Here it is again. Okay, I&#
 

Here it is again.

Okay, I'll take up the challenge and here's some music.

This is the Overture from my own adaptation of John Gay's 1728 masterpiece The Beggar's Opera, which we debuted in an outdoor production last summer to excellent reviews but wet weather. It's my own arrangement and composition, in that the original overture was more of a classical piece that really had nothing to do with our rather saucy version of the show, so I replaced it. It is in a four-part form, being a loud opening to get people's attention, a slow and soft second part (Virgin's Are Like The Fair Flower), an ominous third part (I'm Like A Ship On The Ocean Toss'd) and a march movement to take us into the show (Let Us Take The Road).

This, of course, is not actually "classical" music -- in fact, the Beggar's Opera was written specifically to be a send-up of the brittle and artificial Italian opera of the day.

The songs are folk songs that were well-known to the people of London in 1728 and consequently, there use in an "opera" was stunning. People flocked to see it. The Duke of Bolton was so enamoured of the girl who sang the role of Polly (who sang the song "Virgins Are Like The Fair Flower" which is featured in this Overture) that he proposed to her on the spot -- and she, smart girl, accepted on the spot.

The Beggar's Opera was the inspiration for Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht's "Die Dreigroschen Oper" of 1913, which itself was later adapted as "The Three-penny Opera" by Weill and Mark Blitztein and which gave us the song Mack The Knife. <center><table border=1><tr><td>http://www.notation.com/discus/icons...hment_icon.gifOverture for The Beggar's Opera
New Overture in Orchestration.not (354.2 k)</td></tr></table></center>

Hi David, Now your Overture
 

Hi David,

Now your Overture has a better home here in Show Music than it does Classical. However, the second section 'Virgins are Like the Fair Flower' would pass excellently as Classical / Baroque. The multi-part harmony demonstrates craftsmanship in achieving independent (non-parallel) voices, rhythmically, melodically, and orchestrally. Very nicely done.

Cheers
-- Mark