The Hebrides, Op. 26

1. 0:00
   Opening phrase, violas, cellos, bassoon

   Violas, cellos and first bassoon play a falling phrase in B minor. It starts after a quaver’s rest: F♯, D, C♯, D, B, F♯. Above it, the violins hold two quiet notes.

2. 1:16
   Letter to his family, 7 August 1829

   On 7 August 1829 Mendelssohn wrote to his family: “In order to make you understand how extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me, the following came into my mind there.” Beneath the words he wrote twenty-one bars of music. He visited Fingal’s Cave the next day.

3. 2:00
   Second theme, cellos and bassoons

   The second theme is in D major, marked cantabile. Cellos and bassoons play it together while the upper strings continue their semiquavers.

4. 3:45
   First London performance, 1832

   The Hebrides was first heard in London on 14 May 1832, on a programme that also included Mendelssohn’s overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. After the concert he revised the score again.

5. 4:16
   Development, wind calls over strings

   In the development, accented wind calls sound above the strings, which play piano and pianissimo. The opening phrase passes through the violas and cellos, sometimes cut to a few notes. The trumpets play a repeated rhythm, marked marcato.

6. 5:25
   Turner at Staffa, 1831

   Turner visited Staffa in 1831. His painting Staffa, Fingal’s Cave shows a steamship passing the island’s basalt cliffs, with smoke and spray in the air. Mendelssohn had been there two years earlier.

7. 7:35
   Return of the opening phrase

   The falling phrase returns in B minor in the violas and cellos, marked tranquillo, while the violins continue to move above it. This return follows the wind calls and rapid scales of the development.

8. 8:30
   Second theme in B major, clarinets

   The long second theme returns in B major. The first clarinet plays it above held string chords, marked tranquillo assai (very calm); the second clarinet enters later in the phrase. The moving accompaniment of the first statement is gone.

9. 9:30
   Animato, in tempo

   At Animato, in tempo the violins resume their semiquavers and the oboe plays a short staccato phrase. The clarinet’s long melody ends. B minor returns, and the semiquavers spread through the orchestra.

10. 11:10
    Coda, clarinet, flute and pizzicato

    The orchestra reduces. A clarinet plays the falling phrase again and the flute follows with a phrase of its own. The strings close with a few pianissimo pizzicato notes in B minor.

Joins

1. 2:00
   Cellos and bassoons take the long tune

   The music reaches D major, the relative major of B minor. The double bass holds a quiet D, and cellos and bassoons begin the new melody, marked cantabile. Violins and violas continue their semiquavers, now marked sempre pp, always very soft.

2. 4:16
   Wind calls over alternating string figures

   The D major closing music breaks off at rehearsal C. Horns and trumpets repeat their clipped rhythm as the strings drop to piano. The violins alternate between two notes while the low strings play the falling phrase again. Wind chords enter fortissimo and diminish at once.

3. 7:35
   Low strings return to the opening

   The rushing scales die away, and the violas and cellos bring back the B minor opening phrase, marked piano tranquillo. The double bass holds a note beneath them. Above, the violins continue their alternating pairs of notes while the last wind figures die away.

4. 8:30
   Clarinet second theme in B major

   The strings descend, become quieter and then hold a B major chord. Over their low B, the clarinet begins the second tune, tranquillo assai. D♯ replaces the D♮ of B minor. The bassoons and cellos played the tune first, and here it passes to the clarinet.

5. 9:30
   Animato, in tempo, after the ritardando

   The clarinets slow and diminish over the strings. At Animato, in tempo the violins resume their semiquavers, and the oboe plays a staccato phrase above a held F♯ in the low strings. The harmony turns back towards B minor, and soon afterwards the bass moves again.

6. 11:10
   Closing clarinet and flute phrases

   The final B minor passage reduces from full orchestra to a falling phrase in the clarinet and a short phrase in the flute. The strings change to pizzicato, pianissimo. Low B is held in the bass, and a written pause follows the last plucked notes.