Overture Di Ballo
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The ''Overture di Ballo'' is a
concert overture Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") is a music instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overtures which were ...
by
Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...
. Its first performance was in August 1870 at the Birmingham Triennial Festival, conducted by the composer. It predates all his work with
W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most fam ...
, and is his most frequently recorded concert work for orchestra.


Name

The title of the work as printed on the original programme was ''Overtura di Ballo''. When the score was published in 1889, the hybrid title ''Overture di Ballo'' was used. Arthur Jacobs suggests that it would have been better if Sullivan had called it ''A Dance Overture''.


Description

The work consists of a short emphatic introduction, followed by three distinct but thematically linked sections: *a slow opening section in
polonaise The polonaise (, ; , ) is a dance originating in Poland, and one of the five Polish folk dances#National Dances, Polish national dances in Triple metre, time. The original Polish-language name of the dance is ''chodzony'' (), denoting a walki ...
rhythm. *a longer
waltz The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...
section with the first subject played by the woodwinds and the second (syncopated) subject by the strings. *a lively
galop In dance, the galop, named after the fastest running gait of a horse (see Gallop), a shortened version of the original term galoppade, is a lively country dance, introduced in the late 1820s to Parisian society by the Duchesse de Berry and popu ...
as a finale. The version of the score published during Sullivan's lifetime takes eleven minutes or so in performance. The whereabouts of the composer's autograph score were not publicly known until Terence Rees purchased it at auction in 1966. In the 1980s, a longer version of the score was prepared, drawing on Sullivan’s manuscript and including two passages deleted by the composer before the original 1889 publication. One of the two is a formal recapitulation of the first waltz subject, making the whole middle section a classical example of
sonata form The sonata form (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a musical form, musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of t ...
. Most performances in concert or on record use the shorter version, but the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's 1992 recording uses the uncut text. The work is scored for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B♭, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in E♭, 2 valve-trumpets in E♭, 3 trombones,
ophicleide The ophicleide ( ) is a family of conical-bore keyed brass instruments invented in early 19th-century France to extend the keyed bugle into the lower range. Of these, the bass ophicleide in eight-foot (8′) C or 9′ B took root over the cour ...
or bass tuba, extra bass tuba ''ad lib.'', 2 timpani, cymbals, bass drum, triangle, side drum, and strings. Originally the two lowest brass parts were assigned to ophicleide and serpent, as those instruments were used in the Birmingham Festival orchestra despite their imminent obsolescence, but Sullivan suggested to the conductor Alfred Broughton in a subsequent 1880s pre-publication performance in Leeds that a tuba be used instead of the ophicleide and a contrabassoon instead of the serpent.


Analysis and reception

What makes the piece unusual is that (the first waltz tune excepted) all three dances use the same melodic theme. The rhythmic and harmonic treatment, however, gives each dance its own character.
Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic period. With a diverse body of work spanning more than six decades, he is considered to be one of the most pro ...
had developed this technique, but its use in a light orchestral piece was new. Sullivan later used the technique in his comic operas: for example the Lord Chancellor’s motif in ''
Iolanthe ''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...
'', which appears in three different forms. After Sullivan’s death,
Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
adopted and extended the technique in his First Symphony, where the scherzo is scarcely recognisable as transformed in the adagio. The piece was well received at its premiere in Birmingham. Reviewing a performance of the overture at
The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around ...
a month later, the critic for ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' wrote, "A more sparkling and animated orchestral piece of its kind it would be difficult to name." The contemporary critic Henry Lunn wrote in ''
The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...
'', "Mr Sullivan's themes are so melodious ombininginstinct with refined feeling, his instrumentation so graceful and ingenious, and his treatment of the subjects so thoroughly musician-like, that his composition appeals as much to the educated as to the uneducated ear". A section of the galop is the only music used by Sir Charles Mackerras in his ballet ''
Pineapple Poll ''Pineapple Poll'' is a Gilbert and Sullivan-inspired comic ballet, created by choreographer John Cranko with arranger Sir Charles Mackerras. ''Pineapple Poll'' is based on "The Bumboat Woman's Story", one of W. S. Gilbert's Bab Ballads, w ...
'' that is not taken from Sullivan's operas.


Recordings

The ''Overture di Ballo'' is the most frequently recorded of Sullivan's non-operatic compositions. As of 2021, recordings conducted by Sir Adrian Boult, Anthony Collins,
Alexander Faris Samuel Alexander "Sandy" Faris (11 June 1921 – 28 September 2015) was a Northern Irish composer, conductor and writer, known for his television theme tunes, including the theme music for the 1970s TV series '' Upstairs, Downstairs''. He compos ...
,
Arthur Fiedler Arthur Fiedler (December 17, 1894 – July 10, 1979) was an American Conductor (music), conductor known for his association with both the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Pops orchestras. With a combi ...
, Sir Charles Groves, Tom Higgins, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Neville Marriner, John Pryce-Jones, and Sir Malcolm Sargent (two recordings) and were or had been available in the UK.


See also

* Overture in C, "In Memoriam" * List of compositions by Arthur Sullivan


Notes


Sources

* *


External links


Recording of the ''Overture''
Jay Records (1993), conducted by John Pryce-Jones

* {{Authority control Compositions by Arthur Sullivan Concert overtures 1870 compositions Compositions in E-flat major