The Birds Here (2020)

from Why Women Went West

for piano and spoken voice
2 minutes

Commission/Premiere Info: Pianist Gabriella Smart premiered and recorded the work at Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide, July 24, 2020

Program Notes

THE BIRDS HERE is from my multi-media mono drama: Why Women Went West: I Mary, Mary by Herself exploring the controversies over human rights, water wars, and early 20th-century feminist artist writer communities through writer Mary Hunter Austin's imaginings, study, and promotion of the American Southwest. The poem: THE BIRDS HERE is from the work Eleven Eleison From East to West by poet, video artist, librettist and multi-media collaborator, Quintan Ana Wikswo. This piece was created for the online project: Art of Virus collection of works based upon a 9-note theme. The full-length work for piano and spoken voice is part of The Collective commission for new works for Australia pianist Gabriella Smart.

  • The birds here
    Have not changed
    They drop salt not seeds Into my open mouth
    Now - my back bare to the sky
    Breast buried in soil
    Thrust into the darkness of this
    Searching out each star
    The fat lips of my horse
    Taste my neck for food
    This must be morning -
    A roughness, gathering speed
    The bird here
    Have changed

    — Quintan Ana Wikswo

Purchase

To purchase the scores and parts, email Pamela Madsen directly at pmadsen@fullerton.edu.

Performances

July 24, 2020 | Gabriella Smart at Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide, Australia

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