- I Hear (2010)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for choir and chamber orchestra
ca. 7'00"
This music was inspired by a poem by Jamila Asgar:
The snow is painting white on gray,
The sky brings angels out to pray;
The snow is painting white on brown,
The sky is gently falling down.
I hear the whispers in the play,
I hear the sweetest ever sound,
As sky is falling gently down,
The snow brings angels' prayers today.
- Rondo for Two Violins (2012)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for two violins
ca. 7'33"
- Yurt (2013)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for orchestra
ca. 8'46"
- On Thin Air (2018)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for soprano and violin
ca. 22'00"
On thin Air is a little drama for soprano and violin. I believe that many of us might have experienced something that is unusually strange or unexplainably unreal… Just one time in your life you might feel something that you never felt before or after… At such a moment you understand that everything that created around the holographic existence is bigger and deeper than you would be able to observe and absorb. At such a fleeting instant you are surrounded by the wonder… At such an astonishing flash your the only sensation is the admiration!
If you are endlessly high...
Suspended on thin air...
You contemplate the stars,
You can't reach Earth...
You try to understand what are you doing here?
If your breath is too short and almost frozen
You feel you're helpless at such position,
You know you're hopeless at such condition...
You hear your inner wordless scream!
If you are endlessly high...
If you can smell and taste the air...
You see gold sparkles through indescribable blue color
Your heart is not inside of you...
Your brain is not responding to you...
Your blood is desperately cold
Bombarding your brain by isotopes of thoughts,
Trying to stop all these and comprehend...
Are you alive?
If you are endlessly high...
Nothing above, beneath, and all around...
Nothing is up...Nothing is down...
And you try to connect your toes and ground
Willing to calm your tremor...
Am I flying or am I motionless?
Am I sensing margis between my dream and death?
No... No... it can't be..
No... No... No... No... your feelings are so real...
If you are endlessly high suspended on thin air
You have to feel a little fear and unexpected joy...
- Rahilia Hasanova
On Thin Air was premiered at Linnehan concert hall of the University of Maryland Baltimore County on October 20, 2023 by Duo Della Luna.
Susan Botti, soprano
Airi Yoshioka, violin
Recording engineer, Alan Wonneberger
Click here to listen to the recording.
- Gaval Dash (2012)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for violoncello and piano
ca. 5'39"
Gaval Dash means "drumming stone." The Gaval dash is a huge, rounded piece of the stone that is the unique creation of nature. It produces sounds and overtones when you drum or touch it with any other piece of stone. The Gaval dash is in Gobustan - a place near Baku, Azerbaijan. Here you can meditate and contemplate strangely-shaped rocks and hills, murals with pictographic calendars and "dancing people" images, mud volcanic geysers touching and feeling an inner choir of the Gaval dash. This place is full of mystery. Nobody knows who could lift such a heavy but sensitive "drum" on top of the cone-shaped rock. Perhaps the Gaval dash consists of iron or some other chemical elements. It could be an explanation for its extraordinary timbre. No doubt, it was used for ritualistic dances of ancient people who lived here many centuries B.C.
This piece was recorded at a concert that took place at the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2018, performed by Dorotea Racz, cello and Hui-Chuan Chen, piano.
Click here to listen to the recording.
- Gasida (1991)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for solo organ
ca. 30'00"
- Fleeting Memories (1987)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for solo flute
ca. 10'00"
Fleeting Memories is a cycle of six simple pieces for Flute solo. They were published in 1987 but never performed as a whole cycle. The premiere of the Fleeting Memories took place at the Brandeis University, Boston in 2017 Performer: Jill Dreeben
Click here to listen to the recording.
- First Symphony (1976)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for orchestra
ca. 21'00"
- Extinct Volcanoes (2018)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for double bass and piano
ca. 15'00"
Scientists considered extinct volcanoes as cold, dead volcanoes because centuries beneath them there is no underground activity. They would be ones that nobody expects to ever erupt again. But new research turned all these definitions upside-down: extinct volcanoes are waking up. Getting hotter, they finally would be ready to burst out. There have already been a number of eruptions from extinct volcanoes. Yes, volcanoes thought to be dead have erupted or have visible signs of geological changes all around the world: Yellowstone, Yosemite, Campi Flegrei, Changbaishan, Krakatoa, Popokatepetl, Eyjafjallajokull... Extinct volcanoes break silence. Maybe the Earth has something to tell us?
- Eos-Helios (2013)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for orchestra
ca. 15'30"
Click here to listen to a YouTube recording of this piece.
- Perfect Equilibrium (2016)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for piano quintet
ca. 14'05"
- Dance of Fire (2012)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for solo violin
ca. 7'38"
Click here to listen to a recording of Airi Yoshioka performing this piece.
- Pastorale (1974, rev. 2016)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for string quartet
ca. 4'30"
Pastorale is the reminiscence of my journey to a small mountain village. Far from city noises I spent wonderful times there among strangely-shaped green stone blocks, wildflowers, and making musical sounds waterfalls. Little houses were built close to the gulch where a light morning breeze created songs, each time new and unrepeatable. Listening to all-embracing breath of nature, smelling a perfume of herbs and fresh air, looking to the sourrounded horizon I was speechless and truly fascinated. Pastorale is my musical impression of my feelings.
- Dervish (1992)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for tenor, bass, and string quartet
ca. 20'39"
Dervish is the representation of the global understanding of how things work and interact in the universe: All is connected to everything and everything is connected to all.
Dervish was recorded at my portrait concert by Koln Deutschlandradio in 2004 by the Minguet Quartet, with vocalists:
Ulrich Isfort, violin I
Annette Reisinger, violin II
Irene Schwalb, viola
Matthias Diener, violoncello
Vocalists:
Kyu-Cheul Lee, tenor
David Hieronimi, bass
Click here to listen to the recording.
- Dance of Water (2013)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for 3 percussionists
ca. 7'34"
- Concert No. 2 (2008)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for piano, trumpet, percussion and string orchestra
ca. 12'09"
- Concert No. 1 (2007)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for two pianos and percussion
- Alla Meykhana (1996)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for solo piano
ca. 8'00"
Alla Meykhana means "like meykhana" or "sort of meykhana." Meykhana is the folk genre based on rhythmical beats of Aruz/ghazal form of poetry through minimalistic repetitions of simple melody. Mostly developing around the Absheron region of the capital city of Azerbaijan, Baku, meykhana performers used a large spectrum of social, political, humanistic, satirical, and romantic subjects, accompanying themselves with simple drums or just with finger snapping (findiqcha). Alla Meykhana for solo piano represents the special expressive atmosphere of meykhana events, musical declamation, and typical rhythmical beats of this old traditional genre.
Performer: Rena Rzayeva
Video and some photos by Rahilia Hasanova
Click here to listen to a recording on YouTube.
- Flying Over Canyons (2014)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for horn in F, Bb trumpet, tenor trombone
ca. 5'16"
- Ayin (2008)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for percussion ensemble and tambura
ca. 20'00"
The translation of Ayin in Azerbaijani is "rite, or ritual."