Adam, Le Châlet, part 2 (overture)

The overture to Le Châlet surprises in its length (greater than one would expect for the introduction to a one-act opera) and in the fact that only one of its melodies (the Allegro, below) appears later on.

The design has the elements of both potpourri and sonata that are typical of French opera overtures throughout this period. A pastoral opening in the tonic key (D major), then the dominant, leads to an Andantino section based on this melody:

An Allegro follows, with this principal theme

. . . and this secondary theme:

An extended and agitated coda to the secondary theme, largely in the dominant key, acts in a manner similar to the symphony development section, and then the principal theme returns in the tonic key. Following from that, another energetic and extended coda brings the overture to a conclusion.

The Allegro theme is a clearly articulated16-measure sentence with an expansion in the final phrase.

The four-measure basic idea sits squarely on ^1; its enlargement of the initial neighbor note (^1-^7-^1) over the entire phrase is memorable, while ^5 establishes itself as an obvious cover tone.

In the expansion of the continuation unit, this pairing of lower scale degree with an upper ^5 suddenly becomes relevant in the cadence, when ^5 sweeps up to ^8 at the last moment.

The structural cadence of the overture (that is, the strongly defined cadence to the tonic that initiates the coda) uses this same ascending figure (circled).

In the piano reduction, the registers are not as clear as they might be. The ottava marking at the beginning of the example reflects the addition of flute and piccolo; the first violins remain in the fifth octave—see the box in the parts extracted from the score below.

Note especially that the first violins do move upward from A5 to D6 in the cadential moment (see the box in the example below). The score, incidentally, was published within a month or two of the premiere, an engraved publication of 260 pages that is another sign of the opera's commercial success. The facsimile, on IMSLP, is a scan made through a collaboration between the libraries of the Royal Conservatory Antwerp and Brigham Young University. More information can be found in the entry on the Internet Archive: link.