Academic Festival Overture (German: Akademische Festouvertüre),[1] Op. 80, by Johannes Brahms, was one of a pair of contrasting concert overtures — the other being the Tragic Overture, Op. 81. Brahms composed the work during the summer of 1880 as a tribute to the University of Breslau, which had notified him that it would award him an honorary doctorate in philosophy.
- ^ That is, Academic Festival-overture; the German word Festouvertüre connotes a festive or celebratory overture and figures in the titles of Glazunov's Festouvertüre, and Luise Adolpha Le Beau's Festouvertüre für großes Orchester, among others. Brahms' title is generally written in English as "Academic Festival" Overture, but in the German title, the adjective "akademisch" modifies Festouvertüre, not Fest. It is the overture that is festive, not an "Academic Festival" occasioning it.