Felix Mendelssohn of Schlesinger. In 1824 the 15-year-old wrote his first symphony for full orchestra (in C minor, Op. 11). At age 16 Mendelssohn wrote his String Octet in E-flat major, a work which has been regarded as "mark[ing] the beginning of his maturity as a composer." This Octet and his Overture to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", which he wrote a year later in 1826, are the best-known of his early works. (Later, in 1843, he also wrote incidental music for the play, including the famous "Wedding March".) The Overture is perhaps the earliest example of a concert overture—that is, a
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