolfe aims to capture the ongoing struggle for liberty through the sounds of the orchestra. Liberty Bell opens with a jagged “battle of rhythms” featuring percussive snap pizzicato from the strings. To create a soundscape of bells, she uses standard percussion instruments, such as tubular bells and glockenspiel, and custom-made bell plates made of rectangular sheets of aluminum. Each of these plates rings with a distinct pitch, allowing for a variety of chords.
“Everyone listening knows it’s not an orchestral bell,” Wolfe said of the bell plates. “Your mind might go more towards a bell rung in a city or a bell in everyday life, as opposed to a perfected bell for the orchestra. It has a beautiful sound, it’s a very resonant, but it has a little more of a clang.”
The music’s evocation of adversity and steadfastness mirrors the imagery of the bell itself, which cracked at its first testing and was repaired before cracking further in 1843. Despite its inability to ring fully since then, it remains a potent symbol of freedom.
“[The bell] is famous for its crack, and that’s kind of fascinating that we’ve embraced this image with this huge damage,” said Wolfe. “Liberty, certainly one of the most basic tenets of the founding of the country, is not such a neat, tidy process. It’s messy, and there’s a struggle. You hear that in the music, certainly.”
Following its clamorous opening section, the composition moves toward a more upbeat tone. “One thing I think a lot about [is] fighting back, or the maintaining of optimism, through even the darkest of times,” said Wolfe. In Liberty Bell, “There’s a certain sense of urgency that we have to stay the course and be steadfast.”
In the composer’s words, “Even though the bell’s cracked, there’s hope.”
