French overture

noun

: an overture of the 17th and 18th centuries in two repeated sections of which the first is homophonic and stately with dotted rhythms and the second is mostly faster and imitative

The French overture form … was traditionally the music accompanying the entrance of the French king into the opera.

—Gordon Jones, Bach's Choral Music, 2009

called also ouverture

Word History

First Known Use

1846, in the meaning defined above

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