Overture

Overture (French ouverture, lit. "opening"; German Ouvertüre, Vorspiel, i.e., "prelude", lit. "play before") in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn began to use the term to refer to independent, self-existing instrumental, programmatic works that presaged genres such as the symphonic poem. These were "at first undoubtedly intended to be played at the head of a programme".

History

17th century

The idea of an instrumental opening to opera existed during the 17th century. Peri's Euridice opens with a brief instrumental ritornello, and Monteverdi's L'Orfeo (1607) opens with a toccata, in this case a fanfare for muted trumpets. More important, however, was the prologue, which comprised sung dialogue between allegorical characters which introduced the overarching themes of the stories depicted.

French overture

Overture (software)

Overture is a music notation (scorewriter) program for Windows and Macintosh platforms, written by Don Williams. Visually, the Overture interface resembles Encore, another notation program originally by the same author. However, Overture is the first scorewriter program to feature full Virtual Studio Technology (VST) hosting; the software also plays MIDI files.

Current version

As of May 2015, Overture is at version 4.1.5.

Editing

In Overture, input of note data can be done by any of several methods: QWERTY keyboard, mouse, step entry MIDI keyboard recording, or real-time MIDI keyboard recording. Most notational symbols can be repositioned simply by dragging them with the mouse. Most other editing of notational symbols is performed by selecting the symbols using the mouse, and selecting the appropriate editing command from a menu or by clicking on a palette. MIDI data is edited in a special graphical view, where each note appears as a bar on a piano roll. Editing is done simply by adjusting the bars by dragging with the mouse.

On Through the Night

On Through the Night is the debut album by English rock band Def Leppard, released in 1980. The album was produced by Tom Allom. It charted at No. 15 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 51 on the Billboard 200. The album features re-recorded versions of "Rocks Off" and "Overture", tracks from the band's original independently released EP, The Def Leppard E.P. Other tracks are re-recorded versions of early demos, some of which appeared on the First Strike and Warchild bootlegs. The album was certified platinum by the RIAA on 9 May 1989.

"Rocks Off", "Wasted", "Hello America" and "Rock Brigade" were released as singles. However, the versions of "Rocks Off" (titled "Getcha Rocks Off") and "Wasted" that appears on the singles is a different recording from that of the LP, as is its B-side, "Hello America". The single "Getcha Rocks Off" included the songs "Ride into the Sun" and "Overture".

Reception

Street Fighter Alpha 3

Street Fighter Alpha 3, known as Street Fighter Zero 3 (ストリートファイターZERO 3) in Japan and Asia, is a 1998 fighting game by Capcom originally released for the CPS II arcade hardware. It is the third game in the Street Fighter Alpha series, following Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams and Street Fighter Alpha 2, although it was released after the Street Fighter III series had already started (between 2nd Impact and 3rd Strike). The gameplay system from the previous Alpha games was given a complete overhaul with the addition of three selectable fighting styles based on Street Fighter Alpha (A-ism;called Z-ism in Japan), Street Fighter Alpha 2 (V-ism), and Super Street Fighter II Turbo (X-ism), new stages, a much larger roster of characters, and new theme music for all the returning characters.

Gameplay

Street Fighter Alpha 3 discards the "Manual" and "Auto" modes from the previous Alpha games and instead offers three different playing styles known as "isms" for players to choose from. The standard playing style, A-ism (or Z-ism in Japan), is based on the previous Alpha games, in which the player has a three-level Super Combo gauge with access to several Super Combo moves. X-ism is a simple style based on Super Street Fighter II Turbo, in which the player has a single-level Super Combo gauge and access to a single but powerful Super Combo move. The third style, V-ism (or "variable" style), is a unique style that allows the player to perform custom combos similar to the ones in Street Fighter Alpha 2. In X-ism, players cannot air-block nor perform Alpha Counters. Alpha 3 also introduces a "Guard Power Gauge" which depletes each time the player blocks – if the gauge is completely depleted, then the player will remain vulnerable to an attack.