"A Vague Dream" is an impressionist work that tries to capture the feeling of waking from a dream you can't quite remember. Two thin textures frame a rollercoaster of scenes built around a pair of relentless dance rhythms that cycle between each other hyperactively and irregularly. These opening and closing gestures are characterized by the contrast between the darker timbre of the A clarinet in the opening gesture and the brighter timbre of the Bb clarinet in the closing section. These differences are augmented by the flute and enlgish horn at the beginning and the piccolo and oboe at the end.

This work exlores exclusively the pentachord Bb/A#, F, Eb/D#, F#, and B with the exception of a lone C# voiced in the Cello in measure 254 to activate the recapitulation. This imperfection creates a feeling of uncertainty yet safety and raises questions about the harmonic purpose of the rest of the work.