The first movement, "Und sie gruben (digging)" refers to the poem Es war Erde in ihnen, which makes use of the geminatio rhetoric figure. The verb "gruben" (to dig) is repeated, combined and used through the entire poem, giving it an organic structure. The music is constructed following this idea, both from the parallelism concept-music material (a musical gesture repeating notes, very rhythmical and articulated, as someone digging) and the idea of an organic structure, through the repetition and transformation of the gesture throughout the movement.

In Lob der Ferne, Celan enriches the theme of love and distance by a contrasting series of images, as an oxymoron ("we separate intertwined", "I am you when I am me", etc.), which give  words a certain sense of flow, transmission, liquid. This second movement translates this idea by enriching the pieces of an expressive melody with sonorities of flow such as glissandi, a broad vibrato, string changes and wide intervals.

Lastly, the third movement, Mandorla, is composed after the homonymous poem. Celan uses this geometric figure, probably remembering its occasional use in romanesque Tympanums, as a reflection of nothingness and at the same time infinite, where the possibility of creation occurs. Musically, I chose to build this infinite, mystical space where nothingness and creation coexist, through repetition. Elements that tear the discourse, as in the poem, make this dichotomy sound.

Francisco Andreo Gàzquez, 2020