Located in Scotland, the Hebrides consists of more than 500 islands. The scenery is beautiful, the skies are vast, the archipelago is often shrouded in twilight and clouds, and the surrounding waters are unpredictable and weather-changing.
Vast sandy beaches, churning waves, precarious cliffs, and a lighthouse designed by novelist Stevenson's father and uncle make up the island's distinctive landscape.
Over the centuries, artists, scientists, poets and travelers have come here for inspiration, including Mendelssohn, the icon of Romantic music.
In 1829, Mendelssohn and his friends visited the Hebrides on the west coast of Scotland and were fascinated by the island's many fascinating caves, the most famous of which is Fingal's Cave, named after the Scottish national hero.
When the tide enters and exits the cave and the waves crash against the stone pillars in the cave, Fingal's cave makes a loud and pleasant sound, and is known as the "Cave of Music".
Mendelssohn immediately devoted himself to music, trying to depict the Hebrides in his impressions of the Hebrides with musical notes, and in 1832 he finally completed the Hebrides Overture, also known as the Fingal Cave Overture.
The Hebrides Overture is structured in sonata form, depicting the stunning scenery of the Hebrides in a 10-minute panorama. Mendelssohn used music to imitate scenes of the sea breeze howling, the waves crashing on the shore, and the cliffs swelling. In particular, the introduction to the theme of the piece is full of a sense of expanse and atmosphere.
Mendelssohn was not only a poet who passionately celebrated nature, but also a romantic landscape "painter" who was adept at using musical notes as a brush, and his music was called "descriptive romanticism". This "Hebrides Overture" is also like this, once performed, it immediately conquered the ears of music fans and was praised by peers.
Richard Wagner
My dearest friend Mendelssohn, you are such a great landscape painter!
Johannes Brahms
If I could write an overture like Mendelssohn, I would be willing to offset it with all my compositions!
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Source: CCTV Literature and Art, CCTV Classic Music Broadcasting
Editor: Luan Yi Yao Jiena
Editor-in-charge: He Li
Review: Li Xiangyang