Symphonic poem temporary stop to the debate as to whether the genre was dead. Nevertheless, composers began to explore the "more compact form" of the concert overture "...as a vehicle within which to blend musical, narrative and pictoral ideas." Examples included Mendelssohn's overtures "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1826) and "The Hebrides" (1830). Between 1845 and 1847, the Belgian composer César Franck wrote an orchestral piece based on Victor Hugo's poem "Ce qu'on entend sur la montagne". The work exhibits characteristics of a symphonic poem, and some musicologists, such as Norman Demuth and Julien Tiersot, consider it the first of its genre, preceding
Tragic Overture (Brahms) Tragic Overture (Brahms) The Tragic Overture (), Op. 81, is a concert overture for orchestra written by Johannes Brahms during the summer of 1880. It premiered on 26 December 1880 in Vienna. Most performances last between twelve and fifteen minutes. Brahms chose the title "tragic" to emphasize the turbulent, tormented character of the piece, in essence a free-standing symphonic movement, in contrast to the mirthful ebullience of a companion piece he wrote the same year, the "Academic Festival Overture". Despite its name, the "Tragic Overture" does not follow any specific dramatic program. Brahms summed up the effective difference in character