CHIMERA ~ A concerto for Brass Quintet and Orchestra

 

The Chimera was, according to Greek mythology, a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature of Lycia in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), composed of the parts of more than one animal. It is usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that might end with a snake's head, and was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra.

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The term chimera has come to describe any mythical or fictional animal with parts taken from various animals, or to describe anything composed of very disparate parts, or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling.  The seeing of a Chimera was an omen for disaster.

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The composer writes - 

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"In the summer of 2006 I began a series of concertos based on Greek Mythology. Chimera was the first in this series. This work was commissioned by  Conductor Naoto Otomo for the world renown Center City Brass Quintet and the Tokyo Symphony.