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The Three "Dragon" Overtures were inspired by the composer's love of the Chinese game "Mah-Jongg", which is played with a series of 144 decorative tiles original made out of ivory and sandalwood. The game has three suits of tiles, Bamboos, Circles and Characters. It also has extra tiles representing the four winds, four flower tiles, four season tiles and three dragons, Green, Red and White. These last three tiles were always the composers favourites not only because they looked impressive, but they were worth a lot of points and automatically doubled your score. During the 1960s the composer played regularly twice a week with his wife and two schoolmaster friends when he was a teacher at Cranleigh School in Surrey. Each member of the group of players took it in turn to host the evening and provide the meal which was prepared and cooked during the short gap between each hand whilst the square wall of tiles was rebuilt. When the Warwickshire Symphony Orchestra commissioned an overture from the composer in 1969 he could not resist the temptation to use the Green Dragon Mah-Jongg tile as a name for the piece. It was given its first performance in the Town Hall, Leamington Spa, on 15th March, 1970, conducted by Timothy Reynish. In 1982 the composer was commissioned to write an Overture by the Bath Symphony Orchestra and could not resist composing a second Dragon overture, this time Red Dragon. The first performance was in the Assembly Rooms, Bath and was conducted by the composer himself. Having completed two out of the three dragon overtures, there was obvious pressure to complete the trilogy, and in 1992 Derek Bourgeois composed his White Dragon, but this time for Concert Band instead of orchestra. This was published and recorded by Hafabra Music in 1998 and shortly afterward Louis Martinus asked the composer to arrange the first two overtures for band as well. The Green Dragon Overture is forceful, yet light-hearted consisting of the presentation and interplay of several themes. The Red Dragon is much more serious, at times wistful and has a sad ending. The White Dragon by contrast is forthright and almost pompous culminating in a grand march. There is a common thematic element running through all three overtures, but this is well hidden and is not all that obvious.
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