Overture. What is an overture

30.01.2021

OVERTURE

(French ouverture, from ouvrir - open) - an orchestral piece, which is an introduction to opera, ballet, oratorio, drama, etc .; also an independent concert work in sonata form. the overture prepares the listener for the upcoming action, concentrates his attention, introduces him into the emotional sphere of the performance. as a rule, the overture conveys in a generalized form the ideological concept, dramatic collision, the most important images, or the general character, coloring of the work.

Dictionary of musical terms. 2012

The appearance of the overture on the musical horizon

Since the first appearance of this musical form at the beginning of the 17th century as an introductory part to the opera "Orpheus" by the Italian composer Monteverde, the term has gained such popularity that it has become a household word. The eve of something to come - that's what an overture is. Most often, this term is seen as a translation from the French expression ouverture, which means "introduction." After the first appearance, the fashion for such anticipation, explaining the subsequent, was quickly picked up by the musicians of Europe, especially France. There was even the concept of "French overture" in contrast to the Italian. They differed from each other in the pace of performance of individual parts - the initial, middle and final. The dispute was not won by either side, and both types of this orchestral work received the right to exist.

A striking example of a domestic overture

Developing and improving, the musical introduction turned into an independent work, and not only an orchestral one. An example of an overture of this type is the grandiose work of P. I. Tchaikovsky, dedicated to the fateful event of Russian history - the victory over Napoleon. In addition to the orchestra, bells and a choir sound in it, and gun salvos conclude the “Solemn Overture in Memory of 1812”. Only in this way it was possible to determine and emphasize the popularity of the victorious army in the world and the significance of the victory itself. In this case, a grandiose piece of music is what an overture is.

The necessity that led to the

And such an introductory part was originally conceived as the third bell. That is, providing an opportunity for the audience to sit down in their places and internally, focusing on the sounding music, prepare to listen to the work. Of course, the composer's talent determines everything, and some overtures are so beautiful that they live an independent life in the "Popular classical music" section. Vivid examples are the run-up to Bizet's operas Carmen and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. A story about the tragic fate of the heroes, about the cruelty that jealousy is capable of, conveyed with the help of very beautiful music - that's what an overture is in this particular case.

Musical introduction to works of art

The list of musical pieces that serve as an introduction to purely dramatic works is supplemented by the music for Goethe's drama "Egmont", written by Beethoven. His other overture to Collin's play Coriolanus also gained world fame. No less famous is Balakirev's musical introduction to Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear and Mendelssohn's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. In general, the overtures of the last named composer overshadowed many of the dramatic works for which they were written.

Contribution of geniuses to the popularity of the overture

All musical authorities - Lully, Scarlatti, Gluck, Mozart, Rossini worked on perfecting the form, accuracy of conveying the meaning and mood of the subsequent opera, ballet or other work. It is simply impossible to list them all. Domestic composers Glier, Khachaturian, Shostakovich are the authors of solemn, festive, welcoming overtures. The musical beginning of any major work that vividly conveys its essence is what an overture is. All the music deserves a separate word, including the introductory part by Robert Schumann to Byron's Manfred, as well as the preliminary parts to Cherubini's operas, the introduction of the Ukrainian composer Lysenko to the opera Taras Bulba. Even if we mention in passing all the great musical masters who have contributed to the development of this genre, there will not be enough time and space allotted.

Musical introduction to the films - the rebirth of the overture

But overtures to films deserve separate words and attention. Which of the people living in the post-Soviet space is not familiar with the music for the film "Children of Captain Grant", released in 1936? This overture is so good that it was also kept in the series (1985), dedicated to the search for the same captain. And who is not familiar with the overture to The Phantom of the Opera now? In the early 70s of the XX century, the Soviet audience was unable to watch the sensational musical "West Side Story" by Bernstein. But music, especially the overture, was known to many. There are a lot of domestic films that have become famous thanks to the musical accompaniment to the credits. In cinema, overtures create a special atmosphere, make the film more memorable. What is the introductory music for all the Harry Potter series!

Very often recently this term is found in the titles of popular animated, feature and documentary films. An example is an anime about the heroes of the Galaxy. Occurs in the titles of articles, especially political ones. Given the peculiarities of our time, we can say that we all live on the eve of something grandiose, that our whole life is an overture.

What an opera consists of: an overture. Photo - Yuri Martyanov

The opera is incomprehensible, ridiculous, absurd, unnatural.

In the age of TV shows and YouTube, telling the viewer about mossy passions and heavy ups and downs through singing - what could be stranger?

However, it is vain to think that grounds for such a question have arisen only now. In the new Weekend project, Sergey Khodnev will talk about the components of the opera, why they appeared and why they are interesting to the modern listener.

Even in the most, as it seems to us, magnificent times for her, the opera went around in strange phenomena that it is not clear how they relate to life.

Intellectuals of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries looked at the contemporary opera stage and shrugged their shoulders: what is this, why is this? And they repeated in different ways something like this:

“He who goes to the opera must leave common sense at home” (Johann Christoph Gottsched, 1730).

But precisely because of this shrug of the shoulders and the perplexed look, the opera is not a kabuki theater, not something frozen in the same aesthetic forms. Something always happens to her, and what seems to us to be moments of her well-being, splendor, massive demand, are in fact periods of regular searches, disputes, and experiments.

Actually, it, which Derzhavin called “the reduction of the entire visible world,” was destined to display and concentrate everything relevant that was inherent in Western culture at a certain moment - while remaining not a greenhouse art house, but an elegant pastime.

On the one hand, the current commonly used repertoire of opera houses is a triumph of retrospection: in it, works of a century, two hundred years, three hundred years ago coexist peacefully and on an equal footing with modern ones. On the other hand, this is not a museum, not a “gallery of old masters”, but an ever-renewing artistic reality: interpretation is changing, the theater is changing.

These changes, in fact, excite a surprisingly wide circle for such an absurd art. Few of the first comers will passionately talk about the state of affairs, for example, in modern academic music.

But on the other hand, many will willingly support the conversation that the opera is now full of swindlers who force the heroes of Verdi and Tchaikovsky to go on stage in jeans, in totalitarian overcoats, or completely naked.

And all the same, the meeting with the opera, even this one, continues to be perceived as something decorous, important, bonton, all the same, the stalls are well-dressed, and the boxes shine, all the same, heads of state and other noble persons flock to the premieres in temples like Salzburg or Bayreuth.

So, after all, there is a completely comprehensible structure into which all new combinations of tastes, expectations, addictions are built. How does this structure work, what does it include, when and why did its individual elements appear?

Understanding the structure of the opera is a more feasible task than sitting out of habit for a four-hour performance, where they sing, sing and sing incessantly. But, having understood, it is possible to experience more conscious pleasure (or displeasure) from this action.

Overture

Overture - an instrumental introduction, music that sounds, according to the composer's intention, before the curtain rises. During the existence of the opera genre, it received both a different semantic load and different names: in addition to the French term “overture”, which was established in the 17th century, it could also be called, for example, introduction, prelude, symphony (sinfonia - consonance) and the actual introduction.

Henceforth, only operas with a single type of overture - the “Italian overture” - should be played in the court theater - such an order was issued in 1745 by Frederick II, King of Prussia.

After all, this is not a duke from Zakharovsky's "Munchausen", but a great commander, albeit a great fan of playing the flute; 1745 is the year of the turning point in the War of the Austrian Succession, and between battles and negotiations, the king finds it necessary to make a directive about which overture is better.

So what is this - an overture, why is it? If opera is “an action initiated by singing,” then what is it like for music to perform before this very action without singing?

Let's say right away: she is not so comfortable at this cutting edge, and disputes about what the correct overture should be, in what form it is necessary, statistically arose even more often than discussions about the essence of opera as such.

But only those first operatic prologues are almost always precisely scenes with singing, and not independent instrumental numbers. The priority of word and narrative seemed obvious; conditional characters like Tragedy, Harmony or Music in an exquisite form announced to the public the plot of the upcoming action. And they reminded that it was from antiquity that this idea itself was adopted - recitar cantando, “to speak with singing”.

Over time, this idea lost its acute novelty and ceased to need such a lofty apologetics, but the prologues did not disappear for decades. Often, in addition, the glorification of one or another monarch arose in them: with the exception of the Venetian Republic, the opera of the 17th century remained primarily court entertainment, closely associated with official festivities and ceremonies.

A full-fledged overture appears in the 1640s in France. The model of the so-called “French overture” introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully is a formula of steel: a slow and pompous first movement in a recognizable punctuated rhythm (a kind of jumping iambic), a fast second movement with a fugitive beginning.

It, too, is connected in spirit with the strict order of the court of Louis XIV, but became unusually popular throughout Europe - even where French operatic music was generally met with hostility.

Over time, the Italians responded with their own formula: an overture in three parts, fast-slow-fast, less ceremonial, already without scientific undertakings like fugato - this is the very “Italian overture” that Frederick the Great demanded. The rivalry between these two overtures is actually very revealing.

The French overture fell into disuse by the middle of the 18th century, but before that it had outgrown the operatic context: Lully's invention is easily recognized in the introductions of even Bach's orchestral suites, even Handel's “Music for Royal Fireworks”.

The Italian overture (usually called sinfonia) lived longer in the operatic context, but its completely different life is much more important - its transformation in the last third of the century from an opera overture into an independent work, from a sinfonia into a symphony.

And what about the opera? Meanwhile, the opera, represented by Gluck and his contemporaries, thought that it would be good for the overture to be thematically and emotionally, organically connected with the material of the drama itself; that one should not act as before - when, according to the same scheme, riveted introductions were written to operas of any content.

And this is how one-movement overtures in sonata form appeared, this is how hitherto unseen quotations from the thematic material of the opera itself appeared.

The departure from rigid schemes made the 19th century a century of famous overtures. Motley, ceremonial, presenting at once a bouquet of tenacious motifs - like “Force of Destiny” or “Carmen”. Lyrical, delicate, economical in quoting - like “Eugene Onegin” or “La Traviata”.

Symphonically plentiful, complex, languid - like "Parsifal". But, on the other hand, the overture of the era of romanticism is crowded within the framework of a theatrical event - other overtures turn into important symphonic hits, the genre of “concert overture”, which is no longer connected with opera, is established.

And then, in the 20th century, the operatic overture insensitively turned into an anachronism: there are no overtures either in Salome by Richard Strauss, or in Berg's Wozzeck, or in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, or in Prokofiev's War and Peace .

Being a kind of frame for the opera, functionally the overture embodies the idea of order - that's why the king of Prussia was so attentive to it. Order, firstly, in the etiquette sense, but also in a more sublime sense too: it is a means to distinguish between everyday human time and the time of musical action.

But just now it was just a crowd, a random collection of more or less smart people. Once - and all of them are already spectators and listeners. But this very moment of transition had time, in addition to any music, to acquire ritual prefaces - the fading light, the dignified exit of the conductor, and so on - which in the time of Frederick II were simply unthinkable.

For today's listener, it is not all these ritual or ideological considerations that are more important, but the performing side of the matter. The overture is the visiting card of the conductor's interpretation of this or that opera: we have the opportunity in these first minutes, before the singers have yet appeared on the stage, to try to understand how the conductor perceives the composer, era, aesthetics, what approaches to them he tries to find.

This is enough to feel how huge changes have taken place and continue to take place in our perception of music. Even though Gluck's or Mozart's overtures are themselves of constant magnitude, the difference between how they sounded by Furtwängler in the early 1940s and those of modern conductors is impressive evidence that the existence of opera scores in the cultural and taste field turns out to be not a hardened fact. , but a living process.

Overture with ceremony. Orpheus by Claudio Monteverdi (1607)

Monteverdi preceded the prologue of his "Orpheus" with an independent instrumental "toccata". With a jubilant and solemn spirit, it is simple and even archaic: in fact, it is a thrice-repeated fanfare, which then accompanied ceremonial events (this is how the composer wanted to greet his main audience, Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga).

Nevertheless, in fact, it can be called the first operatic overture, and for Monteverdi himself it was not just “accidental music”, judging by the fact that he later used it in his “Vespers of the Blessed Virgin”.

Overture with tragedy. Alcesta by Christoph Willibald Gluck

In the preface to Alceste, Gluck wrote that the overture should prepare the viewer for the events of the opera. It was a revolution not only by the standards of the earlier 18th century, but also by the standards of the reformer himself - the overture to his "Orpheus and Eurydice" (1762) in no way prepares the listener for the subsequent scene of mourning for Eurydice.

On the other hand, the darkly agitated D-minor overture to Alceste, an example of “storm and onslaught” in music, finally organically correlates with a specific opera, where everything, according to Rousseau, revolves “between two feelings - sorrow and fear”.

Overture with drums. The Thieving Magpie by Gioacchino Rossini (1817)

For a long time, the first chord of the overture was supposed to be loud for signal purposes, but the overture to The Thieving Magpie turned out to be one of the records in this sense. This is a lengthy sonata composition with typical Rossini's carelessness, melodic affection and fiery crescendos, but it opens with a deafeningly effective march featuring two military drums.

The latter was such an unheard-of innovation that some of the first listeners, indignant at the "unmusical barbarism," threatened to shoot the composer.

Overture with atonality. Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner (1865)

“Reminds me of an old Italian painting of a martyr whose intestines are slowly rolled up on a roller”,

The poisonous Eduard Hanslik wrote about the introduction to Tristan.

The prelude, which opens with the famous "Tristan Chord", blatantly violates the classical notions of tonality.

But it is not a matter of transgression, but of an almost physical sensation of great languor, a deep but unquenchable desire that is created as a result. No wonder many conservative critics scolded "Tristan" not at all for purely musical rebellion, but for intoxication with "animal passion".

Overture(from fr. overture, introduction) in music - an instrumental (usually orchestral) piece performed before the start of any performance - a theatrical performance, opera, ballet, movie, etc., or a one-part orchestral piece, often belonging to program music.

The overture prepares the listener for the upcoming action.

The tradition of announcing the beginning of a performance with a short musical signal existed long before the term "overture" was fixed in the work of first French and then other European composers of the 17th century. Until the middle of the XVIII century. overtures were composed according to strictly defined rules: their sublime, generalized music usually had no connection with the subsequent action. However, gradually the requirements for the overture changed: it more and more obeyed the general artistic design of the work.

Having retained the function of a solemn “invitation to the spectacle” for the overture, composers, starting with K. V. Gluck and W. A. Mozart, significantly expanded its content. By means of music alone, even before the theatrical curtain rises, it turned out to be possible to set the viewer in a certain way, to tell about upcoming events. It is no coincidence that the sonata became the traditional form of the overture: capacious and effective, it made it possible to present various acting forces in their confrontation. Such, for example, is the overture to the opera by K. M. Weber “The Free Gunner” - one of the first to contain an “introductory review of the content” of the entire work. All diverse themes - pastoral and gloomy ominous, restless and full of jubilation - are associated either with the characterization of one of the characters, or with a certain stage situation, and subsequently appear repeatedly throughout the opera. The overture to “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by M. I. Glinka was also solved: in a whirlwind, impetuous movement, as if, in the words of the composer himself, “at full sail”, the dazzlingly cheerful main theme is carried here (in the opera it will become the theme of the choir, glorifying the liberation of Lyudmila), and the sing-song melody of Ruslan and Lyudmila's love (it will sound in Ruslan's heroic aria), and the bizarre theme of the evil wizard Chernomor.

The more fully and perfectly the plot-philosophical collision of the composition is embodied in the overture, the faster it acquires the right to a separate existence on the concert stage. Therefore, L. Beethoven's overture is already developing as an independent genre of symphonic program music. Beethoven's overtures, especially the overture to J. W. Goethe's drama "Egmont", are complete, extremely saturated musical dramas, with intensity and activity of thought not inferior to his large symphonic canvases. In the 19th century the concert overture genre is firmly established in the practice of Western European (F. Mendelssohn's overture "A Midsummer Night's Dream" based on the comedy of the same name by W. Shakespeare) and Russian composers ("Spanish Overtures" by Glinka, "Overture on the Themes of Three Russian Songs" by M. A. Balakirev, overture-fantasy "Romeo and Juliet" by P. I. Tchaikovsky). At the same time, in the opera of the 2nd half of the 19th century. the overture is increasingly transformed into a short orchestral introduction that directly sets into action.

The meaning of such an introduction (also called an introduction or prelude) can be to proclaim the most significant idea - a symbol (the motive for the inevitability of tragedy in G. Verdi's Rigoletto) or to characterize the main character and at the same time create a special atmosphere that largely determines the figurative structure of the work ( introduction to "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky, "Lohengrin" by R. Wagner). Sometimes the introduction is both symbolic and pictorial in nature. Such is the symphonic picture Dawn on the Moscow River that opens the opera by M. P. Mussorgsky “Khovanshchina”.

In the XX century. composers successfully use various types of introductions, including the traditional overture (overture to the opera Cola Breugnon by D. B. Kabalevsky). In the genre of concert overture on folk themes, “Russian Overture” by S. S. Prokofiev, “Overture on Russian and Kyrgyz Folk Themes” by D. D. Shostakovich, “Overture” by O. V. Takt a-kishvili were written; for an orchestra of Russian folk instruments - "Russian Overture" by N. P. Bu-dashkin and others.

Tchaikovsky Overture

The 1812 Overture is an orchestral work by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in memory of the Patriotic War of 1812.

The overture begins with the gloomy sounds of the Russian church choir, reminiscent of the declaration of war, which was carried out in Russia at church services. Then, immediately, a festive singing about the victory of Russian weapons in the war sounds. The declaration of war and the reaction of the people to it was described in Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace.

This is followed by a melody representing marching armies played with trumpets. The French anthem "La Marseillaise" reflects the victories of France and the capture of Moscow in September 1812. The sounds of Russian folk dance symbolize the Battle of Borodino. The flight from Moscow at the end of October 1812 is indicated by a descending motif. The thunder of the cannons reflects the military successes in approaching the borders of France. At the end of the war, the sounds of the choir return, this time performed by a whole orchestra with echoes of bell ringing in honor of the victory and liberation of Russia from French occupation. Behind the cannons and the sounds of the march, the melody of the Russian national anthem "God Save the Tsar" is heard. The Russian anthem is opposed to the French anthem that sounded earlier.

In the USSR, this work by Tchaikovsky was edited: the sounds of the anthem "God Save the Tsar" were replaced by the chorus "Glory!" from Glinka's opera Ivan Susanin.

The actual cannonade, as conceived by Tchaikovsky, is usually replaced by a bass drum. Sometimes, however, cannon fire is used. This version was first recorded by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in the 1950s. Subsequently, similar recordings were made by other groups using advances in sound technology. Cannon fireworks are used in the Boston Pops' Independence Day performances, held annually on July 4 along the banks of the Charles River. It is also used in the annual graduation parade of the Australian Defense Forces Academy in Canberra. Although this piece has nothing to do with US history (including the Anglo-American War, which also began in 1812), it is often performed in the US along with other patriotic music, especially on Independence Day.

OVERTURE

(fr. ouverture, from ouvrir - to open). A symphony that serves as the beginning or, as it were, an introduction to an opera or ballet.

Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. - Chudinov A.N., 1910 .

OVERTURE

introductory part of some piece of music (opera, symphony).

Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. - Pavlenkov F., 1907 .

OVERTURE

introduction, introduction Ph.D. major piece of music.

A complete dictionary of foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language. - Popov M., 1907 .

OVERTURE

French ouverture, from ouvrir, to open. An introduction to a piece of music.

Explanation of 25,000 foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language, with the meaning of their roots. - Mikhelson A.D., 1865 .

Overture

overtures, w. [ fr. overture, lit. opening] (music). 1. Musical introduction to opera, operetta, ballet. 2. A small piece of music for the orchestra.

A large dictionary of foreign words. - Publishing house "IDDK", 2007 .

Overture

s, and. (fr. overture ouvrir open).
1. Musical introduction to an opera, ballet, film, etc. At. to the opera "Carmen".
|| Wed introduction , prelude , prologue , ritornello , exposition .
2. An independent piece of music for orchestra in one movement. Concert at.
Overture- related to overture 1, 2, overtures.

Explanatory Dictionary of Foreign Words L. P. Krysina.- M: Russian language, 1998 .

Synonyms:

See what "OVERTURE" is in other dictionaries:

overture- uh. ouverture f., German. Overture. 1. single, military Space not occupied by the enemy; gap, pass. The right wing cavalry has to be posted from Flemguden to Schwartenberg and Kronshagen, so that it is at Kvarnbeck through the overture ... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

Cm … Synonym dictionary

OVERTURE, overtures, for women. (French ouverture, lit. opening) (music). 1. Musical introduction to opera, operetta, ballet. 2. A small piece of music for the orchestra. Concert overture. Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

overture- OVERTURE, s, f. Overtime work. Spin the overture to work overtime. Poss. from common use "overture" an orchestral introduction to an opera, ballet, etc., a one-movement piece of music; Poss. also occasional overlay of English. overtime… … Dictionary of Russian Argo

- (French ouverture, from Latin apertura opening, beginning), orchestral introduction to opera, ballet (see Introduction), operetta, dramatic performance, oratorio. In the 19th and 20th centuries also an orchestral piece close to a symphonic poem... Modern Encyclopedia

- (French ouverture from Latin apertura opening, beginning), an orchestral introduction to an opera, ballet, drama, etc. (often in sonata form), as well as an independent orchestral piece, usually of a program nature ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (inosk.) beginning (hint of overture introduction, beginning of the opera). Wed Well, here, and tell the whole overture (of your life): what kind of family and tribe are you and what did you endure in vain. Leskov. Midnighters. 3. Wed. In the overture, the claim to paint is noticeable ... ... Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

OVERTURE, s, women. 1. Orchestral introduction to an opera, ballet, drama performance, film. Opera at 2. One-movement piece of music (usually related to program music). | adj. overture, oh, oh. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

Female, French music for the orchestra, before the start, the opening of the spectacle. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. IN AND. Dal. 1863 1866 ... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

- "OVERTURE", Ukraine, AEROSISTEMS/AUGUST, 1994, color, 45 min. Movie ballet. Ballet extravaganza on the themes of the origin of the elements at the beginning of time. Cast: Sofia Steinbak, Yulia Steinbak, Yana Steinbak, Zinovy Gerdt (see GERDT Zinovy Efimovich), Makhmud Esambaev ... ... Cinema Encyclopedia

Books

Overture No. 2, Op. 6, A. Glazunov. Reprinted musical edition Glazunov, Aleksandr`Overture No. 2, Op. 6`. Genres: Overtures; for orchestra; Scores featuring the orchestra. We have created especially for you, using our own…