for orchestra (2.2.2.2 | 3.2.1.0 | 2 percs | cel. | str.)
9’30

1st prize “La gnove musiche” International music competition by Filarmonici Friulani (Italy, 2023)
1st prize Etobicoke Philharmonic Orchestra Composition Competition (Canada, 2024)

Ellipse of a Cry draws its inspiration from Siguiriya, a form of Spanish Romani (Gypsy) music, and from Federico García Lorca’s poem El grito (“The Cry”) from Poema del cante jondo, two artworks that share a world where suffering is voiced with dignity and force.

The piece seeks to echo the poem’s stark imagery and emotional vastness: a cry that seems to suspend time, expanding outward before dissolving back into silence. This sense of circularity, of returning again and again to the same emotional core, gives the work its title, suggesting a cry that never fully resolves, but traces an orbit around an unspoken center.

Musically, Ellipse of a Cry is shaped by elements drawn from cante jondo: the use of an extended Phrygian mode, inflections with quarter-tones, insistent repetitions of notes or short motifs, and predominantly descending melodic gestures. Rhythmic flexibility plays a central role, favoring an elastic, breath-like flow over strict pulse, akin to the free, expressive timing of the Siguiriya. Through these means, the piece aims to convey a sense of power born from vulnerability, and strength forged through suffering.