El Cerdito

This string quartet piece was inspired by the short story El Cerdito (“The Piggy Bank") by Juan Carlos Onetti. Onetti was a Uruguayan writer who created a very unique and personal literary realm in which he developed a sort of pessimistic yet absolutely original prose.

Those elements of negativism are present in this short story, but we also find a strong character study masterfully intertwined in the story: a very personal essay on the human condition, and a sublime pictorial description of the environment using just a few strokes. Onetti captures in a few lines a full universe of emotions, light, color, and even scent, which is what the music attempts to grasp.