Overtures

Concert overtures

Art music

Musical compositions that are intended to introduce a dramatic vocal work or spoken drama, and also for independent works with the word "overture" in the composer's title.

Harvard dictionary of music, 4th ed. (Overture. 1. A composition for orchestra intended as an introduction to an opera or other dramatic vocal work... 2. A composition of the 19th and 20th centuries similar to a dramatic overture but intended for independent concert performance. A preliminary stage in the development of the concert overture is represented by the overture to a spoken drama and the overture written for a specific occasion (e.g. Beethoven's Coriolan and Coronation of the house overtures). Other composers wrote pieces entitled only "Overture"... The most characteristic concert overtures, however, were works with generalized programs inspired by literature, history, nature, and the like.)
Hailstork, A.C. An American port of call, ℗2012: booklet p. 2 (An American port of call was written in 1985; concert overture in sonata-allegro form)

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