Julie Giroux (b. 1961) is a composer in many media who has made her mark especially in the wind band realm. A Massachusetts native who grew up in Arizona and Louisiana, Giroux spent the early part of her career arranging and orchestrating music for film and television, as well as for several pop stars in Los Angeles. Since about 1997, she has focused her creative energies on original compositions. She has found broad interest in her work around the world, and she has been commissioned to write new music by ensembles of all levels. Most of her works are published by Musica Propria. Her website is a hub for her creative activities.

Italian Rhapsody was commissioned by Colonel Arnald D. Gabriel (the score notes that his birth name is Arnaldo Domenico Antonio Gabriele) and “dedicated to Fernando and Filomena Gabriele, my loving parents.” It was published in 2008 with the following program note by the composer:

Italian Rhapsody is a collection of Italian folk songs and a few operatic excerpts scored with Italian gusto! Solo Clarinet opens this work with a certain Mafioso flair developing into a devious rendition of “The Italian Wedding Song #2” (The Wedding Tarantella). “Caderna,” composed by A. D. Arcangelo, is presented in both an Italian street band and contemporary march style. Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème “Quando m’en vo” (Musetta’s Waltz) makes an appearance as an accordion player serenading young lovers in the moonlight. The finale features Luigi Denza’s “Funiculi! Funicula!,” Giuseppi Verdi’s Il Trovatore (Act II – Anvil Chorus) and Gioacchino Rossini’s Barber of Seville.

Italian operatic and folk song musical quotes are interlaced throughout the work. See if you can find them all! Scored with an Italian passion for family and feasting, Italian Rhapsody is definitely one very Spicy Meatball!

Colonel Gabriel conducts Italian Rhapsody with the US Army Field Band at the 2008 Midwest Clinic:

Giroux packed this piece with quotes, as she details in her program note. It begins with the Wedding Tarantella, more officially known as the Tarantella Napoletana:

Incidentally, I remember this tune from an ad campaign for McDonald’s Pizza Happy Meals c. 1990. If anyone can find a video of this, send it my way!

This transitions directly into Eh, Cumpari!, a delightful little number about what a whole bunch of different instruments sound like. Rough translation: “Hey buddy, something’s playing. What is it? A whistle. And what does the whistle sound like?” You can figure out the rest:

Here is one version of Arcangelo’s Caderna:

A clarinet cadenza leads into Musetta’s Waltz:

Eh, Cumpari! returns as transitional material, mixed in with a hint of Figaro’s Aria (“Largo al factotum”) from Barber of Seville:

This leads a to Funiculi, Funicula:

…which gets interrupted by Verdi’s “Anvil Chorus”:

If I’ve missed anything, let me know in the comments. Also, if you’ve stuck around this long, you deserve to watch another Italian mash-up. Don’t look away!

See more about Italian Rhapsody at Giroux’s website, Musica Propria, and the Wind Repertory Project.