- Pirebedil (1996)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for oboe, clarinet in Bb, bassoon, French horn, percussion, strings, piano, and voice
ca. 26'58"
Pirebedil is a name of a group of old ancient Azerbaijani carpets which are well known by its special authentic symbols. Each symbol represents a certain meaning that is a part of a large puzzle. Being aware about these meanings one can read the Pirebedil as a text. These amazing hand crafted carpets uncover forgotten stories and legends.
Pirebedil was commissioned and performed by New Ensemble, the Netherland in 1996.
Click here to listen to the recording.
- Pazyryk (2014)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for septet
ca. 10'45"
- Lullaby of the Stars (2003, rev. 2015)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for orchestra
ca. 7'00"
The golden-eyed stars, gently ightning the skies,
Sounding orchestra-like, attacking, breathing, and vibrating,
They're lullabying for the sleeping earth...
But as the morning star's awakening a down,
Conducting them to fade through nights and constellations,
The golden-eyed stars are vanishing and melting in the heavens...
The earth continues to sing for them her lullaby:
It's time to sleep for golden-eyed stars.
- Rahilia Hasanova
The first version of Lullaby of the Stars (Ulduzlarin Laylasi) was written for chamber orchestra in 2003 and premiered at the Organ and Chamber Music Hall in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2003.The second version of the Lullaby of the Stars (renewed for Symphony orchestra in 2015) was performed at the Nasimi festival of Art and Music on October 1, 2019 at the Center of Geydar Aliyev in Baku, Azerbaijan. Imadeddin Nasimi is the greatest Sufi poet, philosopher of 14 century well known by his revolutionary writings and progressive creation of mystic pantheistic doctrine.
Video is recorded by Azerbaijani TV Performers: Baku State Philharmonic Orchestra Conductor: Mustafa Mehmandarov Stage director: Aleksey Smirnov.
Click hear to listen to the recording.
- Impulse (1981)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for violin and piano
ca. 14'00"
Impulse is the first composition of the trilogy. Two others are Pulse (2012 for violin, clarinet, and piano) and Pulseless (2017 for violin, cello, and piano). Nature, starts everything from full ideas and logical impulses that have certain parameters for certain creations. A single impulse brings energy for upcoming pulsations. Timing for pulsations depends on how forceful the impulse is. All parameters of this process are related to the first impulse, that is the creative energy of its life. The force of this energy creates and emits all upcoming pulsations and after all gradually fading, freezes in the pulseless condition and silence. All these actions are coded insde of the first impulse.
The recording I have used for this video was made during the rehearsal in Tbilisi. The performers were Adila Javadzade, piano and Nino Shamugia, violin. Maybe it is far from an ideal recording but it is very valuable for me because performers captured the spirit and emotional vibrations of Impulse. I was amazed by their artistic approach. You may listen to another version of the concert premier of Impulse on my YouTube playlist collections. The Baku premier performance was featured by Adila Javadzade, piano and Elina Aliyeva, violin.
Click here to listen to the recording.
- 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.
- First Symphony (1976)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for orchestra
ca. 21'00"
- Eos-Helios (2013)
-
Rahilia Hasanova
for orchestra
ca. 15'30"
Click here to listen to a YouTube recording of this piece.
- 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.
- Ariadnemusic (1984)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, clarinet in Bb, violin, viola, violoncello, piano, and percussion
ca. 14'42"
For the Boston Musica Viva, Richard Pittman, music director
Click here to view revised performance notes.
Click here to hear a recording by the Prism Players on the Eleanor Hovda Collection CD on Spotify.
- Regions (1971, rev. 1997)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, clarinet in Bb, violin, grand piano, and crotales
ca. 12'40"
Commissioned by the Atlanta Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, California EAR Unit, and Boston Musica Viva through the Meet the Composer/Readers Digest Commissioning Program
Click here to view an addendum related to pages 4 - 11.
Click here to hear a recording by the California EAR Unit on Spotify.
- Strings (1989)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for violin and piano
For Stephanie Chase, commissioned by the Schubert Club
Strings was commissioned by the Schubert Club for violinist Stephanie Chase. I used metaphors from multidimensional string theories, where energy is conceived as infinite "strings" in space/time, and the Universe is said to have extra hidden dimensions. I have been working, for some time, on articulating lemniscates (figure-of-eight ribbons) as sonic sculptur. I'm also intrigued by an often unexplored timbral resource of stringed instruments: the "sound around the sound" of overtones, harmonics.
I visualize the piece as sound choreography, where the violin spins sonic "strings" and the piano is resonator, afterimage, or "shadow universe." The pitch structures in the piece derive from the harmonic series, and are shaped by bending, twisting and stretching those basic pitch relationships as much as possible without "breaking" them, or turning them into something else. The piano functions as an accumulating resonance field throughout the piece.
- No Snow (1990)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for violin, guitar, clarinet, and bowed piano
- Journeymusic (1981)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, clarinet in Bb, violin, contrabass, piano, and percussion
ca. 8'00"
Commisioned by the Jerome Foundation for the Orchestra of Our Time, Joel Thome, music director
Click here to view the performance notes.
- Onyx (1991)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for chamber orchestra
ca. 13'45"
This piece was commissioned by the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra.
This project was supported in part through funding from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Click here to view the score with composer's notes.
Click here to view the score with conductor's notes.
- The Lion's Head (1971)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, B-flat clarinet, violin, and cello
- Hollows (1985)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, oboe, bassoon, violin, and cello
For the Sylmar Chamber Ensemble, with gratitude to the McKnight Foundation
This piece is a very introspective probing of "the secret life" of the winds and strings. It resonates hollow places and takes long lengths of time to excavate and articulate the "sound around the sound."
- Curves (1988)
-
Eleanor Hovda
for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello
- Devil's Punchbowl (1993)
-
Lois V Vierk
for orchestra
ca. 11'30"
This piece was inspired by the twisted sandstone canyon in the southern California high desert in Angeles National Park called "Devil's Punchbowl". At this exquisite site you are always aware of both extreme beauty and also danger. Descending into the canyon the trail is rugged, rocky, and treacherous, and the heat is scorching. But rising up from the deep gorge are steep, magnificent mountains with their cold streams and sweet-smelling pine trees. The vistas are grand. Far in the distance, soft shapes and hues of the landscape melt into one another.
Devil's Punchbowl unfolds slowly. Musical materials are constantly developed, pushing the work forward from a relatively simple beginning to its dynamic and colorful climax. The piece opens with languorous brass slides downward. String phrases answer the brass, and woodwinds add color and wisps of melody. Gradually the strings begin their long ascending glissando, sweeping the woodwinds up to their highest register, ending the first section.
Immediately strings and low woodwinds enter with agitated multi-color, ever-changing trills and tremolos. Various instruments combine to form sinewy melodic shapes which creep slowly upward. Percussion becomes more pronounced. Brass adds rhythm and harmony. Each phrase builds on the one before as, little by little, the music becomes faster, louder, and rhythmically emphatic. Trombones and celli playing fortissimo glissandi in the lowest register propel the piece to its full orchestral climax. After the high energy of the climax the music returns briefly to the lyrical mood of the opening, ending gently.
Devil's Punchbowl was commissioned by the Bang On A Can Festival and the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. The commissioning of this work was made possible by a grant from the Meet The Composer/Reader's Digest Commissioning Program, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund.
The recording of Devil's Punchbowl is of the premiere, given by Victoria Bond conducting the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra on March 21, 1994. They performed the piece beautifully.
Below are two versions of the score. First is the final version, incorporating several sets of edits to the orchestration made after the premiere and over subsequent years, and which is dated 2009. The major changes to orchestration, emphasizing an expanded role for trombones, etc., are marked above the staves of the score.
The second is the original score as used by Victoria Bond in 1994 (with numerous indications marked for my first set of edits).
Click here to view the revised score and listen to the recording.
Click here to view the original score and listen to the recording.