Şekeroğlan for Orchestra is a 7-minute orchestral work based on a popular folk song from the Central Anatolian Region of Turkey, with the same name, “Şekeroğlan”.

The folk song is a love song from the side of a girl, calling her lover “Şekeroğlan”, meaning sweet boy. More important than the poetry of the folk song, the work is inspired by the common qualities of the region’s music such as using a 2/4 meter, an upbeat and danceable character with surprise accents, and obsessive and catchy motivic patterns. The distinct instrumentational colors of region’s music was also an orchestration source. Some commonly used instruments of the region are Bağlama, a plucked string instrument, which is also used in the recording that is included in the work, Davul, a double-headed Turkish folk bass drum, Wooden Spoons, a Turkish folk musical instrument, Folk Violin, tuned in fourths, and G Clarinet, with bright and flexible pitch. In the work, Davul and Wooden Spoons are used in the percussion section, and the wind and string writing often imitates the folk styles of playing with vibrato, embellishments, pressed tone quality, and use of the open strings.

The most important aim of the work is to expand and exaggerate on both motivic and instrumentation ideas from this particular folk song and the typical qualities of the folk music of the region, to create an energetic free piece that experiences this folk song in extremes.