The Hebrides (overture) The Hebrides (overture) Felix Mendelssohn's concert overture The Hebrides (; ) was composed in 1830, revised in 1832, and published the next year as his Op. 26. Some consider it an early tone poem. It was inspired by one of Mendelssohn's trips to the British Isles, specifically an 1829 excursion to the Scottish island of Staffa, with its basalt sea cave known as Fingal's Cave. It is not known whether Mendelssohn set foot on the island, the cave being best visible from the water, but the composer reported that he immediately jotted down the opening theme for his composition. He
Overture of the arias are quoted. In 19th-century opera the overture, "Vorspiel", "Einleitung," Introduction, or whatever else it may be called, is generally nothing more definite than that portion of the music which takes place before the curtain rises. Richard Wagner's "Vorspiel" to "Lohengrin" is a short self-contained movement founded on the music of the Grail. In Italian opera after about 1800, the "overture" became known as the "sinfonia". Fisher also notes the term "Sinfonia avanti l'opera" (literally, the "symphony before the opera") was "an early term for a sinfonia used to begin an opera, that is, as an overture as