Understanding Form: The Overture

A video looking into Overtures, and the forms with which they were originally written. A lot of the theoretical information found in my videos on form are sourced from an out-of-print but reliable german language book about musical forms written by Richard Stöhr.
A special thanks as always to musopen.org and imslp.org for offering free public domain sheet music and recordings online.

[@EdWoodJr1956]

Verdi said that the overture is, "Six minutes at the beginning of the opera, where the audience talks amongst themselves, and no one pays attention to the music."

[@Sam-gx2ti]

I think Liszt told a student they have to improvise a prelude before they play the programmed pieces to "give them time to sit down, blow their noses, and stop talking."

[@OdinComposer]

You’re clearly the best music video-essayist 🤔 may you be blessed with 50 000 subscribers ⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@detectivefiction3701]

Lectures on overtures alone are lamentably few. Thanks for your contribution!!

[@luia93]

1:28 Fun fact: Jean-Baptiste Lully was actually Italian, born Giovanni Battista Lulli, in Florence. Your videos are the best by the way 👍

[@JcFiscus42]

I’m so enjoying your videos man. Great work!

[@nonbisinidem7729]

Great video, looking foward to whats next.

[@mox.kartal]

Love all your videos..Magnificent!

[@rosadovelascojosuedavid1894]

I think a wonderful Example for French is the Bach's French overture. Magnificent.

[@walkaboutarts]

thank you! very insightful presentation on this exciting topic

[@larrydubill]

Great synopsis! Well made!

[@chirinelbeayni]

Clear and interesting. Thank you

[@millennial8441]

Thanks to sharing your intellectual work.

[@katehaderlie]

Wow that was great!

[@derekyoung8112]

Thanks for this. I needed to know this!

[@aj1265]

Great video! Nice pacing

[@MarioCalzadaMusic]

Beautiful video

[@robstorm6867]

Any comment on the use of themes from the rest of the work being combined in an overture?

[@MusicaUniversalis]

Sure, I didn't include this in the video simply because I found the other topics more interesting. But to answer your question this is a characteristic found in some overtures, but not all. With Mozart, he often uses the motifs of the slow introduction of the French overture later in the opera, most notably in Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute. Wagner for example does this in his Overtures/Preludes/Vorspiele, where he introduces his most important leitmotifs.

[@robstorm6867]

To me, this is one of the more powerful parts of overtures, especially in film scores, musicals, etc. Surely there must be some technique involved when taking themes from disparate pieces and combining them together into a cohesive whole? Do they need to change the keys of certain motifs to fit in or do they just find ways to modulate between them? If there are different time signatures involved what happens to transition or how is the theme modified to adapt? What about instrumentation differences between the overture and later sung parts in an opera such as the overture to Tristan and Isolde vs the end of the first act? So many things!

[@thomaswenas-bobbiefet5805]

Would Bach's sinfonia from partita 2 in c minor count as an ouverture? It follws the scheme, slow, slow, fast(fuge). Or is a sinfonia a scheme in initself?

[@caterscarrots3407]

I think a sinfonia is a scheme of its own and from what I have heard, it tends to be a short and relatively simple 3 voice fugue by another name that may or may not have an introduction, but the main part of it, the part that makes it a sinfonia, is the fugue.

[@wmgflute]

3:36 When the Bach-a is sus!

[@erik878]

I think I wrote an overture in g minor, it's just two minutes or so, using that finale program. It's pretty

[@dinosaurfilms]

What's the difference between a prelude and an overture?

[@denizzzzz7349]

Prelude is often a smaller, tinier musical piece, mostly composed and played on one instrument (although, not always!). It's peak in popularity happened during the Romanticism and survived partially in the Impressionism era. They are mostly played by themselves, without connecting to any other musical piece. Ovretures are much more grandiose and musically dense, and serve to introduce the listener to an operatic piece, or something of such calibre. Just listen to Chopin's or Rachmaninoff's preludes. Cheers!

[@caterscarrots3407]

Also, preludes are common in Baroque music, in which case it usually precedes either a fugue or a dance piece. Bach is the most well known when it comes to Baroque preludes, but other Baroque composers also composed preludes.

[@milesemil1800]

Progessive music inspiration

[@searchmeinyoutube]

Why tf you stopped Tchaikovsky exactly before cannons ?? I was just waiting for *💥*. I'm so disappointed. Anyways, good explanation.👍

[@anuragdeshpande657]

so is close to the edge an italian overture?

[@MychelleSeymourHeyyouremember]

Now I'm finally not understanding. I'm very satisfied. 😊❤️. Additionally subsequent ideas are lame.

[@ninoding]

Please don’t forget overtures were played differently in the baroque era, instead of playing what’s on the music they would play them in a swinging style.

[@williamcarter3955]

Yes, although this video is greatly informative, it could perhaps use more examples from the actual time periods where these overtures developed. Felt a little weird to skip into Mozart where the form had already been adapted to classical tastes