Work originally commissioned by the Onix ensemble and revised in collaboration with the Ensamble Nuevo de México, 2006.

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S.O.S. is a word in Morse code that means help or distress, which arose from the fact that it is very easy to express in that code, as it is reduced to 3 dots, 3 dashes, and 3 dots. The dashes and dots can be interpreted rhythmically in various ways, either as short and long notes, as staccatos and tenutos, or as the absence and presence of accents.

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In addition to the word S.O.S., I used synonyms for help in six different languages: Spanish, Italian, French, German, English, and Portuguese. Assuming that any word can be interpreted as a number whose base is determined by the total number of letters in the alphabet in which it is found, I developed conversion tables from these words to all bases between 2 and 16. These tables allowed me to assign notes to the rhythms extracted from the Morse code, reading the digits as the number of semitones with respect to a pedal point, as well as the structure of the dynamic regions and the dodecaphonic sequence that determines the reference pedal points.

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S.O.S. is a call for help that works very well because it is very easy to identify on the radio or telegraph, which also makes it ideal as a musical theme, as it allows one to follow its presentation and development. This piece not only intends to communicate an aesthetic message but can also be interpreted from beginning to end, note by note, accent by accent, as a message in code, as a plea for help in 6 languages.