ABSTRACT

In this chapter I consider Christian Wolff’s approach to word setting and writing for voice, and the way in which this aspect of his work has served to illuminate, clarify and sometimes problematize the political dimension of his music. I provide a brief survey of Wolff’s settings of politicized texts from his early attempts in the 1970s through to more recent times, singling out for attention his early efforts Accompaniments (1972) and Wobbly Music (1975-76), and from the 1980s I Like to Think of Harriet Tubman (1985). The texts demonstrate the range of Wolff’s political concerns, from social reorganization in China to the US ‘Labor’ movement, to a celebration of strong radical female figures. The pieces throw up questions about the West’s relationship with the East, ideas amongst the Left of nostalgia and utopia, and matters of gender equality, but most of all they reveal Wolff’s concern to demonstrate solidarity for the causes he sympathizes with and for his music to play an educative role in bringing the subjects he has chosen to the attention of his audience.