I’m going to be visiting Turkey soon to visit my youngest son, which inspired me to look up some Turkish piano music.

This piece was written by Turkish composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun (1907-1991) using aksak, which means “limping” or “stumbling.”  It’s very fast with irregular rhythms.  (Strictly speaking, in Turkish music theory the term refers only to the grouping of nine pulses into a pattern of 2 + 2 + 2 + 3.)  For you math and computer experts, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aksak

If you want to see a close-up of a pianist’s hands, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=wi0vF7HG7gU  This video is a bit wavy and slightly blurry, but you can see more of the fast repeated notes, the glissandi, and the fast octaves in both hands.

Believe it or not, after all the dissonance, this piece has a C major chord in it towards the end.  See if you can hear it.  Then match the last note of the piece to the piano and see what it is.