The Hebrides (overture) the following, which came into my head there." The cave at that time was approximately high and over deep, and contained black basalt pillars. The work was completed on 16 December 1830 and was originally entitled "Die einsame Insel" ("The Lonely Island"). However, Mendelssohn later revised the score and renamed the piece "Die Hebriden" ("The Hebrides"). Despite this, the title of "Fingal's Cave" was also used: on the orchestral parts he labelled the music "The Hebrides", but on the score Mendelssohn labelled the music "Fingal's Cave". This revision of the overture was premiered on 14 May 1832 in London in
Overture fanfare for muted trumpets. More important, however, was the prologue, which comprised sung dialogue between allegorical characters which introduced the overarching themes of the stories depicted. As a musical form, however, the French overture first appears in the court ballet and operatic overtures of Jean-Baptiste Lully, which he elaborated from a similar, two-section form called "Ouverture", found in the French ballets de cour as early as 1640. This French overture consists of a slow introduction in a marked "dotted rhythm" (i.e., exaggerated iambic, if the first chord is disregarded), followed by a lively movement in fugato style. The overture was