Blue Dragon by William Zhang (10 Years Old)

Title: Blue Dragon
Composer: William Zhang
Year: 2022
Short Version
Blue Dragon is an orchestral piece telling the growth story of young blue dragon, consisting of 22 different instruments, composed by William when he was 10 years old.
Long Version
Prior to Blue Dragon, William wrote two complete piano Sonatas, each with three different movements and a few divertissements. Fueled by his burning passion for expressing his internal world, in his own word “feeling a great burden smashing into my brain, soul and sanity”, he embarked on the ambitious journey to write this orchestral piece when he was 9 years old. He spent countless hours, stubbornly burning midnight oils, passionately experimenting different instruments, trying out new sounds, writing, rewriting, editing the piece. He finished it when he was 10 years old. We were blessed to witness the most beautiful moments when the intense emotion poured and captured and the hard work unwaveringly devoted. His pure desire to explore new fronts and to tell story about the elusive spiritual world projects hope for all of us far beyond our small family. We are immensely grateful for the light of humanity.
We have been hoping to find an orchestra to bring this piece to life, for more than two years, to no avail. It is indeed a frustrating and crushing experience for William. We were shocked by the lack of support for young composers. We decided to share his music here with all the people who care for William and his music. Nonetheless William forged on and has been writing new music pieces since then, which we will share soon.
Dear friends, if you know a group who might be interested in playing William’s music, please let us know. We would be happy to send the score.
Thank you for reading. :) Peace, joy and love to you.
Now here are the program notes about Blue Dragon.
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Blue Dragon is a tone poem, based on the growth story of a young blue dragon.
The title character, blue dragon, is hatched from a dragon egg in a velvet-soft nest glistening with fine golden rays. The baby dragon is ejected into the vast sky following the comet-like trajectory. Soon the baby dragon starts falling into the forest because he does not know how to fly. He scurries in the forest, sniffing, swirling, exploring, and meeting swarms of mushroom, butterflies, a young starling, an old crow, and an intimidating brown bear.
The young blue dragon climbs mountains, treks through the Cyclops valley and he finally arrives at the magical Tomb of Glorimbia. At the Tomb of Glorimbia, he discovers an ancient stone army in a pit. Though with great caution, the young dragon’s tiptoeing disturbs the stone army’s primeval slumber. The army awakens. One after another, the soldiers of the stone army start to march solemnly with cold, still, and emotionless faces. As the grand parade comes to an end, and the army vanishes, the blue dragon is left alone.
Reminiscing the flowers, the mushrooms, and the birds in the forest and his jolly time with them, the young blue dragon’s heart sinks, and as sadness and loneliness permeate, he thinks he will never be able to get out of this cave.
Silver light glistens in the distance. Filled with hope, the young blue dragon slowly walks towards the light, and he is out of the cave. He finds himself on top of a great mountain. Within a few steps though, he falls off the cliff. Magically, the spellbound cave has transformed the young blue dragon. His wings are fully developed now. He soars into the sky, over hills, over dales, through forests, and above rivers. He lands in a clearing where all the animals bow to him. He shoots up into the air and roars his fiery breath.
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