THREE ODES TO A LOST CAT
(WITH EFE YUKSEL)

And through the noise, through the desolate wasteland, you arrive at the garden.

Flowers bloom. The full moon casts a deep silver reflection on the pond. Twilight. Pink skies and purple hearts.

You turn. Your friends are all with you. You raise your head to the moon and meow. Your comrades meow with you.

You meow together under the moonlight, your feline hearts all beating as one.

You meow again. You feel the heartbeat of every cat on every planet in every galaxy.

You turn to the cat next to you, and the cat next to them, and the cat next to them,
and you realise you are the ball of yarn that makes up the universe.
 

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three odes to a lost cat is a work for solo bass melodica and live electronics, composed in Spring 2026 in collaboration with composer and melodica player Efe Yuksel.

I was thinking about a number of things when composing three odes to a lost cat.

I was thinking about three important cats in my life: Crackle, who ran away from home just before I was born; Sarah, who went a bit stir-crazy following my birth; and Stella, who was my feline partner-in-crime from when I was about 12 until she passed away last year.

I was thinking about how if you make a vocaloid sing meow on a chord, it sounds like a choir of cats holding you together.

I was thinking about that Samuel Barber song cycle setting text from about a monk’s friendship with a cat.

I was thinking about the bonds we humans have shared with cats throughout history, dating all the way back to the age of agriculture until now.

I was imagining my lost cat finding her way to all of her cat friends in the afterlife, and they’d all join paws and sing together at the moon.

I guess three odes to a lost cat is about all of these things, in some way. It’s about cats, yes; but I think it’s also about the interconnectedness we all inherently have as humans, the community we all seek as humans, and the universality of the fact that across cultures, across eras—no matter who you are, where you come from, where you’ve lived—we can all connect over our love for cats.

'three odes to a lost cat' was commissioned by Efe Yuksel, and is scheduled to be premiere in İzmir, Turkiye, in late 2026, with a subsequent performance in London (details TBA).

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Performers:

Bass melodica - Efe Yuksel

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Performance history:

date TBA - İzmir (TR) w.p. 

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