Three Turkish Preludes for solo flute (2003) available from SheetMusicPlus.

These three short pieces were written for the New York flutist Linda Wetherill. In addition to being a great proponent of new music, Linda spent a number of years traveling the world performing and teaching. Much of that time was spent in Istanbul. While in Istanbul, Linda became interested in Turkish folk music and collected quite a few folk melodies. These pieces are based on some of the melodies she collected. While these preludes are based on actual folk melodies, they are not straightforward settings of folksongs. Instead, the folk melodies present a point of departure for a free development of melodic ideas. I chose to develop certain parts of the melodies extensively and left out other parts of the melodies all together. Still, I believe that someone familiar with the original folk songs will recognize the sources.

Three Turkish Preludes was performed at the National Flute Assosiation convention in Anaheim California by Paul Thompson in 2010 (photo below).

Three Turkish Preludes. Paul Thompson, flute (excerpt).