24 Stories (excerpt)

Tale of the Sly Fox and the Sake Merchant (excerpt)

Dance Without a Dancer (excerpt)

Tale of the Sly Fox and the Sake Merchant

Fantasy Girl

The Bottle Song

Many Lifetimes

This is a brass quintet I composed for my senior recital at Cornish College of the Arts in April 2012. It was performed by the Seattle Chamber Brass Quintet with some substitute personnel.

Zhu Bajie is a secondary character from the Chinese literary classic, Journey to the West. I have never actually read the book, but I am familiar with Zhu Bajie's contemporary incarnations in popular culture, such as in the 70s television series, Monkey. In the original story, he was a royal guard in heaven, but because he lusted after the emperor's wife, he was banished to live on earth in the form of a half-swine/half-human. Thenceforth, he found himself on adventures with the Monkey King, both of them in pursuit of redeeming their karma by battling evil. Along the way, Zhu Bajie is always plagued by his own excess of appetite, often to humorous effect.

In the piece I wrote, I wanted to capture the action-adventure aspect of the story, while also portraying Zhu Bajie's humanity. In his bumbling nature towards redemption, I felt a great empathy and compassion. While he is certainly a fool, too easily overcome by his own animal desires, he is also earnest and ultimately pure of heart. For this reason, though there is some momentary humor at the end, this piece mostly strives to create a sense of heroic drama. I did not want it to be a looney farce but rather a noble quest.

Performers:
David Hall - trumpet
Joshua Gailey - trumpet
Masa Ohtake - trombone
Josiah Boothby - French Horn
Seth Tompkins - tuba

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