Assignment 5: The Hebrides Overture - Felix Mendelssohn

    The Hebrides Overture by Felix Mendelssohn

The Hebrides Overture is a musical translation of Mendelssohn's journey through the Scottish Hebridean Islands. The island of Staffa, for example, has a unique basalt sea cave (a natural phenomenon) known as Fingal's Cave.

                                                        Fingal's Cave on the Island of Staffa

Because it does not tell a story, Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture is not programmatic. Nonetheless, it is evocative of the sea and the scenery Mendelssohn witnessed during his time in the Hebrides and Fingal's Cave. In other words, it is a musical representation of his visual and aural experiences while admiring the stunning scenery of the Hebrides.

Mendelssohn's opening motive is a mysterious arpeggio fragment of b minor.

Over and over again, the motive rises higher and higher. To create maximum drama, the melodic material is arranged for bassoon, viola, and cello, the lower depths of the orchestra. It is the violins which take over the theme as it rises. During the opening six bars, the music switches from B minor to D major to F sharp minor; in fact, such simultaneous transitions from one key to another in a short period would have been something Mendelssohn, the supreme master of counterpoint and observant of all the 'rules', would have typically avoided. Instead, he was deeply affected by the primitive, bleak beauty of the Hebrides.

Simultaneously, the lower voices begin an undulating pattern of sixteenth notes that continues throughout the work, representing the ebb and flow of the sea. Concurrently, dramatic crescendos and sforzandi allude to crashing sea waves against rocks.

dramatic crescendos in lower strings

Ebb and Flow Ocean Visuals (0:35 - 0:49)

waves crashing over rocks

                                                             

A rising surge in the cellos and basses interrupts the calmness of the oscillating semi-quaver figures, which gives a strong sense of waves pushing against boats and breaking on the beach. 

The rising of the lower strings

 The woodwinds imitate the cry of gulls from somewhere in the development section, accompanied by the same oscillations accompanying bleak declamatory exchanges across the orchestra. Finally, we get a storm at the end of the development section, as Mendelssohn would have experienced on his trip to Staffa. 

                                  Introduction of theme in Cm, which parodies the call of seagulls 

The highlighted parts are descending lines, just like the motion of the waves approaching the shore.

The second theme is a more sprawling and soaring melody in the major mode, again introduced by the lower instruments (bassoons and celli), maintaining the mysterious nautical tone of the overture.

introduction of the second theme

 

During this section, soft iterations of the opening fragment are answered by militaristic wind figures. Before beginning a somewhat jauntier section filled with dotted rhythms and staccato statements, the opening motive is later transformed into a martial rhythm in the orchestra. 

The instrumentation and changes in dynamics, rhythmic shifts, and movement (ascending and descending) of the melodic lines are key features of how this piece represents nature. Mendelssohn described various elements of nature in the environment of Fingal's Cave using the unique timbre of different families in the orchestra, the dynamic and rhythmic changes of the orchestra to picture the intensity of a moment in his perspective, and the motion of the melodic lines painted out the dimension of the elements (e.g. waves).

Mendelssohn's work exemplifies how people/artists in the nineteenth century perceived nature. As you listen to this overture, you will notice that it is short compared to other typical overtures. It's because Mendelssohn, like most 19th-century artists, preferred to capture what they saw at a given time and place rather than telling a story. This piece was inspired by Mendelssohn's imagination, impression, and memory of what was going on around Fingal's Cave when he was spending his time in the Hebrides, which resembles the Romantics' idea of bestowing oneness by valuing external nature. People who know Mendelssohn well will recognise this overture as his because it is very 'Mendelssohn.' (formal balance, subjective fantasy elements and romantic scenes)

Furthermore, Romantics believed that whether or not nature could exist independently of the human mind, the imagination promotes the solitude and isolation of the individual mind. Geographically, the Hebrides are located on Scotland's west coast, which is technically separated from the Scottish mainland. In Mendelssohn's mind, he and the Hebrides shared similar qualities; his personality and bright mind stood out from the crowd, just as the Hebrides stood out from the mainland. Perhaps this is why Mendelssohn was drawn to this location and convinced him that spending over two years refining the piece before it was ready for its world premiere was worthwhile.

Reference: Woodring. C. 2017. Nature and Art in the Nineteenth Century. Modern Language Association. https://www.jstor.org/stable/461940