Arrangements for Lawrence Welk’s famous “Champagne Music” are now available online.
The NDSU Institute for Regional Studies, through its online database at http://library.ndsu.edu/db/welk, is providing access to about 10,000 music arrangements used by the Lawrence Welk Orchestra and its individual performers. Most were used on Welk’s long-running television show that aired from 1955 to 1982.
“This collection is truly a national treasure,” said John Bye, director and university archivist. “The institute over the years has received many requests from across the country for Welk arrangements. We are pleased to be able to provide easy online access to the collection.”
The Welk music arrangements form the core of the Lawrence Welk Collection donated to NDSU by the Welk family in 1993.
The online database can be searched by title and title term, which allows a search for a specific title or a particular word in all titles. For instance, searching the term “champagne” will list 44 records, from “Blue Champagne” to “Night They Invented Champagne.” The database also may be browsed by performer, arranger and full title.
Each arrangement record includes title, arrangement number, arranger, performers, music key, instrumentation with the number of parts for each and notes.
For more information on the arrangements and the Welk collection, contact Bye at 1-8877 or john.bye@ndsu.edu.