FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY
Born February 3, 1809 in Hamburg
Died November 4, 1847 in Leipzig
Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave) Op. 26 (10’)
Last performed by the Wichita Symphony on November 19 and 20, 2011, Daniel Hege conducting.
It indicates Mendelssohn’s precocity that by the time the young 20-year old composer embarked on his first journey to England in 1829, he had already composed one of music literature’s great overtures, The Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826). He had also just conducted a revival of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, an event that would spark a resurgence of interest in that composer’s music. The 1829 journey also included a visit to Scotland and the islands off the western coast known as the Hebrides Islands. Here, on the island of Staffa, a large basalt cave exists that is only accessible by boat. According to legend, this cave was the hideout in the 3rd century of Fingal, who defended Ireland from the invading Danes. Inspired by the region’s beauty, Mendelssohn painted some watercolors of the cave and jotted down sketches for what would become the Hebrides Overture. It bears noting that this same Scottish trip also inspired Mendelssohn’s Third Symphony, known as “The Scottish Symphony.”
Mendelssohn eventually completed the Overture during a tour of Italy the following year. He wasn’t entirely satisfied with the finished product, as his notes reveal: “The middle portion in E is too stupid, and the whole working out smells more of counterpoint than of train oil, seagulls and salt fish, and must be altered.” So it was back to the drawing board for further revisions before a premiere of the work on May 14, 1832, by the Philharmonic Society in London.
Mendelssohn’s self-criticism reveals a significant point. One may regard the Hebrides Overture as an archetypical Romantic period work in which Mendelssohn strove for a degree of artistic realism within the constraints of classical form. As a musical picture, it is a forerunner of works such as Wagner’s Flying Dutchman Overture and Debussy’s La Mer.
The work opens with a theme consisting of a simple melodic one-measure motive that suggests the quiet rocking of a boat on the water. Occasional scales in the lower strings reflective of larger waves accompany this motive. An expressive, more melodic second theme heard in the cellos contrasts the motivic play of the first theme. A closing section of the exposition combines the first theme motive with a trumpet fanfare. These two ideas become the basis for the development section that features colorful orchestration suggesting the echoes that bounce off the walls of Fingal’s Cave. As the music quiets, we anticipate a return to the opening measures. Instead, Mendelssohn takes us off into what is essentially a second development, this one more animated and stormier than the first. There is one passage with a repetition of the primary motive where one can almost hear the mechanical rhythm of the train that transported Mendelssohn to Scotland. The music finally returns to the quiet B minor opening of the piece. The shortened recapitulation restates the second theme in a tranquil, somewhat dreamy clarinet duet. An animated coda featuring the opening motive closes the Overture.
The Overture is scored for double winds, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. The work lasts approximately ten minutes.
© Don Reinhold, rev. 2022
