Overture << OH vuhr chur >> is an instrumental composition that introduces a longer musical work, especially an opera. Some overtures, called concert overtures, are always performed as independent compositions.
The first overture was written in the 1660’s by the French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully. Lully opened his operas and ballets with French overtures, which were short pieces consisting of two sections. The first section was slow, and the second lively. The second section of the overture often ended with a brief return to the slow tempo.
In the 1690’s, Alessandro Scarlatti, an Italian composer, developed the Italian overture, also called the sinfonia. It consisted of three movements, of which the first was lively and written in the sonata form (see Sonata). The second was slow, and the third extremely fast. The Italian overture had an important role in the development of the symphony.
Overtures were revolutionized during the 1700’s by the German-born Christoph Willibald Gluck and by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart of Austria. Gluck became the first major composer to use an overture to put the audience in the proper mood for an opera. Previously, the overture had no direct connection with the opera that followed it. Mozart continued Gluck’s ideas and established the overture as a single movement. The overtures written by Mozart served as models for overtures to future operas.
During the 1800’s, opera overtures were often performed separately at concerts. These performances inspired composers to write concert overtures. Most of these concert overtures were short pieces that musically told a story or set a mood. Popular concert overtures include the “1812” (1880) by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky of Russia and the Academic Festival (1881) by Johannes Brahms of Germany. During the 1900’s, many concert overtures were written to be performed by school orchestras and bands.
Loading the player...1812 Overture
The concert overtures composed by Felix Mendelssohn of Germany during the 1820’s and 1830’s led to the development of the symphonic poem in the mid-1800’s (see Symphonic poem). Another German composer, Richard Wagner, avoided the traditional overture in his operas of the mid-1800’s. Instead, Wagner used an orchestral piece called a prelude that led directly into the first scene of an opera. Many later composers used neither an overture nor a prelude in their operas.
