Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Overture to "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a concert overture composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1826 and later incorporated into his incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1843. One of the first concert overtures, it was written when Mendelssohn was only 17 and inspired after reading a German translation of Shakespeare.

While a romantic piece, it incorporates many classical elements such as sonata form and regular phrasings. The piece is also noted for its good instrumental effects, such as the emulation of scampering elf feet at the beginning. There are a number of motives or themes in the piece. The first theme represents the dancing fairies and a transition (the royal music of the court of Athens) leads to a second theme, that of the lovers. A final theme, that of the craftsmen and the hunting calls, closes the exposition. The fairies dominate most of the development section and ultimately have the final word in the coda, just as in Shakespeare's play.