In brief, muted, weird cries (6)
I believe the answer is:
precis
'in brief' is the definition.
'precis' can be an answer for 'brief' (thesaurus). I am not sure about the 'in' bit.
'muted weird cries' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'cries' is 'recis' which is within the answer.
A single letter 'p' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for precis that I've seen before include "Summary, short version" , "Abridgment (of text)" , "Prices for a summary" , "Digest - summary" , "Sketchy summary" .)