SKU: HL.359041
Full Score. Composed by William Bolcom. E.B. Marks. Softcover. Edward B. Marks Music #MP077057. Published by Edward B. Marks Music (HL.359041). ISBN 9781705120835. UPC: 840126945010. 11.25x17.0x0.407 inches.
Commedia, subtitled “for (almost) 18th-century orchestra,†boldly trots out some of the orchestral cliches of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was influenced, as its title suggests, by the commedia del'arte (albeit distantly) - the stock characters tossed against each other in a variety of situations, often comic, but, as evidenced in the paintings of a Longhi or a Magnasco, not without a dark side. Much of the piece consists of a tarantella or saltarello in fast 6/8 time. Commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and premiered by the orchestra under Sydney Hodkinson in March, 1972.
