Performed by Earplay, Yerba Buena Theatre, San Francisco, 1997.
Havana Dreams
for chamber ensemble
Duration: 17'
1997
Instrumentation: flute/picollo (one player), clarinet/bass clarinet/Eb clarinet (one player, with bass clarinet extending down to C), violin, cello, percussion (see below)
Havana Dreams is a "neural crosstalk" of recollections, longings, fantasies, hopes, contradictions, and disappointments, leaking into consciousness like faint voices over noisy phone lines in the steamy night. These emerge and recede, abruptly and gradually, sometimes logically, sometimes for reasons only intuitively grasped, like the tidal waters of the Malecon, like comparsa parade music as it approaches, halts, starts up again, passes, and fades. And always the dancing. The piece was inspired by the indomitable spirit of the Cuban people who, in the words of Alice Walker, "listen with as much heart as they speak." !No al Bloqueo! David A. Jaffe, December 1997, Berkeley, California. 1-minute (1.46m) sound excerpt. Earplay New Music Ensemble.
Percussion instruments (one plahyer): vibraphone, marimba<, xylophone, glock., timbales (2), cymbal, bass drum with foot-pedal, high hat cymbal, cowbell, three wood-blocks of different sizes, guiro, clave
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To order a score and parts contact Terra Non Firma Press