Dragon's Breath, Op. 139 (for Brass Quintet)

Dragon's Breath, Op. 139 for brass quintet began as a short brass quintet fanfare as a gift to celebrate Giddings Mouthpieces 20th anniversary of making stainless steel mouthpieces, on which I played for much of my Air Force career. Ivan, the owner of Giddings Mouthpieces, was pleased with the gesture, but with the feedback that the low brass needed to have more fun. With that feedback and some encouraging words from Esteban Batallan, at the time the principal trumpeter of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), I went to work on this fiery piece. The evocative title Dragon's Breath comes from a heat treatment that Ivan Giddings uses on some of his mouthpieces. It is a title fitting of a fiery piece! Especially in light of my family moving to Japan during the compositional process, the title is also autobiographical with dragons being a prevalent theme throughout many Asian countries. Although trumpet parts in both B-flat and C are provided, the trumpet parts lay much more comfortably on C trumpets than on B-flat. The technical requirements of all five parts present delightful challenges and weave a complex furor throughout the piece, even when underlying the lyrical, albeit turbulent, melodies. Story line and imagery are left to the hearer's imagination based on everything the title may invoke.