The Tragic Overture, B. 16a (also called the Dramatic Overture; Czech: Tragická ouvertura or Dramatická ouvertura) is an orchestral composition written in 1870 by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. It was Dvořák's overture to his first, never published, opera Alfred.[1]
Šourek's book "Orchestral Works of Antonín Dvořák" has a complete description of the Tragic Overture. It was first performed on 1 April 1905, almost one year after Dvořák's death.[2]
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Dramatic Overture: It is a 1 movement work, usually in a sonata-allegro form, it encapsulates in music the essential dramatic events of an opera or play.
Jarmil Burghauser: Antonín Dvořák. Prague: Koniasch Latin Press, 2006. ISBN 80-86791-26-2