Fingals Cave

views updated May 18 2018

Fingal's Cave (The Hebrides) (Die Hebriden (Fingals Höhle)). Ov. in B minor, Op.26, by Mendelssohn, who is said to have invented the prin. theme while on a visit to the Hebrides and the island of Staffa in 1829. (In fact he jotted down the theme in a letter written before he went to Staffa. The orig. version was called The Lonely Island.) Comp. 1830, rev. 1832. After rev. the work was f.p., as The Isles of Fingal, London, CG 1832. It is in effect a descriptive tone-poem.