The Marriage of Figaro Overture by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Brass Ensemble - Digital Sheet Music

    Mozart composed The Marriage of Figaro as a four-act comic opera in 1786. It was a success and even today is one of the most frequently performed operas. Despite the fact that Mozart composed the overture just before the opera’s premiere, it has achieved the status of a concert piece in its own right. It has also been used in a number of movies, such as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Zombieland, Trading Places and Last Action Hero.    This arrangement transposes from the original D major to F major so that it sits better with brass instrumentation. As a result, there are very few instances in which individual instruments must play higher or lower than their normal range. Additionally, the piece is written in 4/4 all the way through, there are no key or tempo changes, and Mozart’s rhythmic patterns are straightforward, not tricky.    The tempo, however, can make this piece difficult. It is fast, which helps to set the scene for the frenetic action of the opera. The sample audio was recorded with the metronome set at 132, but you will often hear the overture played even faster. This arrangement includes quite a few sections in which an instrument is called upon to play a bunch of eighth notes as the and of on-beats. If this is troublesome, these notes can be played on the beat.    This arrangement was completed in 2019, and performance time runs about 4 minutes, 27 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, would be very interested in your comments; contact him at [email protected]. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.