The Hebrides (Overture) 1833 – Felix Mendelssohn

I had left Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides out of my music project, perhaps because I’d heard its opening so often in popular culture that I dismissed it as just another overplayed classical motif – much like his famous Wedding March. But when it unexpectedly came on my music player the other day and I listened through to the end, I was swept up like a feather in its whirlwind serenade and completely captivated. An overture is an orchestral introduction to a larger work, but in this case Mendelssohn wrote it as a stand-alone concert piece rather than as a prelude to a theatre work.

Most of the following was abridged from the 2 references at the end of this post:

The piece was inspired by Felix Mendelssohn‘s 1829 visit to the Hebrides islands off Scotland’s west coast, which he made at age 20 while traveling with his childhood friend Carl Klingemann. The two roved among the lakes and moors of the Scottish Highlands, and Mendelssohn wrote colourful letters home about their adventures. He described the “comfortless, inhospitable solitude,” which stood in contrast to the entrancing beauty and wildness of the countryside. Here was a place very different from Berlin, where the young composer had grown up. Mendelssohn loved Scotland, and he was stimulated by its sights and sounds. (His Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 56, was also known as the Scottish Symphony.)

The Hebrides was inspired specifically by the Scottish island of Staffa, with its basalt sea cave known as Fingal’s Cave. In an exuberant letter, he described the experience to his sister Fanny, and, wishing to convey to her how deeply he was moved, he wrote down for her a few bars of the melody that he later used at the beginning of his overture. It was later dedicated to Frederick William IV of Prussia, then Crown Prince of Prussia (a German state centred on the North European Plain). The final revision was completed by 20 June 1832 and premiered on 10 January 1833 in Berlin under the composer’s own baton. The original handwritten score for the overture was purchased by the Bodleian Library on the 400th anniversary of its founding in 2002 for £600k.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor who became one of the leading figures of early Romantic music. Born into a wealthy, cultured family in Hamburg, he showed great talent from a young age, writing symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and piano works that combined classical balance with Romantic feeling. Mendelssohn is best known for works like the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Italian Symphony, and his Violin Concerto in E minor. He also revived interest in Johann Sebastian Bach by conducting a landmark performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Though he enjoyed fame across Europe and founded Germany’s first music conservatory in Leipzig, his life was cut short at just 38, leaving behind a legacy of elegance, melody, and inspiration.

References:
1. The Hebrides (overture) – Wikipedia
2. The Hebrides, Op. 26 – Britannica

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