Overture incorporating "God Save the King" at its climax). However, the overture "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1826) by Felix Mendelssohn is generally regarded as the first concert overture (Temperley 2001). Mendelssohn's other contributions to this genre include his "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage" overture (1828), his overture "The Hebrides" (1830; also known as "Fingal's Cave") and the overtures "Die schöne Melusine" ("The Fair Melusine", 1834) and "Ruy Blas" (1839). Other notable early concert overtures were written by Hector Berlioz (e.g., "Les Francs juges" (1826), and "Le corsaire" (1828)). In the 1850s the concert overture began to be supplanted by the symphonic
Overture fanfare for muted trumpets. More important, however, was the prologue, which comprised sung dialogue between allegorical characters which introduced the overarching themes of the stories depicted. As a musical form, however, the French overture first appears in the court ballet and operatic overtures of Jean-Baptiste Lully, which he elaborated from a similar, two-section form called "Ouverture", found in the French ballets de cour as early as 1640. This French overture consists of a slow introduction in a marked "dotted rhythm" (i.e., exaggerated iambic, if the first chord is disregarded), followed by a lively movement in fugato style. The overture was