This group of pieces, under the collective title Three Cameos for the Piano, consists of three keyboard miniatures intentionally composed in idioms recalling early twentieth-century popular keyboard styles. Each piece is dedicated to one of my personal friends.
"¡Espero que sí !" is the longest piece in the set, largely because it came about as a fusion of two earlier sketches. The first, "Excursion en Espagne," was composed in Tangier, Morocco, by 15 January 1983, but never seemed quite complete and had been shelved for future reworking. The second, a humorously programmatic habañera titled "La Maja y el moscon" ("The Maiden and the Fly") was written on 25 January 1982 for my friend, Susan Alonso, and printed on a paper fan I designed, hand-colored, and sent her while she was living in Italy. The 2001 marriage of the two separate works has been, I believe, a happy one, and joins my "Escala," "La fuente profética," and "The Birthday of the Infanta" in ongoing celebration of the great legacy of Hispanic keyboard music.