14 May: Hebrides (Fingal's Cave)

On this date in 1832, Felix Mendelssohn's Hebrides premièred. 10 things you might not know about it.

1. This work is now popularly known as Fingal's Cave, but its title when published was Die einsame Insel (The Lonely Island) or Mendelssohn's Op. 26.

2. It’s described as a concert overture, which means it might sound as if it’s the prelude to an opera but is actually a stand alone composition to be played at a concert. This was a common form in Mendelssohn's time.

3. Felix Mendelssohn was 20 years old when he wrote it.

4. It was inspired by a trip he took to Britain in 1829 which included a boat trip to the uninhabited Scottish island of Staffa, which has a basalt sea cave known as Fingal's Cave. The young Mendelssohn found the cave so inspiring that he immediately began jotting down ideas for the music. He was so excited by it that he wrote a letter to his sister, Fanny, and included in it a few bars from the beginning of the piece.

5. According to legend, the cave is the site of what was once the royal castle of Fion na Gael ("Fingal"), ruler of the kingdom of Morven and father of the celebrated third-century warrior and bard known as Ossian.

6. Mendelssohn finished his first draft on 16 December 1830. There’s a theory that this wasn’t accidental. This date happens to be the one day of the year when the cave is fully lit by sunlight, when the sun lies 5.6 degrees above the horizon; so it’s possible Mendelssohn purposely arranged to write the final note on this date.

7. He dedicated the piece to Frederick William IV of Prussia, then Crown Prince of Prussia.

8. Performances of the overture typically last between 10½ and 11 minutes. 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 Trumpets, timpani and strings are required to play it.

9. Johannes Brahms was so impressed by it that he said, "I would gladly give all I have written, to have composed something like the Hebrides Overture".

10. The original handwritten score was purchased by the Bodleian Library on the 400th anniversary of its founding in 2002 for £600k.

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