Composed in 2021. 
In performance by Calvin Green and Sarah Umezono in April, 2021. 

Commissioned by Sarah Umezono and Calvin Green in 2020. This commission was made possible through the support of Joan and Jerome Pucelik, Ronald Green, Darren Green, Edwin Oto, Kaz Umezono, Janet Green, Daniel Sweaney, Susan Steier, Jamie and Kristina Kitzmmer, Catherine Kemmer, Kathleen Holt, Peter Green, Lucky Young, Mark Bone, Sarah Umezono, Kit Hoang, Theresa Green, Kai-Yi Zhang, Alberto Pelisier, Cassandra Gibson, Pai Liu, Emma Brown, Conor Green, Gillian Kuroiwa, Ari Streisfeld, Pamela Stuckey, Autumn Pepper, Betty Brainerd, Jessica Cooper, Donny Chu, Gorton Lee, and Brandon Shulman.

Winds and Paths (2021), for viola and shakuhachi

for Soprano, Flute, Cello, Percussion.
Composed in 2016.

Soo Anaso is a mermaid, one of the characters of Tatar folklore. The piece reflects the image of this creature, who is singing and dancing. It portrays the scene of the forest, the lake, and the woods at night. The first section of the piece is meditative, as we enter the woods and hear Soo Anaso’s voice… The voice sings in an improvisatory style with some ornaments from Tatar folk music. 
 
The middle section is the dance. The syllables of the text (at-ta-ti, da-ra di-ta-ti-ra) are the syllables that Tatar people would use when they dance, to create rhythm when there are no instruments to play. The voice is accompanied here by triangle and percussive playing on the cello. 
 
The third section is also meditative, but this time it shows the lake: how it’s still and shining, with the reflection of the stars in the water. The vibraphone creates the lake, this shining, silver thing — there is breath, maybe, as we listen to the surrounding environment with all the sounds of the wind, lake, and rustling leaves.

Photo by Alex Gállego from Pexels.

Soo Anaso "Mermaid" (2016)

Composed in 2016.
Performed by Gnessins Russian Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra.

“Sound Flying Over Earth” is a symphonic poem, inspired by a poem by Musa Jalil (1906-1944), the Tatar National poet. In the poem, he is alone, away from his family. Cold, with fog around him, he can’t see things precisely — and he’s whistling, and he is tending a fire. The poem is a metaphor for the time he was prisoner in a camp during World War II. His poems were like a light, a fire among all the suffering he experienced. In the camp, will the poems be heard? Will they survive? (One of his camp-mates actually saved some of his poems, even though paper was at such a premium.) 

In “Sound Flying Over Earth,” he asks, will people hear this poem? Will it reach them? He imagines his voice, his quiet whistling — will it penetrate through the walls of fog and suffering?
He is calling people, to listen to their hearts; to choose the good side of themselves. “Sound flying over earth” is that voice, covering the entire earth, that is calling on people — this voice that can change people’s minds. 

That’s why the piece starts with the sound of rain: imagining him, in the fog, in the darkness. A melody starts, at first lonely. Gradually it becomes more involved, as the voice spreads across the world. I use my own voice for the ending section, before the rain returns again, this time in a major pentatonic key, instead of minor. This is to show that after going through the suffering of life, there is light at the end! Or, maybe, at the beginning - because we never know if the end just means the beautiful beginning of something else.

Photo by Bibhukalyan Acharya from Pexels.

Sound Flying Over Earth (2016), for Symphony Orchestra

Performed by the Del Sol Quartet.
Commissioned by the Del Sol Quartet.

Dedicated to my first music teacher, Yevgeniy Fralov, who passed away in 2020.

Image by Clyde RS.

Converted

My Face Held The Sky (2021), for String Quartet

Performed by Ashley Bathgate (cello, voice).

Night, lonely fire, lonely me, surrounded by shadows,
the fog-like sea embraces me, a stranger lost in vastness, 
light, the light of fire, through the gloom, 
will it be seen, will it be found, 
the sound flying over earth,
will it be heard, will it be answered?

Text by Musa Jalil, translated by Olga Baratova.

Image by Paul Bulai.

Lonely Fire (2020), for Voice and Cello

Performed by Adeliia Faizullina, vocalist; Nicholas Perry Clark, penny whistle; Leyou Wang, piano, at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Grant Recital Hall. March 22, 2022.

Text: 

Calved, halved
I am breaking the air with a crack
a chasm
swollen, swallowed, slowly lessening
A bitter song. began centuries ago, 
deep within me, in the heat of a frozen caribou.
By the time the song is done,
I will be a long yawn,
a field of ocean rising. Clean gone.

Text by Erin Lynch.

Photo by Philipp Trubchenko.

Glacier, in Retreat (2020), for Soprano, Penny Whistle and Piano

2018. For Mezzo-Soprano and Violin. Performed by Duo Cortona (Rachel Calloway, Mezzo and Ari Streisfeld, Violin).

In Tatar folk traditions, dreaming about dark water is a foreboding sign, but dreaming of flying, or the air, is a wonderful sign. In this piece, the character is in the dark water, singing “sinney meen sahenam” in Tatar, which means “I miss you.” She rises to the sunshine, eventually even above the water where she unites with her second half.

This piece was created under the aegis of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music and Duo Cortona.

Water. Under. Live I. (2018)

For Wind Symphony and Choir. 2019. 
Performed by Density512 at the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, TX, in February 2019. 

Reflections of Him, is inspired by Tatar proverb. I am Tatar and I translated this proverb into English, but added some Tatar and Italian words to show that, even speaking different languages, we all reflect each other, reflect the main sense of life. I used ‘Parolo’ in Italian and ‘Sooz’ in Tatar as symbols of all different languages reflect the people who speak them and as symbols of knowledge [that] reflects our past, present and future. Word is the powerful tool that brought religions and knowledge to us and I hope will be serving for peace in the world.

Reflections of Him (2019)

Played by University of Texas Austin New Music Ensemble in 2018.

Shurali (Movement 1) 
Shurali is a monster of Tatar Folklore who lives in the woods and scares people with the sound of his wooden bones. Walk with me on your tiptoes and quietly try to overhear tiny magic sounds of the rustling leaves, insects, and even your own heartbeat. Don’t miss the monster!
 
Sak and Sok (Movement 2)
Sak and Sok are two brothers, who after the curse turned into the Bird of Night and Bird of Day. They hear each other’s voices and wing-trembling just when it is sunrise or sunset time. But they cannot see each other.

Rainbow (Movement 3) 
The third movement, Rainbow, describes the colors of the rainbow using instrumental timbres and harmonies. 

Arba (Movement 4) 
Arba is an Asian two-wheel cart to carry live stock and food. Let’s start our journey with the sound of the whip, a little folk song, and welcome to join our choir of mischievous, funny animals.
 
Шурале древесный Монстр из татарского фольклора. Следуйте за мной. Прислушайтесь к звукам таинственного леса.Там вскрикнет птицы, здесь зашелестят листья, где-то скрипнет сухая ветка. В любую секунду можно встретиться со страшным Шурале! Сак и Сок братья, не нарочным проклятием обиженной матери превращенные в птиц. Теперь они в разлуке, не позволено им видеть друг друга,и лишь на рассвете или на закате могут они слышать печальные птичьи голоса своих песен. Арба двухколесная азиатская телега. Свист хлыста и наше путешествие началось. Скрип колёс, гоман весёлых голосов, блеяние, мычание, кудахтанье. Присоединяйтесь к нашему забавному хору!

Tatar Folk Tales (2018)

Played by Invoke String Quartet in 2018.

String Quartet with Penny Whistles was inspired by the sound of nature in Tatarstan, where I am from, and by the sound of the Tatar folk instrument Quray, which is very similar to the Penny Whistle.

Hear the wind.
Hear the water drops.
Hear the birds and rustling wing.
Hear the whistle of the memories and your own heartbeat.
Fly, sing and rejoice like free birds in the clear azure sky!

String Quartet with Penny Whistles (2017)

“Kubyalyak” was written in 2011 for a friend, a flutist, in Russia. “Kubyalyak” (or Butterfly, in the Tatar language), has some folk/Tatar melodic features, and describes the butterfly’s day, from morning to evening. It jumps, flies, sits somewhere, jumps and again flies above. The piece is thoughtful and playful, with all types of moving around, just like a butterfly.

Image Title: Insects and Fruit. From Rijksmuseum, Netherlands.

Kubyalyak "Butterfly" (2012)

Played by USC Thornton Symphony and Nina Shekhar, Quray (Tatar folk instrument similar to the penny whistle) on Feb. 28, 2020.

Bolghar is an ancient city located in Tatarstan, Russia, from as early as the 8th Century, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
When I’m in Bolghar, I feel my identity more precisely. I hear its voice more distinctly. It awakens in me, feelings that I am not just myself — I am someone that comes from this culture, these older generations. 
Because Bolghar is incorporated so well with nature, I’m using all the possibilities where I can refer to the basic nature of the orchestral instruments. I base my harmonies on the overtones series. With strings, I use a lot of harmonics and open strings. With winds, I use the sound of air, but it’s formed as a ritual: repeating patterns with slight differences. The flutes play with the overtone series and overblowing on the instrument. 

Sometimes in the piece, musical gestures finish abruptly, returning to a completely different color. In the climax, the music jumps to the past, and back to the present, back to the past again, and finally to the future. When I’m in this town, I feel flashes of the past — and then again I am brought to the present, talking to my friends and family. In the next moment I am thinking about the future — what’s next for us? We have to save these beautiful places.

Bolghar (2020) for Quray and Symphony Orchestra

Composer, Vocalist, Quray Performer 
www.adeliiacomposer.com

Adeliia Faizullina

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