Overture
Overture (from
The idea of an instrumental opening to opera existed during the 17th century. Peri's Euridice opens with a brief instrumental ritornello, and Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607) opens with a toccata, in this case a fanfare for muted trumpets. More important was the prologue, consisting of sung dialogue between allegorical characters which introduced the overarching themes of the stories depicted.[3]
French overture
As a
Italian overture
In Italy, a distinct form called "overture" arose in the 1680s, and became established particularly through the operas of Alessandro Scarlatti, and spread throughout Europe, supplanting the French form as the standard operatic overture by the mid-18th century.[7] Its stereotypical form is in three generally homophonic movements: fast–slow–fast. The opening movement was normally in duple metre and in a major key; the slow movement in earlier examples was usually quite short, and could be in a contrasting key; the concluding movement was dance-like, most often with rhythms of the gigue or minuet, and returned to the key of the opening section. As the form evolved, the first movement often incorporated fanfare-like elements and took on the pattern of so-called "sonatina form" (sonata form without a development section), and the slow section became more extended and lyrical.[7] Italian overtures were often detached from their operas and played as independent concert pieces. In this context, they became important in the early history of the symphony.[8]
18th century
Prior to the 18th century, the symphony and the overture were almost interchangeable, with overtures being extracted from operas to serve as stand-alone instrumental works, and symphonies being tagged to the front of operas as overtures.
19th-century opera
In 19th-century opera the overture, Vorspiel, Einleitung, Introduction, or whatever else it may be called, is generally nothing more definite than that portion of the music which takes place before the curtain rises. Richard Wagner's Vorspiel to Lohengrin is a short self-contained movement founded on the music of the Grail.[5]
In Italian opera after about 1800, the "overture" became known as the sinfonia.[11] Fisher also notes the term Sinfonia avanti l'opera (literally, the "symphony before the opera") was "an early term for a sinfonia used to begin an opera, that is, as an overture as opposed to one serving to begin a later section of the work".[11]
Concert overture
Early 19th century
Although by the end of the eighteenth century opera overtures were already beginning to be performed as separate items in the concert hall, the "concert overture", intended specifically as an individual concert piece without reference to stage performance and generally based on some literary theme, began to appear early in the
However, the overture A Midsummer Night's Dream (1826) by Felix Mendelssohn is generally regarded as the first concert overture.[1] Mendelssohn's other contributions to this genre include his Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage overture (1828), his overture The Hebrides (1830; also known as Fingal's Cave) and the overtures Die schöne Melusine (The Fair Melusine, 1834) and Ruy Blas (1839). Other notable early concert overtures were written by Hector Berlioz (e.g., Les Francs juges (1826), and Le corsaire (1828)).
Later 19th century
In the 1850s the concert overture began to be supplanted by the symphonic poem, a form devised by Franz Liszt in several works that began as dramatic overtures. The distinction between the two genres was the freedom to mould the musical form according to external programmatic requirements.[1] The symphonic poem became the preferred form for the more "progressive" composers, such as César Franck, Camille Saint-Saëns, Richard Strauss, Alexander Scriabin, and Arnold Schoenberg, while more conservative composers like Anton Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann and Arthur Sullivan remained faithful to the overture.[1]
In the age when the symphonic poem had already become popular, Brahms wrote his
20th century
In European music after 1900, an example of an overture displaying a connection with the traditional form is
One song of the Who's rock opera Tommy is designated as "Underture".[13][14]
Film
In
List of standard repertoire
Some well-known or commonly played overtures:
- Anton Arensky: A Dream on the Volga
- Malcolm Arnold:
- Beckus the Dandipratt
- A Grand, Grand Overture
- Peterloo
- Tam O'Shanter
- Daniel Auber: Fra Diavolo
- Samuel Barber: Overture to The School for Scandal
- Arnold Bax: Overture to a Picaresque Comedy
- Ludwig van Beethoven:
- Leonora Nr 1
- Leonora Nr 2
- Leonora Nr 3
- Fidelio
- Coriolan Overture
- Creatures of Prometheus
- Egmont
- The Ruins of Athens
- The Consecration of the House
- Arthur Benjamin
- Hector Berlioz:
- Benvenuto Cellini
- Le carnaval romain
- Le corsair
- Les Francs-Juges
- King Lear
- Waverley
- Leonard Bernstein: Candide
- Georges Bizet: Carmen
- Alexander Borodin: Prince Igor
- Johannes Brahms:
- Anton Bruckner: Overture in G minor (WAB 98)
- Aaron Copland: An Outdoor Overture
- Antonín Dvořák: Carnival Overture
- Edward Elgar:
- In the South (Alassio)
- Cockaigne
- Froissart
- George Gershwin:
- Cuban Overture
- Overture to Strike Up the Band
- Philip Glass:
- Overture 2012
- King Lear Overture
- Mikhail Glinka: Ruslan and Lyudmila
- Christoph Willibald Gluck:
- Antônio Carlos Gomes: Il Guarany
- Edvard Grieg: In Autumn
- George Frideric Handel
- Overture to the Music for the Royal Fireworks
- Overture to the Water Music
- Overture to Messiah and other Oratorios
- Joseph Haydn: Armida
- Ferdinand Hérold: Zampa
- John Ireland:
- A London Overture
- Satyricon Overture
- Édouard Lalo: Le roi d'Ys
- Franz Lehár: The Merry Widow
- Andrew Lloyd Webber:
- "Overture from Phantom of the Opera"
- Hamish MacCunn: The Land of the Mountain and the Flood
- Felix Mendelssohn:
- The Hebrides (or Fingal's Cave)
- Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Ruy Blas
- Die schöne Melusine (The Fair Melusine)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
- Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina
- Nikolai Myaskovsky:
- Pathetic Overture
- Salutation Overture
- Otto Nicolai: The Merry Wives of Windsor
- Carl Nielsen:
- Jacques Offenbach: Orpheus in the Underworld
- Sergei Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes
- Emil von Reznicek: Donna Diana
- Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov:
- Gioachino Rossini:
- Franz Schubert:
- Overture in Italian Style, D590
- Rosamunde
- Robert Schumann:
- Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op 52
- Manfred
- Genoveva
- Faust
- Julius Caesar
- Hermann und Dorothea
- The Bride of Messina
- Festive Overture
- Bedřich Smetana: The Bartered Bride
- Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus
- Jean Sibelius: Overture to The Tempest
- Arthur Sullivan:
- Franz von Suppé
- Light Cavalry Overture
- The Beautiful Galatea
- Poet and Peasant
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:
- 1812 Overture
- Hamlet (Overture-Fantasy)
- Romeo and Juliet (Overture-Fantasy)
- The Nutcracker (Miniature Overture)
- Giuseppe Verdi:
- Richard Wagner:
- Faust Overture
- The Flying Dutchman
- Lohengrin (both Act and Act III Preludes)
- Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
- Rienzi
- Tannhäuser
- Ralph Vaughan Williams: The Wasps
- William Walton
- Johannesburg Festival Overture
- Scapino Overture
- Portsmouth Point Overture
- Carl Maria von Weber:
Citations
- ^ a b c d e Temperley 2001
- ^ Blom 1954
- ^ Carter n.d.
- ^ Waterman and Anthony 2001
- ^ a b Tovey 1911, p. 385.
- ^ Burrows 2012, [page needed]
- ^ a b Fisher 2001
- ^ Larue 2001
- ^ Taruskin n.d., [page needed]
- ^ Charlton and Bartlet n.d.
- ^ a b Fisher 1998
- ^ Anon. 1957; Maycock 2009; Burton-Page n.d.
- ^ "If You Have An Overture, Do You Also Need An Underture?". www.ratherrarerecords.com. October 3, 2018.
- ^ Atkins 2000, pp. 121–122.
General and cited references
- Anon. 1957. "Music: Op. I for Vacuum Cleaners" Time (April 22).
- Atkins, John (2000). The Who on Record: A Critical History, 1963–1998. ISBN 978-0-7864-0609-8.
- Blom, Eric. 1954. "Overture". Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, fifth edition, edited by Eric Blom. London: Macmillan Publishers; Toronto, Canada: Macmillan Publishers.
- Burrows, Donald. 2012. Handel, second edition. Master Musicians Series. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
- Burton-Page, Piers. n.d. "Malcolm Arnold: A Grand, Grand Overture, Programme Note". Chester-Novello publisher's website (accessed 6 November 2009).
- Carter, Tim (2001). "Prologue". In ISBN 978-1-56159-239-5..
- Charlton, David and M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet. n.d. "Grétry, André-Ernest-Modeste." Grove Music Online.Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press, accessed March 29, 2016,http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/43361.
- Fisher, Stephen C. 1998. "Sinfonia". ISBN 0-333-73432-7.
- Fisher, Stephen C. 2001. "Italian Overture." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Larue, Jan. 2001. "Sinfonia 2: After 1700". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- Maycock, Robert. 2009. "What's On/Programme Notes, Malcolm Arnold (1921–2006), A Grand, Grand Overture, Op. 57 (1956)" Promsprogramme, Prom 76: Last Night of the Proms (Saturday 12 September).
- Taruskin, Richard. n.d. Chapter 10: "Instrumental Music Lifts Off." In his Music In The Seventeenth And Eighteenth Centuries (Oxford History of Western Music). New York: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 29 March 2016.
- Temperley, Nicholas. 2001. "Overture". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
- public domain: Tovey, Donald Francis (1911). "Overture". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 384–385. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Waterman, George Gow, and James R. Anthony. 2001. "French Overture". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
External links
- Media related to Overtures (music) at Wikimedia Commons