Overture Study Score
What else are characteristics of French Overture form?
I am supposed to be researching as prep. the French Overture form before our next music lesson, when we will be studying it in depth alongside the Ouverture of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3.
Unfortunately, I have found the internet to be utterly useless, giving me only a couple of bits of information I didn’t already know.
So far, I have researched the form, i.e. the slower grave section, followed by the fugal section, and then an imitation of the grave.
I know that the grave is often characterised by over-dotted rhythms and suspensions.
I know that the trumpets and timpani and put in to ‘aim at grandeur’ when writing for a whole orchestra.
But that is all I can find, and I have no idea what else there is!
Can anybody please help me?
If you need to make references I actually have a copy of the score of Bach’s Ouverture so I can see what you’re referring to….
Thanks all!
Well, you’ve done very well so far, already.
The form’s ‘father’, Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632-1687), shaped it into a three-part form: the slow ‘Grave’ with the characteristics you mentioned, the usually fugal Allegro, again as you mentioned, and then finally a dance section, usually a minuet, to close things out.
When the form gets adopted by others, for instance Handel, it gets moulded to fit their purposes, though you can see Lully’s shade hovering in the background. If you look at the French Overture that prefaces Handel’s ‘Messiah’, you can see this in operation perfectly. The opening ‘Grave’ with all the characteristics you mentioned (minus trumpets & drums) [check], the subsequent fugal Allegro [check], and then it ends. Lully’s third & final section is missing!
That’s the moment when you step back, play the overture again and now let it run on into the first number, ‘Comfort Ye’. And look, the gear change and character change of the orchestral introduction to the ‘Accompagnato’ ‘Comfort Ye’, serves perfectly to raise the spectre of that missing third section of Lully’s blueprint just enough to give us a sense of the form being completed, and Handel, crafty fellow that he was, sets the Accompagnato in E-major to lay the link to the overture (in e-minor) just enough to give us that sense of completion, while still moving things on into the oratorio proper.
(It also demonstrates why there should never be a huge gap in performance between the Overture and the Accompagnato, nor should it be too slow, or the whole intended allusion evaporates at a stroke…)
That’s about all there is to it with the French Overture. You’ve already covered most of the salient points as to the form — just the third section was misisng — and all I would suggest is to listen to a few of Lully’s essays in the form to give yourself an idea of what that original actually amounted to. Beyond that, you should have everything covered already with what you’ve gathered so far.
All the best, and good luck!
Jan AP Kaczmarek – The Visitor OST – The Visitor Overture
|
|
1812 Overture, Op. 49 (Dover Miniature Music Scores) $4.66 Commissioned to mark the 1882 All-Russia Exhibition of Arts and Crafts, this extraordinarily popular work was premiered at the consecration of the Kremlin’s Cathedral of the Redeemer–the monument built to commemorate the Russian defeat of the Napoleonic… |
|
|
The Barber of Seville in Full Score (Dover Vocal Scores) $13.95 Barber of Seville Full Score. The Barber of Seville is one of the greatest of all comic operas. It has been a success since its premiere in Rome in 1816, and continues to be one of the world’s most popular and frequently performed operas. Unabridged replica of the Ricordi edition…. |
|
|
William Tell and Other Overtures in Full Score (Dover Music Scores) $10.76 La Gazza Ladra, Semiramide, La Scala di Seta, Il Signor Bruschino. Full score. 208 pages…. |
|
|
Danny Elfman: Music for a Darkened Theatre, Film & Television Music, Vol. 1 $5.12 Film & Television Music Volume One. Small hole in barcode art…. |
|
|
For the Love of Shakespeare $1.00 … |
|
|
Arnold: Film Music, Vol.2 $12.44 All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed…. |