Spumante
Dan Welcher (arr. Paul Bissell)
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General Info
Year: 1998 / 1999 / 2009
Duration: c. 7:05
Difficulty: VI (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Orchestra
Publisher: Theodore Presser Company
Cost: Score and Parts - Rental | Score Only (print) - $70.95
Instrumentation
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Like the Italian sparkling wine for which it is named, this overture is designed for a celebration. It celebrates the opening of the 1998 season of the Boston Pops, which commissioned the work, and it also celebrates my own fiftieth year of my life with a nostalgic look backward at a style of composition that was popular in the 40’s and 50’s. Beginning with a pop and a burst of bubbles, the overture follows a course familiar to most concertgoers: two main themes, a development, and a restatement of both themes. What’s a bit unusual is that the second theme is the same as the first theme, only inside out, with a different rhythm and meter. This technique, called inversion, is as old as Bach, and was used extensively by Brahms and other late Romantics. But the style of Spumante pays homage to the kind of music that first caught my attention as a child: the neoclassic music of the American 40’s and 50’s, by composers such as William Schuman, Vincent Persichetti, Samuel Barber, and Walter Piston. This music is the true celebration of Spumante.
Spumante was commissioned by the Boston Pops and its conductor Keith Lockhart, and premiered in Symphony Hall, Boston, in May of 1998. My good friend and former student Paul Bissell created this transcription in 1999 and it was premiered by the Dallas Wind Symphony in January of 2000, conducted by Kevin Sedatole.
- Program Note by composer
Media
- Audio CD: Dekaney High School Wind Ensemble (Trent Cooper, conductor) - 2010
- L.V. Berkner High School (Richardson, Tx.) Symphonic Band (Michael Brashear, conductor) – 22 December 2000 (2000 Midwest Clinic)
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- California State University, Long Beach, Wind Symphony (Jermie Arnold, conductor) - 17 November 2022
- University of Miami (Coral Gables) Frost Wind Ensemble (Tina DiMeglio, conductor) – 25 April 2019
- United States Air Force Band (Washington, D.C.) (Dustin Doyle, conductor) – 12 February 2017
- California State University Long Beach Wind Symphony (John Carnahan, conductor) - 1 December 2011
- Dekaney High School (Houston, Tx.) Wind Ensemble (Trent Cooper, conductor) – 16 December 2010 (2010 Midwest Clinic)
- L.V. Berkner High School (Richardson, Tx.) Symphonic Band (Michael Brashear, conductor) – 22 December 2000 (2000 Midwest Clinic)
Works for Winds by This Composer
- Arches (1985)
- Castle Creek (1989/2009)
- Circular Marches. See: Symphony No. 3, "Shaker Life"
- Downshifting (2014)
- For the Mystic Harmony (2017)
- Glacier (2003)
- Hauntings (1986)
- Laboring Songs. See: Symphony No. 3, "Shaker Life"
- Minstrels of the Kells (2002)
- Perpetual Song (2008)
- Songs Without Words (2001/2007)
- Spumante (1998/1999)
- Symphony No. 3, "Shaker Life" (1997)
- Laboring Songs
- Circular Marches (1997)
- Symphony No. 4, "American Visionary" (2005)
- Symphony No. 6, "Three Places in the East" (2017)
- Upriver (2011)
- The Yellowstone Fires (1998)
- Zion (1994)
Resources
- Dan Welcher website
- Welcher, D. (2009). Spumante : A Festive Overture for Large Wind Ensemble [score]. Theodore Presser: [King of Prussia, Penn.].