The ''Faust Overture'' is a

concert overture Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overt ...

by German composer

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

. Wagner originally composed it between 1839 and 1840, intending it to be the first movement of a ''Faust Symphony'' based on the play '' Faust'' by German playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Realizing that he would not finish the planned

symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

, Wagner revised the piece between 1843 and 1844, incorporating ideas from the other planned movements, and creating instead a single-movement concert overture. He made a final revision in 1855. The work is one of Wagner's few compositions intended for the concert hall, rather than the theatre.

References

*Westernhagen, Curt von. ''Wagner: A Biography''. Cambridge University Press: New York, NY 1978. *Culshaw, John. ''Wagner: The Man and His Music''. Dutton: New York, NY 1978. *''Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music'', 1996 ed. Chief editor Michael Kennedy. *Everett, Derrick. , 2004. *Wagner, Irmgard. , American Goethe Society 2004.

External links

* Compositions by Richard Wagner Concert overtures Music based on Goethe's Faust 1844 compositions 1855 compositions {{classical-composition-stub

See also

References

External links