Wupatki: Houses of the Enemies (2012/2018) from There Will Come Soft Rains
for ensemble, video, and electronics (2012)
OR
for string quartet, piano, and two percussionists (2018)
14.5 minutes
Commission/Premiere Info: Premiered by PEAK Frequency Ensemble, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, December 1st, 2012
Program Notes
WUPATKI consists of Quintan Ana Wikswo’s 13 minute 35 and 120mm original film, text projections from her poem sequence, Madsen’s live and electronic music and instrumentation, and voices performing the libretto. Commissioned and premiered Peak Frequency Ensemble, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, December 2012. West Coast Premiere by musicians from soundSCAPE, Tony Arnold, Soprano, at California State University, Fullerton, March 2013.
According to Quintan Ana Wikswo: “WUPATKI began as the day to day soul wrenching experience that was my life working at safe houses for sex trafficked and battered women on Indian Nations in Mexico/Arizona. And then those days wandered their untoward ways into a poem, and then a series of poems, and then hundreds of 120mm photographs, and an essay, then eventually a suite of 35mm films, and a libretto, and a magazine spread in High Desert Journal and eventually, now, an immensely fulfilling collaboration with composer Pamela Madsen. Madsen’s music evokes the sound and ritual of the place, Wupatki, at the Navajo Nation…it’s black ash and lava fields and ancient stone towers commanding over time from the Grandmothers volcanic field of Arizona…the site of an ancient vulvic temple and astronomical observatory – both dedicated to the eviscerating spider goddess Kokyanwuhti.”
Perusal Score
Purchase
To purchase the scores and parts, email Pamela Madsen directly at pmadsen@fullerton.edu.
Performances
February 21, 2018 | Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Eclipse String Quartet, Vicky Ray, CSUF