Fingal's Cave Grade 12 2020 FINGAL's CAVE 1

Fingal’s Cave Grade 12 2020 FINGAL’S CAVE 1. Composer 2. Dates and Style 3. The Concert Overture 4. Composition: Titles, dates, form, notes, etc. 5. Description 6. Exam questions and answers 1. Composer Full names: Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, commonly known as Mendelssohn. German pianist and composer of the early Romantic period. 2. Dates: 1809-1847 General: Mendelssohn’s compositions include symphonies, concertos, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his Overture and Incidental music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Italian Symphony, the Scottish Symphony, the oratorio Elijah, the overture The Hebrides, his mature Violin Concerto, and his Octet for Strings. The melody for the Christmas carol “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” is also his. Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words (character pieces) are his most famous solo piano compositions. Contemporaries: Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Berlioz, Weber. 3. The Concert Overture (definition) i. A concert overture has one movement and a descriptive title. ii. It is usually in sonata/first part form and may contain an introduction. The exposition is not necessarily repeated. It may be compared to the first movement of a symphony. iii. The romantic concert overture was modelled after the opera overture, a one-movement composition that establishes the mood of an opera. But the concert overture is not intended to usher in a stage work; it is an independent composition performed independently, often used to open the programme of a symphony concert. iv. It was most commonly based on some literary theme, painting, or legend, etc. v. Well-known concert overtures include Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture (also known as Fingal’s Cave) and Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture and Romeo and Juliet Overture. 4. The Hebrides, Op.26 (1830) Scored for double woodwinds (2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons), double brass (2 horns, 2 trumpets), timpani and strings. Titles: The work 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. The final revision was completed by 1832 and premièred on 10 January 1833 in Berlin under the composer’s own baton. Fingal’s Cave Source/background: (a) The overture 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. (b) James Macpherson (1736—1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the “translator” of the Ossian cycle of epic poems. Ossian is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet Macpherson from 1760. Macpherson claimed to have collected word-of-mouth material in Scottish Gaelic, said to be from ancient sources, and that the work was his translation of that material. The authenticity of these sources are highly questionable. Fingal, the hero of a third-century Gaelic epic, became the object of international attention when his saga was “translated” and published by Scottish poet James MacPherson in 1761. (The formation Fingal’s Cave was named later in 1772). His work from captured the imagination of writers, painters, and composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Goethe, Schubert, and JMW Turner, who painted Staffa, Fingal’s Cave in 1832, the same year that Mendelssohn’s concert overture received its premiere. It is possible that MacPherson’s literary work, including the prefatory ode, will have provided as much inspiration for Mendelssohn as the actual location. However, it must be noted that Mendelssohn did not base his piece on the poem as such. He physically visited the location that inspired the poem: Imagination, mighty power! Where dost thou guide my roving mind? By time, by distance unconfin’d On Fancy’s rapid wings I fly To Morven’s coast, where mountains tower, Fingal’s Cave And break the clouds that roll on high. Before my view the dark-brown heath extends, From reed-crown’d lakes the creeping mists exhale: Down the rock bursting, the rude stream descends, And foams along the solitary vale. Cona, thy waters murmur in my ear! Selma, thy halls unfold! There sits FINGAL: —the chiefs of old Gaze on the ruler of the war…Turner - Staffa, Fingal's Cave Fingal’s Cave 5. Description Programme music and Absolute music (sometimes abstract music): Absolute music is music that is not explicitly "about" anything; in contrast to program music, it is non-representational. For example, Chopin’s Ballades are piano pieces that refer to the idea of a story, but none of these pieces is overtly programmatic. The rest of Chopin’s works are simply dances (Polonaises, Mazurkas and the like), sonatas or concertos, etc. Although the title alludes to a program, the piece does not tell a specific story and is not “about” anything; rather, the piece depicts a mood and “sets a scene”, as did the later musical tone poems. Form: The overture consists of two primary themes; the opening notes of the overture state the theme Mendelssohn wrote while visiting the cave, and is played initially by the violas, cellos, and bassoons. This lyrical theme, suggestive of the stunning beauty of the cave, is perhaps intended to develop feelings of loneliness and solitude. The second theme, meanwhile, depicts movement at sea and “rolling waves”. Performances of the overture typically last between 10½ and 11 minutes. 6. Exam questions and answers Fingal’s Cave Fingal’s Cave Fingal’s Cave Fingal’s Cave Fingal’s Cave .

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