Mendelssohn's original sketch of the overture, contained in the letter to Fanny, 1829.

The Hebrides Overture (German: Die Hebriden), opus 26, also known as Fingal's Cave, is a concert overture composed by Felix Mendelssohn. Written in 1830, the piece was inspired by a cavern known as Fingal's Cave on Staffa, an island in the Hebrides archipelago located off the coast of Scotland. Despite its name, the piece serves as a stand-alone musical selection, and has now become part of standard orchestral repertoire. The piece was dedicated to King Frederick William IV of Prussia (then Crown Prince of Prussia).

Mendelssohn first travelled to England at the invitation of a German lord to mark the composer's twentieth birthday.^[1] Following his tour of England, Mendelssohn proceeded to Scotland, where he composed his symphony number 3, the Scottish Symphony. He was engaged on a tour of Scotland with his travelling companion Karl Klingemann when he sent a postcard to his family with the opening phrase of the overture written on it. In a note to his sister, Fanny Mendelssohn he said: "In order to make you understand how extraordinary The Hebrides affected me, I send you the following, which came into my head there."^[2] He actually wrote it the day before he visited Fingal's Cave. The cave at that time was approximately high and over deep, and contained colorful pillars of basalt.^[2].

The work was completed on December 16, 1830^[3] and was originally entitled Die einsame Insel, or The Lonely Island.^[1] However, Mendelssohn later revised the score, completing it by June 20, 1832,^[3] and retitled the music Die Hebriden, or The Hebrides.^[1] Despite this, the title of Fingal's Cave was also used: on the orchestral parts he labelled the music The Hebrides, but on the score Mendelssohn labelled the music Fingal's Cave.^[2] The overture was premiered on May 14, 1832 in London,^[3] in a concert that also featured Mendelssohn's Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The music, though labelled as an overture, is intended to stand as a complete work. It does not tell a story and is therefore not programmatic; instead, the piece depicts a mood and "sets a scene", one of the first such musical pieces to do so.^[4] The overture consists of two primary themes; the opening notes of the overture state the theme Mendelssohn wrote while visiting the cave, and is played initially by the violas, cellos, and bassoons.^[5] This lyrical theme, suggestive of the power and stunning beauty of the cave, is intended to develop feelings of loneliness and solitude. The second theme, meanwhile, depicts movement at sea and "rolling waves".^[2] The overture uses a standard form, and has a coda at the end, where the piece recapitulates to the original theme.^[5]

The piece is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.

Performances of the overture typically run between 10½ and 11 minutes. The autograph manuscript of the work is held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

In popular culture

The Hebrides Overture serves as the soundtrack for the 10-minute-long avant-garde film, Moods of the Sea (1941), by filmmakers Slavko Vorkapich and John Hoffman. It also was the theme song for the inscrutable and seemingly indestructible hopping mynah bird in the brief 1940's cartoon series "Inki and the Minah Bird".

In addition, the overture accompanies the Sibelius composition program as a demo piece.

An a cappella version by Spiralmouth can be heard in the video game Crash Twinsanity, during the Rusty Walrus chase section of the level "High-Seas Hijinks".

References

External links

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