Definition of overtures Overtures
/owˈvɚʧʊˌɹz/ - [owverchurz] -
We found 3 definitions of overtures from 2 different sources.
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What does overtures mean?
Wiktionary 
- overtures (Noun)
Plural of overture.
Part of speech
🔤WordNet
NounPlural: overtures |
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| overture - a tentative suggestion designed to elicit the reactions of others; "she rejected his advances" | ||
| advance, approach, feeler | ||
| proffer, proposition, suggestion a task to be dealt with; "securing adequate funding is a time-consuming proposition" | ||
| overture - orchestral music played at the beginning of an opera or oratorio | ||
| overture - something that serves as a preceding event or introduces what follows; "training is a necessary preliminary to employment"; "drinks were the overture to dinner" | ||
| preliminary, prelude | ||
| inception, origination, origin properties attributable to your ancestry; "he comes from good origins" | ||
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Webster DictionaryWebster's Unabridged Dictionary 📘
- overture
An opening or aperture; a recess; a recess; a chamber. - overture
Disclosure; discovery; revelation. - overture
A proposal; an offer; a proposition formally submitted for consideration, acceptance, or rejection. - overture
A composition, for a full orchestra, designed as an introduction to an oratorio, opera, or ballet, or as an independent piece; -- called in the latter case a concert overture. - overture (v. t.)
To make an overture to; as, to overture a religious body on some subject.
Chambers DictionaryChamber's 20th Century Dictionary 📕
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overture
ō′vėr-tūr, n. a proposal, an offer for acceptance or rejection: (mus.) a piece introductory to a greater piece or ballet: a discovery or disclosure: the method in Presbyterian usage of beginning legislation and maturing opinion by sending some proposition from the presbyteries to the General Assembly, and vice versâ, also the proposal so sent.—v.t. to lay a proposal before. [Fr.]
Wikipedia 
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An overture is a piece of music for the orchestra to play at the beginning of an opera or ballet. The word comes from the French word for "opening" because it "opens" the show.
Overtures usually have tunes which are going to be heard during the opera or ballet. In this way it prepares the audience for what is to come.
Many overtures in the 18th century were simply background music to get the audience's attention (people used to chatter during performances). Some composers like Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) used the same overture again and again for his next operas, or just changed bits of it.
Composers like Christoph Willibald Gluck and later Richard Wagner (1813-1883) were very careful to make the overture a dramatic beginning which prepared the audience for the story. Wagner often called his overtures "Vorspiel" (Prelude).
Not all composers wrote overtures to their operas. Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) and Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) often go straight into the first act or they just have a very short prelude.
In the 19th century many Romantic composers wrote concert overtures. These pieces did not belong to any opera or ballet, they were just written to be heard at concerts. They often had a descriptive title because they told some sort of story e.g. Felix Mendelssohn(1809-1847) wrote an overture "Fingal's Cave" which describes the sea coming into the cave in the Hebrides islands. Sometimes these descriptive pieces were much longer than an overture (which is usually just a fe
