Havana Dreams
for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and percussion
by David A. Jaffe

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. 

Complete instrumentation:
  flute (doubling piccolo)
  Bb clarinet (doubling Bb bass clarinet, extending down to written C; 
              optionally doubling Eb clarinet)
  violin
  cello
  percussion(1 player):
    vibraphone
    marimba
    xylophone
    glock.
    timbales (2)
    cymbal
    bass drum with foot-pedal
    high hat cymbal
    cowbell
    three wood-blocks of different sizes
    guiro
    clave