A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn) A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mendelssohn) At two separate times, Felix Mendelssohn composed music for William Shakespeare's play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream". First in 1826, near the start of his career, he wrote a concert overture (Op. 21). Later, in 1842, only a few years before his death, he wrote incidental music (Op. 61) for a production of the play, into which he incorporated the existing Overture. The incidental music includes the world-famous "Wedding March". The German title reads Ein Sommernachtstraum. The Overture in E major, Op. 21, was written by Mendelssohn at 17 years and 6 months old (it was
Aotearoa (overture) Aotearoa (overture) Aotearoa is a concert overture written for orchestra by New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn in the year 1940. The overture is one of three early works by Lilburn which center on the theme of national identity; the other two are 1944's "Landfall in Unknown Seas", for narrator and orchestra, and the tone poem "A Song of Islands" of 1946. The title of the overture ("Aotearoa") is taken from the Māori name for the islands. Lilburn wrote the overture while he was still a student at London's Royal College of Music, and it was premiered in Great Britain, at