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

Shankar Family & Friends

Shankar Family & Friends (stylised as Shankar Family Friends on the album cover) is an album by Indian musician Ravi Shankar, recorded primarily in Los Angeles during the spring of 1973, but not released until late 1974. It was produced by Shankar's friend George Harrison and one of the first releases on the ex-Beatle's Dark Horse label. Out of print for many years, and much sought after as a result, the album was remastered in 2010 and reissued as part of the Ravi Shankar–George Harrison box set Collaborations.

The title Shankar Family & Friends refers to the group-participation approach to the music, from Shankar's sister-in-law Lakshmi and son Shubho to a host of "friends" from the Indian subcontinent, Europe and the United States. In a deliberate blend of "East-meets-West" musical styles, other performers include Indian-music pioneers Alla Rakha, Ashish Khan, Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia, and Western musicians such as Tom Scott, Emil Richards, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner. The album features the Harrison-arranged pop bhajan "I Am Missing You" and a jazz-funk instrumental, "Dispute & Violence", the latter a part of an intended ballet, titled Dream, Nightmare & Dawn.

Overture (Bruckner)

In 1862–63 Anton Bruckner composed the Overture in G minor (WAB 98).

In contrast with the earlier Four Orchestral Pieces and the next Symphony in F minor, the Overture appears a much more mature work. Bruckner's characteristics are already present: the opening subject with his octave leap in unison – as that of the main theme of the Ninth Symphony, the full orchestral chords followed by semiquaver runs, and the second slower subject with its large interval leaps, which is prefiguring the descending motive of the Adagio of the Fifth Symphony. The work contains at bars 271–275 a descending scale similar to the "Sleep leitmotiv" of the not yet composed Act 3 of Wagner's Walküre. Bruckner will use such descending scales frequently in his later works, e.g., as "Farewell to Life" in the Adagio of the Ninth Symphony.

The orchestral setting is similar to that of the March in D minor, except that the second flute is replaced by a piccolo.

The first (1862) version of the Overture, which is 8 bars longer, has a different coda at bars 233–288. This was replaced—and approved by Kitzler—with a new coda in the final version of 1863. The "coda of the coda" (bars 289–301 [bars 281–293 of the 1863 version]) is the same in both versions.

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory is the fifth studio album by American progressive metal/progressive rock band Dream Theater, released on October 26, 1999 through Elektra Records. It was recorded at BearTracks Studios in New York, where the band had previously recorded their second studio album Images and Words (1992) and the EP A Change of Seasons (1995).

The album is the sequel to "Metropolis—Part I: "The Miracle and the Sleeper"", a song previously featured on the band's 1992 album Images and Words. It was also the first album to feature Jordan Rudess on keyboards, and the last for which John Myung wrote lyrics until A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011).

In late July 2012, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was voted as the number one all-time progressive rock album in a poll conducted by Rolling Stone, beating Rush's 2112 and Close to the Edge by Yes, after posting a link to the poll on their website.

History

Fans had previously requested the band to make the sequel to the first part of the song "Metropolis—Part I" from Images and Words, but they had not yet been able, nor had they originally intended one to be made. With the sessions for Falling Into Infinity (1997), the band recorded a 21-minute instrumental demo of "Metropolis Pt. 2" (which was later released by Mike Portnoy via his Ytsejam Records site along with the other Falling Into Infinity demos), but this did not make it onto that album. The demo, which included several musical citations from "Metropolis—Part I" and featured many motifs that would later appear on Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (most notably the majority of "Overture 1928" and "Strange Deja Vu" and parts of "The Dance of Eternity" and "One Last Time"), was however significantly different from the finished album version in most part.