Rouge Bouquet

For the 4th of July, here’s the wonderful Sovereign Brass performing my Rouge Bouquet. The inspiration was a poem with the same name written by Joyce Kilmer about duty, honor and sacrifice. The poem was first read to commemorate the death of 19 American soldiers as a result of an intense German artillery bombardment during WWI. Less than 5 months later, when Kilmer himself was killed by a sniper’s bullet, it was read again at his own service.