This work won the 2008 commission from the Michigan Music Teachers Midwest Competition.
The following goals were in the composer’s mind when he created The Fiddler and the Dragon:
1) write a piece that will be effective as a musical composition, or as a “play,” for violin, piano, and two
characters played by the same person,
2) amalgamate American fiddle music with Twenty-first Century techniques of harmony and counterpoint, and
3) after reading these program notes, make the audience
think deeply about the topic of the play, or the enjoyment of the music without text, whichever performance may be given.
All of the composer’s goals were achieved. Before knowing the topic of the play, only one, out of
fourteen people who reviewed the composition, knew what the play was about! Then, it occurred to the
composer that all of his “critics” were well-educated people who seemed to be uninformed about one of
our country’s greatest problems, namely, drug abuse. The composer’s critics never heard of such terms
as “chasing the dragon” (starting drug abuse), “light-orange-colored candy” (the base of crack cocaine)
and “sweet-smelling smoke” (marijuana). This composition is about what illegal drugs can do to people
who fall into addiction. Dagon, the dragon, and son of Satan, is very much alive today. One way or
another, drug abuse touches every American family; in fact, drug abuse is a scourge all over the world.
