Bolcom, William - Commedia, For Almost 18th Century Orchestra

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.