Taşlar Yerine Oturmuş
for solo pipe organ

Work no. 244
2023

The title is a Turkish expression which means "things fell into place", but the literal meaning of the words is something like "stones were in place". I came across it when trying to read a Turkish novel ("trying" because I'm still learning) by Melisa Kesmez. Although I'm told it's very common, I was struck by the poetry of the words.

I like how the piece seems complicated rhythmically when I listen to it, but on paper it's much simpler than expected. It's oldschool counterpoint in the same way the Four Lessons are, but it's also modern in the way the endlessly descending line is like a discrete approximation of Shepard tone. And the piece sounds serene and detached, but to me it seemed to summarize many aspects of my work in a final kind of way – I composed this music a few days before I had an important flight, and I'm always nervous before flights.

The piece was first performed by Luca Massaglia in May 2023. His performance is linked below: