This beautiful tone poem originally had many names but two survive today: Fingal's Cave and Hebrides Overture. Mendelssohn took a boat trip while visiting the Hebrides area of Scotland. The sights and feel of the rough waves the salty mist and the sounds of flying sea gulls amid the working boats at the docks provided the inspiration for this widely recognized masterpiece.

Not surprisingly, the rugged islands aroused Mendelssohn’s vivid imagination. Just hours before visiting Fingal’s Cave, he wrote to his sister Fanny,

In order to have you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, the following came to my mind there…

He then quotes the theme that would become the opening of the overture. It wasn’t until over a year later, in Rome, that he wrote the first draft of the complete work. In 1832, Mendelssohn wrote to his family from Paris that he still wasn’t satisfied with the work. He quickly completed a final revision, and the first performance took place in London on May 14, 1832. Its success was immediate. Within the confines of traditional sonata form, Mendelssohn was able to succinctly describe both the desolation and rugged beauty of the islands. Wagner later called the work “one of the most beautiful pieces we possess.”