Overture (from French ouverture, "opening") is a music instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overtures which were independent, self-existing, instrumental, programmatic works that foreshadowed genres such as the symphonic poem. These were "at first undoubtedly intended to be played at the head of a programme".

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.

French overture

As a musical form, the French overture first appears in the court ballet and operatic overtures of Jean-Baptiste Lully, which he elaborated from a similar, two-section form called ouverture, found in the French ballets de cour as early as 1640.

Italian overture

In Italy, a distinct form called "overture" arose in the 1680s, 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. Its stereotypical form is in three generally homophonic movements: fast–slow–fast. The opening movement is normally in duple metre and a major key; the slow movement in earlier examples is usually quite short, and sometimes in a contrasting key; the concluding movement is dancelike, most often with rhythms of the gigue or minuet, and returns 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.

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. With the reform of opera seria, the overture began to distinguish itself from the symphony, and composers began to link the content of overtures to their operas dramatically and emotionally. Elements from the opera are foreshadowed in the overture, following the reform ideology that the music and every other element on stages serves to enhance the plot. One such overture was that of La Magnifique by André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry, in which several of the arias are quoted. This "medley form" persists in the overtures to many works of musical theatre written in the 20th and 21st centuries.

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.

In Italian opera after about 1800, the "overture" became known as the sinfonia. 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".

One song of the Who's rock opera Tommy is designated as "Underture".

Film

In motion pictures, an overture is a piece of music setting the mood for the film before the opening credits start. Famous examples include Gone with the Wind (1939) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). For a comprehensive list, see the list of films with overtures.

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
  • Overture to an Italian Comedy
  • 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:
  • Academic Festival Overture
  • Tragic Overture
  • 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:
  • Iphigénie en Tauride
  • Orfeo ed Euridice
  • Alceste
  • 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:
  • The Marriage of Figaro
  • La clemenza di Tito
  • Così fan tutte
  • Don Giovanni
  • Idomeneo
  • Die Entführung aus dem Serail
  • The Magic Flute
  • Modest Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina
  • Nikolai Myaskovsky:
  • Pathetic Overture
  • Salutation Overture
  • Otto Nicolai: The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • Carl Nielsen:
  • Maskarade
  • Helios Overture
  • Jacques Offenbach: Orpheus in the Underworld
  • Sergei Prokofiev: Overture on Hebrew Themes
  • Emil von Reznicek: Donna Diana
  • Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov:
  • Russian Easter Festival Overture
  • The Maid of Pskov
  • May Night
  • Gioachino Rossini:
  • La cambiale di matrimonio
  • Tancredi
  • Il signor Bruschino
  • Il turco in Italia
  • La Cenerentola
  • Semiramide
  • Il viaggio a Reims
  • The Barber of Seville
  • La gazza ladra
  • L'italiana in Algeri
  • La scala di seta
  • William Tell
  • 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
  • Dmitri Shostakovich: Festive Overture
  • Bedřich Smetana: The Bartered Bride
  • Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus
  • Jean Sibelius: Overture to The Tempest
  • Arthur Sullivan:
  • The Mikado
  • The Gondoliers
  • The Yeomen of the Guard
  • 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:
  • La forza del destino
  • Nabucco
  • I vespri siciliani
  • 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:
  • Euryanthe
  • Der Freischütz
  • Oberon
  • James Barnes
  • "Alvamar Overture"
  • "Appalachian Overture"

Citations

General and cited references