| The Hebrides Die Hebriden | |
|---|---|
| Concert overture by Felix Mendelssohn | |
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Mendelssohn_picture.jpg) Sketch of a landscape in Scotland by Felix Mendelssohn, in his letter of 1 August 1829 to his sister Fanny | |
| Key | B minor |
| Opus | 26 |
| Dedication | Frederick William IV of Prussia |
| Published | 1833 |
The Hebrides (/ˈhɛbrɪdiːz/; German: Die Hebriden) is a concert overture that was composed by Felix Mendelssohn in 1830, revised in 1832, and published the next year as Mendelssohn's Op. 26. Some consider it an early tone poem.[1][2]
It was inspired by one of Mendelssohn's trips to the British Isles, specifically an 1829 excursion to the Scottish island of Staffa, with its basalt sea cave known as Fingal's Cave. It was reported that the composer immediately jotted down the opening theme for his composition after seeing the island. He at first called the work To the Lonely Island or Zur einsamen Insel, but then settled on the present title. However, in 1834, the year after the first publication, Breitkopf & Härtel issued an edition with the name Fingalshöhle (Fingal's Cave) and this title stuck, causing some confusion.
Fingal's cave is a spot on the Hebridan Isle of Staffa, some fifty miles off the Scottish coast. According to legend the cave is the site of what was once the royal castle of Fion na Gael (anglicized to "Fingal"), ruler of the kingdom of Morven and father of the celebrated third-century warrior and bard known as Ossian. Every trace of the structure of the supposed castle has vanished and its floor has given way to the sea.
Being a concert overture, The Hebrides does not precede a play or opera, but is instead a standalone composition in a form common for the Romantic period. Dedicated to Frederick William IV of Prussia, then Crown Prince of Prussia, the B minor work became part of the standard orchestral repertoire and retains this position to the present day. The original handwritten score for the overture was purchased by the Bodleian Library on the 400th anniversary of its founding in 2002 for £600k.[3]
As an indication of the esteem in which it is held by musicians, Johannes Brahms once said "I would gladly give all I have written, to have composed something like the Hebrides Overture".[4]
- ^ See "Symphonic poem" in the online Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed 2 October 2017.
- ^ See "Symphonic Poem" in the MUS 101 music lesson series by Elliott Jones, accessed 2 October 2017.
- ^ Oxford Mail
- ^ Wilfrid Blunt, On Wings of Song (1974), p. 108