Cantes de viento y nieve – espirales de llanto

Songs of Wind and Snow – Spirals of Sorrow, a work for saxophone quartet dedicated to the Sigma Project Quartet.

Commissioned by the SIGMA Project Quartet funded by the Ernest von Siemens Music Foundation.

Work premiered on 4 October 2024 in the XVI Ciclo de Música Actual de Badajoz, Museo Extremeño e Iberoamericano de Arte Contemporáneo.

Mauricio Sotelo writes:

Songs of Wind and Snow – Spirals of Tears’ is a composition written for saxophone quartet and deeply inspired by the lyricism of the poet Federico García Lorca, particularly in his poem "After Passing - Poem of the Gypsy Seguiriya". The composition especially evokes the poetic figure of the verses: "and through the air rise/ spirals of tears". Throughout the piece, sonic images of snow and wind are intertwined with shreds of tears, a song or 'cante' torn from pain from which a breath of lyrical hope emerges. Another source of inspiration present here is Alban Berg's 'Lyric Suite'. Our work is dedicated with friendship and admiration to the Sigma Project saxophone quartet and is a sonic celebration of beauty and the hidden light in the bitterest moments of our existence.

Some blind girls

question the moon,

and through the air rise

spirals of tears.