L’anello (the ring) is a piece about sound, space and the choreographic gestures of the conductor who is also a soloist. The piece was inspired by the multifaceted work of Steven Schick. Here the gestures of the conductor mix traditional conducting movements with different gestures and movements created to indicate changes in volume, articulation and the spatialization of sounds in certain parts of the piece.

The name of the piece not only suggests the positions of the instruments and the conductor on the stage but also the form, timbre, texture and pitch content of the piece. The soloist is located in the middle of the ensemble arrangement as a diamond in a solitaire ring. The sound at the beginning emerges from silence and, at the end, it disappears as the shank of the ring disappears behind the finger as we view it. The soloist, using only high, non-pitched percussion instruments, suggests the multiple facets of a diamond.

In addition, when the soloist moves, playing at different sides of his station and the sound of the ensemble is spatialized, it suggests the way a diamond shines when the ring moves. The entire piece was composed thinking of shapes and their movements. The textures where constructed through the creation of a matrix which distributes pitch, articulation, accentuation, the placement and duration of the rests in particular ways. The composition process started with the soloist’s materials without clear pitch structure and moved out into the instrumental groups at his side, where the harmonic content is greater than at the beginning or end of the piece. There, all instruments play the same note: B at the beginning and E at the end.

“The ring” is the ring The Silent Boy of the poem “El niño mudo” by Federico García Lorca wanted to make with his voice.