Into the Heart of the Earth (2014/2016) for winds, brass, bass, piano, percussion is work commissioned by Crystal Cove Alliance and Laguna Beach Foundation, and the Mansour Family for the opening of the Bern Environmental Study Loop and the outdoor Amphitheater on the ocean in the Laguna Beach Coastal Canyons.  The larger concert version of the work was completed in 2016 and features an expanded wind section. This full concert band version was premiered by Cal State Fullerton Symphonic Winds, Patricia Cornett, Conductor, November 16, 2016. 

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park lies within some of the last remaining coastal canyons in Southern California. Forty miles of trails lead the visitor through oak and sycamore woodlands and up onto ridges with expansive scenic ocean vistas. Rocky bluffs tower above the canyon trails. As guest commissioned composer in residence at Crystal Cove State Park I have hiked the vast network of trails to listen and document the experience of this environment to create new site-specific spatialized work for the opening of the new Amphitheater nestled within the coastal canyons, overlooking the ocean.  

The movements can be performed as stand alone works (c. 5' each), or as part of set of two movements (c. 10')  or the entire 3-movement work (c. 15') 

I. Faraway (within) is inspired by the poem by the American author Louisa May Alcott: “ Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead." The work begins with a call and response theme in the winds—echoing back and forth, as one is testing the waters on a journey faraway, then is encountered with a loud interruption of the fear theme as one embarks on the journey. At the climax of this journey, the Louisa May Alcott theme appears and serves as retransition to a recapitulation of the first themes. At the recap the initial “Fear theme” is changed into an “own your own fear” theme as the journey is completed and one arrives at the coda—an expansive massive tutti bell-like Faraway (within) celebrating the arrival at the ocean’s edge and looking out at the vast expanse of the horizon.          (c. 4:30) 

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I. Into The Heart Of The Earth - I. Faraway (within)

Into the Heart of the Earth (2014/2016) for winds, brass, bass, piano, percussion is work commissioned by Crystal Cove Alliance and Laguna Beach Foundation, and the Mansour Family for the opening of the Bern Environmental Study Loop and the outdoor Amphitheater on the ocean in the Laguna Beach Coastal Canyons.  The larger concert version of the work was completed in 2016 and features an expanded wind section. This full concert band version was premiered by Cal State Fullerton Symphonic Winds, Patricia Cornett, Conductor, November 16, 2016. 

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park lies within some of the last remaining coastal canyons in Southern California. Forty miles of trails lead the visitor through oak and sycamore woodlands and up onto ridges with expansive scenic ocean vistas. Rocky bluffs tower above the canyon trails. As guest commissioned composer in residence at Crystal Cove State Park I have hiked the vast network of trails to listen and document the experience of this environment to create new site-specific spatialized work for the opening of the new Amphitheater nestled within the coastal canyons, overlooking the ocean.  

The movements can be performed as stand alone works (c. 5' each), or as part of set of two movements (c. 10')  or the entire 3-movement work (c. 15') 

II. Dare to Dream is inspired by my daughter, Olympic Gold Medalist,  Water polo player from Laguna Beach, Stanford University, and Stanford Medical School Graduate.  Inspired by her motto that she embraced in her arduous path: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” by Eleanor Roosevelt. The work tries to capture the sense of anticipation, determination, exuberance and innocence of youth and excitement of embarking on a journey. For me this journey captures that spirit of my daughter, as one of youngest members of Team USA at the 2012 Olympic games. The work was featured on concerts in our hometown of Laguna Beach, at the Laguna Playhouse, and also performed by Laguna Concert Band at Segerstrom Hall and nominated for Laguna Beach Art Star Award. 
(c. 5:15)

II. Into The Heart Of The Earth - II. Dare To Dream

Into the Heart of the Earth (2014/2016) for winds, brass, bass, piano, percussion is work commissioned by Crystal Cove Alliance and Laguna Beach Foundation, and the Mansour Family for the opening of the Bern Environmental Study Loop and the outdoor Amphitheater on the ocean in the Laguna Beach Coastal Canyons.  The larger concert version of the work was completed in 2016 and features an expanded wind section. This full concert band version was premiered by Cal State Fullerton Symphonic Winds, Patricia Cornett, Conductor, November 16, 2016. 

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park lies within some of the last remaining coastal canyons in Southern California. Forty miles of trails lead the visitor through oak and sycamore woodlands and up onto ridges with expansive scenic ocean vistas. Rocky bluffs tower above the canyon trails. As guest commissioned composer in residence at Crystal Cove State Park I have hiked the vast network of trails to listen and document the experience of this environment to create new site-specific spatialized work for the opening of the new Amphitheater nestled within the coastal canyons, overlooking the ocean.  

The movements can be performed as stand alone works (c. 5' each), or as part of set of two movements (c. 10')  or the entire 3-movement work (c. 15') 

III. Silent Sounding Stars, was inspired by Crystal Cove State Park at sunset. The glorious unfolding of colors, deepening of the skies and appearance of the stars each night is represented by the massive rich chorale melody accompanied by glistening star motives and a lullaby melody based on the traditional American folk song lullaby By’m Bye that pioneers would sing to their children to quiet their fears by counting stars as they crossed the vast open expanses of the great plains. The melody is interrupted by scary sounds in the dark, and then gradually unwinds as the massive sunset chord isappear and we are left with just the shining star and the stillness of the comfort of the sounds of the night. This work later became inspiration for my NEA, New Music USA and Los Angeles Audience Choice Award-winning work: ORATORIO FOR THE EARTH (2022). 
(c. 5:40) 
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III. Into The Heart Of The Earth - Silent Sounding Stars CSUF

Riverly is the Moon (2015)				Pamela Madsen

For solo clarinet and video
https://vimeo.com/131947974
Riverly is the Moon for solo clarinet, was commissioned, premiered and recorded by Virginia Figueiredo. The video for Riverly is the Moon is by Jimena Sarno with photographs of the Blood Moon by Carolyn Yarnell, from the Blood Moon event of April 15, 2014. 

This work is from my collection of Luminous Etudes: Visions of the Black Madonna of Montserrat for solo instruments, piano, voice, projected images and electronics investigating sound and healing and the bio-mechanisms of vibro-acoustics in music performance. This solo work for clarinet references various “moon” songs and is inspired by the Blood Moon of April 2014 (first of a tetrad of four consecutive total lunar eclipses) and based on materials from the 14th century Llibre Vermell, and my encounter with the icon of the Black Madonna  during  my visit to the sanctuary of Montserrat, in Catalonia, Spain.

The entire collection of etudes is awarded a project award New Music USA for work by New York City based new music pianists: Kathleen Supove and Eleonor Sandresky, and work with selected vocalists, LoadBang and instrumentalists for premiere in 2016. 
https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/luminous-etudes-visions-of-the-black-madonna-of-montserrat/


Riverly Is the Moon (2015)

Melting Away: Gravity (2011)
For string orchestra, piano, harp, percussion, voice, projection of Arctic sounds  
by Pamela Madsen with projection of Arctic images by Camille Seaman. 




https://vimeo.com/38800621

Gravity by Rainier Maria Rilke (translation by Stephen Mitchell, permission granted)

Center, how from all beings
You pull yourself, even from those that fly
Winning yourself back, irresistible center.
He who stands: as a drink through thirst
Gravity plunges down through him.
But from the sleeper falls
(as though from a motionless cloud)
the abundant rain of the heavy

Gravity is from a collection of works entitled "Melting Away" which document the polar regions of our planet, their environments, life forms, history of human exploration and the communities that work and live there created in collaboration with Arctic photographer Camille Seaman. According to National Geographic award-winning Arctic photographer and TED Fellow, Camille Seaman: “ Nick Cave once sang, "All things move toward their end." Icebergs give the impression of doing just that, in their individual way much as humans do; they have been created of unique conditions and shaped by their environments to live a brief life in a manner solely their own. I seek a moment in their life in which they convey their unique personality, some connection to our own experience and a glimpse of their soul which endures. These images were made in both the Arctic regions of Svalbard, Greenland, and Antarctica.”My work as composer, echoes these sentiments in sound. Working collaboratively with Camille Seaman over the past 5 years, I have employed her images in my multi-media electroacoustic opera: Sedna for Zeitgeist ensemble, video projection images and electronics, as well as in my current work, Melting Away: Gravity.In this new work, I employ the images of Melting Away from Camille Seaman’s work The Last Iceberg, and the text from Rilke poem Gravity. Both image and text depict a moment of time at the edge of implosion, disintegration and the inevitability of and resignation to this destruction. Melting Away: Gravity depicts this transformative process that echoes that image and text of melting away, The last iceberg and gravity. Spatialized sounds were collected from the Arctic and Antarctica and provided by Camille Seaman’s journey’s to Arctic and Antarctica (ship sounds, Icebreaker sounds), from Toby Sinkerson’s Arctic sound files  (ice sounds, water sounds) and from the seismic recordings of the breakup of one of the largest icebergs ever observed in Antarctica, by University of Washington oceanographer, Seelye Martin (ice berg breakup sounds). Sound files were not manipulated or altered in any way—they were allowed to provide a sonic background that interacts with the live performance of the notated work for string orchestra. 


Melting Away: Gravity (2011)

II. Luminous Etudes:Visions of the Black Madonna of Montserr- Like the river with no end 
for flute and piano, Jean Ferrandis, flute, Alison Edwards, piano 
Like the River with No End for flute and piano is from my collection of Luminous Etudes: Visions of the Black Madonna of Montserrat for ensembles, piano, voice, projected images and electronics investigating sound and healing and the bio-mechanisms of vibro-acoustics in music performance. This work for flute and piano is inspired by the poem Arte Poética  by Jorge Luis Borges (1960), the Blood Moon of April 2015 (from the tetrad of four consecutive total lunar eclipses) and based on materials from O Virgo Splendens from the 14th century Llibre Vermell. 

Arte Poética  by Jorge Luis Borges (1960) Translation by William S. Merwin

To look at the river made of time and water 
And remember that time is another river, 
To know that we are lost like the river 
And that faces dissolve like water . . . 
Art is that Ithaca 
Of green eternity, not of marvels.
It is also like the river with no end
 That flows and remains and is the mirror of one same
 Inconstant Heraclitus, who is the same 
And is another, like the river with no end.


Madsen - Luminous Etudes - Like The River With No End

Sea-Change (2009/2014) by Pamela Madsen  
for clarinet, violin/cello and piano and spoken voice
text  by Genevieve Taggard
Verdehr Trio, Elsa Verdehr, clarinet, Walter Verdehr, violin, Silvia Roederer, piano and spoken voice 
From The Making of a Medium CD Series on Crystal Records, American CD #6 and #7 (2015) 
Sea-Change
by Genevieve Taggard (1894-1948)
You are no more, but sunken in a sea
Sheer into dream, ten thousand leagues, you fell;
And now you lie green-golden, while a bell
Swings with the tide, my heart; and all is well
Till I look down, and wavering, the spell--
Your loveliness--returns. There in the sea,
Where you lie amber-pale and coral-cool,
You are most loved, most lost, most beautiful.

Sea-change is a poetic term meaning a striking change or a gradual transformation in which the form is retained but the substance is replaced. The expression is Shakespeare's, taken from the song in The Tempest, when Ariel sings about transformation brought about by the sea. Commissioned and premiered by Verdehr Trio, this work has been performed throughout the world and will be recorded for their new “American” CD.  The work also represents a “sea-change” in my compositional work in its intentionally simple and direct expression embodying both striking change and gradual transformation. The work is dedicated to my daughter, Annika Dries, 2012 Olympic Gold-medalist in Water Polo and the many Sea-Changes her life has endured. 

This work is from a series of pieces called "  . . . from the edges of the earth" based on images, texts of sea, sea nymphs and sirens involving instrumentalists and spoken voice. The other works from this collection are: The Singing of the Waves, for three flutes, piano and spoken voice, commissioned and premiered by Jane Rigler, Anne LaBerge, John Fonville, flutists and Lisa Moore, pianist/spoken voice and The Living Sea for flute, electronics and film commissioned by Claire Chase, flutist, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) with IMAX filmmaker Greg MacGillivray for Laguna Beach Music Festival and a version for piano trio for Trio Solisti and The Singing of the Waves: Neried’s Lyre for solo voice, awarded VOX NOVUS award and Neried’s Lyre for solo flute and electronics with Jane Rigler, flutist. 


Sea - Change (2009)

O Mary: a prayer for the year of the insane, Pamela Madsen composer, 
Arditti String Quartet 
O Mary (2002) is based on the translation of the text of poem by Anne Sexton: O Mary, A prayer for the year of the insane into a language for strings. Composed for the Arditti Quartet, this work was written for the Acanthes Festival, Avignon-Villeneuve, France and the space where it was premiered; the ancient ruins of the 6th Century Chartreuse
Monastery and the palatial residences founded by Pope Innocent VI in 1356. Having been in residence in Avignon, Messiaen’s birthplace the previous summer, I noted that birds would swoop into the open ruins of Chartreuse during concerts when certain pitches, intensities, harmonies where evoked. I composed this work in homage to those birds, to
Messiaen and to the tragedies this ancient space witnessed ---and sure enough, during the premiere performance the bird swooped down and began to cry. The electronic amplified version of this work was premiered by Ethel (2005) and new complete revised version by JACK Quartet in 2011. The work has been revised and premiered by Lyris Quartet (2018)at the Hear Now Festival and will be recorded as part of Oratorio for the Earth: There Will Come Soft Rains

O Mary (2006-2018)

Luminosity: The Passions of Marie Curie
Polonium
Tony Arnold, Soprano, Thomas Rosenkranz, piano, musicians from soundSCAPE
Pamela Madsen, Composer Video by Quintan Ana Wikswo
LUMINOSITY: THE PASSIONS OF MARIE CURIE is an opera by composer Pamela Madsen, with films and photographs by Quintan Ana Wikswo. A 45-minute, three-act multimedia opera for voices, flute, percussion, piano, spatialized electronics and film projection. In collaboration with musicians from soundScape: Tony Arnold (soprano) and Aiyun Huang (percussion) and Either/Or. Quintan Ana Wikswo’s installations of projected film, video and photography explore the chemistries of expired and altered film stocks, infrared, and alternative optics and lenses. From Poland to Paris, a visionary young chemist transcends the frontiers of her era, redefining physics, chemistry, and the role of women in science and society. Her pursuit of radioactive elements brings her as close as humanly possible to both creation and destruction – a legacy of her work that continues to resounds across time and space. Madsen's work explores the impact of sound on healing and the body. 
quintanwikswo.com/projects/luminosity-the-passions-of-marie-curie/
pamelamadsen.com

Luminosity: The Passions of Marie Curie-Polonium

http://www.quintanwikswo.com/projects/luminosity-the-passions-of-marie-curie/
LUMINOSITY: The Passions of Marie Curie (work in progress) 
Pamela Madsen. Opera in three acts. (2013-17)
Libretto by Pamela Madsen, Quintan Ana Wikswo  based on texts by Marie Curie, Loie Fuller (in public domain) with video by Quintan Ana Wikswo
Tony Arnold, soprano and musicians from soundSCAPE, Aiyun Huang, percussion, Thomas Rosenkranz, piano and Jane Rigler flute, March 1, 2013, Meng Hall, Cal State Fullerton


Luminosity: The Passions of Marie Curie "Are You There?"

LUMINOSITY: The Passions of Marie Curie (work in progress) 
Pamela Madsen. Opera in three acts. (2013-17)
Libretto by Pamela Madsen, Quintan Ana Wikswo  based on texts by Marie Curie, Loie Fuller (in public domain) with video by Quintan Ana Wikswo
Tony Arnold, soprano and musicians from soundSCAPE, Aiyun Huang, percussion, Thomas Rosenkranz, piano and Jane Rigler flute, March 1, 2013, Meng Hall, Cal State Fullerton


Luminosity: The Passions of Marie Curie "Luminous Energy"

WUPATKI: HOUSES OF THE ENEMIES (c) 2012/2018
For String Quartet, Piano, Percussion, Voice, Electronics and Video
quintanwikswo.com/projects/wupatki-houses-of-the-enemies/
Text, Poetry, Libretto, Photography, 35mm films & concept by QUINTAN ANA WIKSWO
filmed on location at WUPATKI, ARIZONA
text first published in HIGH DESERT JOURNAL (c) 2012
Music by PAMELA MADSEN
Premiered by Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Eclipse String Quartet, Vicki Ray, pianist, Quintan Ana Wikswo, spoken voice, February 21, 2018. Part of There Will Come Soft Rains Project-https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/there-will-come-soft-rains-2/

1 - I. WUPATKI: HOUSES OF THE ENEMIES

The Land of Little Rain: Water Trails of the Ceriso, Scavengers-57 Buzzards-text by Southwest Desert conservationist Mary Hunter Austin (1903). For  Eclipse String Quartet: Two Duos-Water Trails of the Ceriso: violin and cello, and spatialize duo of 57 Buzzards: violin and viola

3 - III. The Land Of Little Rain For String Quartet (two Duos) And Spoken Voice

Why women weep: based on  The Diary of Anais Nin, vol. 5, (1955)  for cellist Maggie Parkins for cello, spoken voices, projected sounds and images.

4 - IV. Why Women Weep- IT IS THE QUICKEST WAY TO REJOIN THE OCEAN

There will come soft rains-August 2026  based on the 1950 dystopian short story by science fiction author Ray Bradbury for percussion quartet. Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, world premiere February 21st, 2018.

5 - V. There Will Come Soft Rains- 2026 For Percussion Quartet - And Recorded Spoken Voice

Lost Horse Mine: for Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Eclipse String Quartet, Vicki Ray pianist, Saousan Jarjour, voice-premiered February 21, 2018

6 - VI. Postlude - -Lost Horse Mine Lament

Based on The Lingerer by Lori Ann Stephens explores fragile waking consciousness of dream state. Performed by Ernest Salem, violin, Alison Edwards, piano, by Pamela Madsen, composer

Here the frailest leaves of me

Deep Listening-Wind in Pine Tree for Ione Dream Festival 1-21

WindinPIneTree1 - 21

There will be stars (for Pauline Oliveros) (2017)
Pamela Madsen, Composer
There will be stars (for Pauline Oliveros) was originally commissioned in honor of composer Pauline Oliveros, as a surprise gift to her for her 85th birthday on May 30th, 2017, by McGill University. Perhaps sadly synchronistic, I completed this whole work on Thanksgiving day, November 24th, 2016 the day Pauline passed away, not knowing she had passed--so had to alter the "star map" dates, that create the pitches that correspond to her date of birth/death, and connect with the dates that correspond to my birth date and other significant pitch/date mappings.
This work is inspired by Pauline’s Sonic Mandala Compositional work, similar to her work Rose Moon, and was also composed during my work with Pauline this past year in Deep Listening. The work is for multiple performers, percussioninsts, instrumentalists, and wandering spoken voice(s)- for as many other players that would like to be “stars”, independent satellites, to perform the layers of the work. The work can also be spatialized even further as a 'star map' of a sonic mandala over the entire space of the concert hall, or performance space. A layered version of this work that incorporates a choir of voices overlaying another poem by Sara Teasdale "There will be rest".
There Will Be Stars-Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)
There will be stars over the place forever;
Though the house we loved and the street we loved are lost, Every time the earth circles her orbit
On the night the autumn equinox is crossed,
Two stars we knew, poised on the peak of midnight
Will reach their zenith; stillness will be deep;
There will be stars over the place forever,
There will be stars forever, while we sleep.”
This work is part of my large-scale multi-movement multi-media work “There will come soft rains” for percussion, spoken voice, solo cello and electronics, string quartet, and projected images commissioned by Cory Hills, solo percussion/ spoken voice, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, cellist Ashley Bathgate, Eclipse String Quartet and others. I am composer in residence amongst the remains of the utopian beach-front Artist colony of Crystal Cove State Park, the ruins of the mid-century utopian oasis: ZZYZX, which now houses the Desert Studies Center in the Mojave National Preserve to create, document sounds, and present performances of this work. (Pamela Madsen)

There Will Be Stars (for Pauline Oliveros)

Now the Hour Bows Down/Tenebrae from ORATORIO FOR THE EARTH-Kama-River of Stars  commissioned and premiered by bass baritone solo-Nicholas Isherwood and electronics for The Electric Voice 2019 
https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/oratorio-for-the-earth-kama-river-of-stars/

Now The Hour Bows Down - Tenebrae

The Consecrating Mother from ORATORIO FOR THE EARTH 
TwoSense-Ashley Bathgate, cello, Lisa Moore, piano
https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/oratorio-for-the-earth-kama-river-of-stars/

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