Pellegrina is a unique work, and its music had to be equally unique—both in composition and in sound.

The musical pieces that accompany the videos, through which Pellegrina seeks to speak to all of you who are searching for a book like this, are two: one is a Balkan Saltarello with influences from the Kummi rhythms of the Tamil people of South India and Sri Lanka—particularly those danced during Puthandu, at the beginning of spring.

The choice of the Saltarello and the 6/8 meter, at a lively tempo of 110 bpm, was driven by the feeling we wanted to convey: that Pellegrina is a powerful and vibrant work. It reflects the message we wish to pass on to the reader—that, ultimately, life is a stage.

We wanted to musically paint a scene in which the listener can almost see Mimos reenacting moments of battle, scenes of love, and scenes of celebration—all within a powerful frenzy.

At the same time, since Pellegrina unfolds across multiple historical periods and numerous geographical locations, we wanted this Saltarello to feel familiar to as many people as possible: from the valleys of the Balkans to Italy, Persia, Pakistan, Iraq, and as far as Angkor Wat.

For this reason, we chose a frenzied, dynamic, and repetitive ostinato—a rhythm that evokes both a communal celebration and a battle—enriched with equally intense ornamentation.

We chose the Balkan gaida, which one can still hear today from the valleys of Bulgaria to southern Greece, much as it sounded from late antiquity in the 5th century AD up to the present day.

The Balkan gaida, with its single drone, has a much sharper, more tenor-like tone compared to the Scottish and Irish bagpipes, and it is also much faster in melodic execution—capable of sustaining a Saltarello.

Nevertheless, even the Balkan gaida could not withstand the piercing high notes toward the end of the piece, and we were compelled to use an Epirus zournas. This small instrument produces a sharp, piercing, and extremely loud nasal sound, and—within its range of one octave plus two notes—it allows for techniques such as slap tonguing and staccatissimo, analogous to pizzicato.

For the percussion, we selected instruments from the Punjabi traditions of South India, the Sufi traditions of Karachi, as well as Tamil drums.

All of the above elements were brought together into a single melody, with the help of Suno, which allowed us to multiply the gaidas and seamlessly transition them into zournas in the middle section of the piece, along with a synthesizer—since it would be extremely difficult for a zournas player to sustain such powerful breath continuously.