A Jubilant Overture was dedicated to Fred Baetge and the Sam Rayburn High School Band of Pasadena, Texas. Written in the spring of 1969, the work has no program or descriptive basis of any kind except, possibly, the natural ebullience of young spirits in springtime, the loveliest time of the year.

The music is cast in the traditional three-part overture form, beginning with the rousing Allegro con brio statement of three related themes in quick succession (from which the entire work is constructed). A broad, singing middle section (also derived from one of the opening themes) follows, and the music then returns to its original tempo and mood, plunging on to a brilliant coda in which the tonalities of D major and B flat major are juxtaposed and combined before a triumphal ending in the key of B flat major.

Program note extracted from Program Notes for Band