French overture

The French overture is a musical form widely used in the Baroque period.

Its basic formal division is into two parts, which are usually enclosed by double bars and repeat signs.

They are complementary in style (slow in dotted rhythms and fast in fugal style), and the first ends with a half-cadence (i.e., on a dominant harmony) that requires an answering structure with a tonic ending.

[1] The form is first encountered in Jean-Baptiste Lully's ballet overtures from the 1650s.

[1] Later examples can be found as the opening movement of each of Johann Sebastian Bach's orchestral suites, Partita in D major, BWV 828, C minor Cello Suite, BWV 1011, and as an opening to many operas and oratorios by George Frideric Handel (including Messiah and Giulio Cesare).