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Saygun: "Etude on Aksak Rhythms Op. 38, No. 10"

3,479 views · Published 7 May 2014 · 3:20 · Indexed 11 October 2026

Channel: NewMusicXX · 2014 · Music

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Ahmed Adnan Saygun: "Etude on Aksak Rhythms, Op. 38, No. 10" (1958). Kathryn Woodard, piano. Available on iTunes and Amazon.com. If you enjoy this music, please consider supporting the artist by purchasing the recording. For more information please visit: www.kathrynwoodard.com and www.soniccrossroads.com

Ahmed Adnan Saygun was a Turkish composer, musicologist and writer on music. His works show a mastery of Western musical practice, while also incorporating traditional Turkish folk songs and culture. When alluding to folk elements he tends to spotlight one note of the scale and weave a melody around it, based on a Turkish mode. 

(The following information is from www.kathrynwoodard.com):The Ten Etudes on Aksak Rhythms, Op. 38 were composed in 1964 and have become a rite of passage for serious piano students in Turkey. With this set Saygun moves in a new direction for his piano writing, not only because of the technical demands of the pieces, but also for their more abstract references to Turkish music. ('Aksak' is Turkish for 'limping' and is a general theoretical term to refer to the irregular meters that are found both in Anatolian folk music and Ottoman art music.) Etude No. 10 provides a satisfying end to the cycle with its virtuosity and driving, complex 'aksak' meter of 3+3+4. The opening chromatic lines in the bass keep the timbre murky and make it difficult to ascertain the pulse. Even after the left hand settles on an ostinato, the melody line is kept abstract and shifting, creating a kind of rhythmic counterpoint in 'aksak' meters. In essence Saygun takes the building blocks of makam and aksak meters and creates a pendulous swing between abstract and concrete references to Turkish music in the Etudes.

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