A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn) form and shaped by regular phrasings and harmonic transitions. The piece is also noted for its striking instrumental effects, such as the emulation of scampering 'fairy feet' at the beginning and the braying of Bottom as an ass (effects which were influenced by the aesthetic ideas and suggestions of Mendelssohn's friend at the time, Adolf Bernhard Marx). Heinrich Eduard Jacob, in his biography of the composer, said that Mendelssohn had scribbled the chords after hearing an evening breeze rustle the leaves in the garden of the family's home. The overture begins with four chords in the winds. Following the first
Drysdale Overture Dyson found it to be a mess; he did, however, give it a read-through with the College orchestra. The overture is dedicated to Robert Lilburn, the composer's father. It is meant to celebrate the family farm and estate upon which Lilburn was born. In writing it, the composer once wrote that he was "left with that lovely Mark Twain image of Jim and Huckleberry drifting on their barge down that great river, looking up at the stars and wondering 'whether they was made, or only just happened'" The "Drysdale Overture" has been recorded twice by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra: