Medley.

An English term for a succession of well-known tunes strung together, generally without any formal construction (though examples in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book regularly repeat each tune in a varied form, and one of the vocal medleys surviving from the 16th century is built on an ostinato bass; see Quodlibet). A medley is similar to a potpourri, though generally of a smoother construction. The constituent tunes are very often from a similar source, as for example ‘a medley of tunes from X’ or ‘a medley of songs by Y’.

The ‘medley overture’, which might contain scraps of concerto, opera airs, folktunes and popular dance-tunes, was invented by Richard Charke; such a work by him, with others by Arne and Lampe, was published in Six Medley or Comic Overtures in Seven Parts (1763). The form was revived in Victorian times, but the later medley overture generally consisted of a string of tunes from the work it precedes. The term applies to opera overtures by Boieldieu, Auber and Hérold as well as those to many operettas, including some of Sullivan's.