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"The idea of liberty is everywhere — imprinted on coins, decorating postage stamps, declared in poetry and song, sprinkled through speeches," says composer Julia Wolfe. "Music is my way of adding to the clamor."
Peter Serling
Composer Julia Wolfe grew up in a town north of Philadelphia, so it’s only logical that she would take inspiration from the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
In a program note for her Liberty Bell (2025), Wolfe observes: “The image of the silent, cracked Liberty Bell is emblazoned in my memory.” The bell, which arrived to Pennsylvania in the 1750s, was originally called the State House Bell, and was later renamed Liberty Bell in the 1830s by New York and Boston abolitionists. “The bell has stood, throughout time, as a symbol for liberty."
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under Jaap van Zweden, will perform Wolfe’s Liberty Bell in concerts Nov. 19-21. The work was commissioned by the Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York City’s Carnegie Hall and the Nashville Symphony.
Early on in its existence, the bell was moved to Allentown, Pennsylvania, to prevent the British from melting it down for bullets. Later, the bell was salvaged from a decaying steeple in the State House, which was rebuilt and renamed Independence Hall sometime after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The bell cracked at its first testing and was repaired. In 1843, it cracked again and was never able to fully ring again.
Until 1915, however, the bell made seven trips across the United States, carrying the message of its inscription (from Leviticus 25:10) throughout the nation: “Proclaim LIBERTY Throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof.”
“My Liberty Bell is not silent," said Wolfe, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Anthracite Fields. "The 100-plus musicians onstage are raucous and loud. Battles between independent rhythmic lines form a jagged composite whole. Metal chimes and pitched bell plates are struck to resonate and ring out. Obtaining liberty is not a quiet, tidy process. It is a messy, boisterous, ongoing, interlocking struggle.
“How can a piece of music embody and communicate the elusive reach for the most basic tenet of the founding of the country? The idea of liberty is everywhere — imprinted on coins, decorating postage stamps, declared in poetry and song, sprinkled through speeches. Music is my way of adding to the clamor. I shout out perseverance, grab tight to optimism and search for a way forward.
"Taking the bell’s inscription literally, unto all the inhabitants thereof, the proclamation speaks to all who reach for the promise of liberty.”
