Though always fondly known as ‘Fingal's Cave’, this overture was (disappointingly, perhaps) actually conceived the day before Mendelssohn made his steamer trip to the rocky Isle of Staffa, famous for its ominous basalt pillars, like organ pipes, at the mouth of Fingal's Cave. Rather, it was on the cliff top at Oban, staring across the Firth of Lorn to Mull and the Hebrides, that the view struck him so forcefully that he immediately drew a pencil sketch of the islands. Later that day he crossed to Mull, and at Tobermory began the letter to his father which included, in short score, the first 101 bars of the overture that the scene had inspired. However, this was 1829; Mendelssohn spent the next three years attempting to work his sketches into a coherent musical form. The following year a draft was ready, entitled ‘The Lonely Island’ (‘Ouvertüre zur einsamen Insel’), and this was very soon succeeded by a full autograph score with the heading ‘Die Hebriden’, dated 16 December 1830 (in the Morgan Library, New York). However, Mendelssohn was unhappy with this score, and two years later, with the prospect of some concerts in England, he returned to the work, completing a fresh version in Spring 1832 which received its first performance in London on 14 May 1832 under the title ‘Overture to the Isles of Fingal’. Curiously the piece was first published in an arrangement by the composer for piano duet, by both Mori & Lavenu (London, with title The Overture to The Isles of Fingal) and Breitkopf & Härtel (Leipzig, with title Ouverture aux Hébrides (Fingals Höhle)) in 1833, apparently simultaneously.

The overture represents a complete departure in the history of music, without any apparent antecedent except perhaps Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony; such a dramatic depiction of the sea in music had never before been known. Wagner, whose overture to The Flying Dutchman is in some respects modelled on it, regarded it as Mendelssohn's finest work.

sources

A  Autograph score (1832), in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; a working copy with many revisions and corrections. Although A is completely furnished with dynamics and articulation, the text is not entirely in its final form; Mendelssohn made further revisions prior to publication. Hence A's text is far from binding, but can give us a degree of insight and guidance

P  First edition parts, published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig in 1834, with the title Ouverture zu den Hebriden (Fingals-Höhle)

E  First edition score, published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1835, with (only) the title Die Fingals-Höhle

Br  Full score edited by Julius Rietz, published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1874 as part of its Gesamtausgabe; this remains the recommended edition