The overture opens allegro di molto, E major, 2-2, with four prolonged chords in the wood-wind. On the last of these follows immediately a pianissimo chord of E minor in violins and violas. This is followed by the “fairy music” in E minor, given out and developed by divided violins with some pizzicati in the violas. A subsidiary theme is given out fortissimo by full orchestra. The melodious second theme, in B major, begun by the wood-wind, is then continued by the strings and fuller and fuller orchestra. Several picturesque features are then introduced: the Bergomask dance from the fifth act of the play; a curious imitation of the bray of an ass in allusion to Bottom, who is, according to Maginn’s paradox, “the blockhead, the lucky man on whom Fortune showers her favors beyond measure”; and the quickly descending scale passage for violoncellos, which was suggested to the composer by the buzzing of a big fly in the Schoenhauser Garten. The free fantasia is wholly on the first theme. The third part of the overture is regular, and there is a short coda. The overture ends with the four sustained chords with which it opened.
In 1843 King Frederick William the Fourth of Prussia wished Mendelssohn to compose music for the plays Antigone, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Athalie, which should be produced in September. During March and April of that year Mendelssohn, who had written the overture in 1826, composed the additional music for Shakespeare’s play. Tieck had divided the play into three acts and had said nothing to the composer about the change. Mendelssohn had composed with reference to the original division. The first performance was in the Royal Theater in the New Palace, Potsdam, October 14, 1843, on the eve of the festival of the King’s birthday. Mendelssohn conducted.
The score was published in June, 1848; the orchestral parts in August of that year. The first edition for pianoforte was published in September, 1844.
Mendelssohn’s music to the play consists of thirteen numbers:
I. Overture; II. Scherzo (Entr’acte after Act I); III. Fairy March (in Act II); IV. “You spotted snakes,” for two sopranos and chorus (in Act II); V. Melodrama (in Act II); VI. Intermezzo (Entr’acte after Act II); VII. Melodrama (in Act III); VIII. Notturno (Entr’acte after Act III); IX. Andante (in Act IV); X. Wedding March (after the close of Act IV); XI. Allegro commodo and Marcia funebre (in Act V); XII. Bergomask Dance (in Act V); XIII. Finale to Act V.
Many of the themes in these numbers were taken from the overture.
The scherzo (entr’acte between Acts I and II) is an allegro vivace in G minor, 3-8. “Presumably Mendelssohn intended it as a purely musical reflection of the scene in Quince’s house—the first meeting to discuss the play to be given by the workmen at the wedding—with which the first act ends. Indeed, there is a passing allusion to Nick Bottom’s bray in it. But the general character of the music is bright and fairy-like, with nothing of the grotesque about it.” The scherzo presents an elaborate development of two themes that are not sharply contrasted; the first theme has a subsidiary. The score is dedicated to Heinrich Conrad Schleinitz.
CONCERT OVERTURE, “THE HEBRIDES,” OR “FINGAL’S CAVE,” OP. 26
In the Hebrides overture, Mendelssohn shook off his priggish formalism. He had been deeply affected by the sight of Staffa and Fingal’s Cave; he was not ashamed to translate his emotions into music without obsequious obedience to the old pedagogic traditions. Here he is poetic, picturing the wildness of the far-off scene without too deliberate attempt at realism. Here is the suggestion—and with the small orchestra of the period!—as Mr. Apthorp put it, of screaming sea birds, whistling winds, the salty smell of the seaweed on the rocks. For once Mendelssohn showed himself more than a careful manufacturer of music when he revised his score, saying that the middle section smelt more of counterpoint than of train oil, sea gulls, and salt fish.
