A source of inspiration
Scotland’s wild, rugged and mystic landscape has been the inspiration for a number of great creative minds. Mark Nicholls looks at the impact famous locations had upon them.
For writers, poets, composers and artists, it is so often the untamed natural landscape that inspires the finest work.
Yet for others, it is the social fabric of a nation that leads to near genius.
Across Scotland there are numerous locations that have left a lasting legacy in the world of music, writing and art.
Some of them are wild and remote, almost inaccessible, whilst others are on our doorstep, staring us in the face, yet open to magical interpretation by an artistic and inquiring eye.
On occasions, artists went to these spots not only for the peace, the quiet and the inspiration, but also to plan the next phase of their lives.
Others went to absorb and then interpret into their own sphere of skill and expertise.
And so it was with Felix Mendelssohn. When on his grand tour of Europe as a 20-year-old, he went to the Hebrides and looked deep into the swirling torrents of Fingal’s Cave.
It was from this inspiration that he wrote one of his most famous pieces of music, the wonderful Hebrides Overture, a piece that brings to life that August day in 1829 and conjures the power and movement of an icy Atlantic swell reaching into the dark depths of the cavern and then withdrawing with awesome power.
Born in Hamburg in 1809, Mendelssohn’s visit to Scotland produced a number of works, but The Hebrides Overture is possibly his finest.
He wrote the completed piece in 1830, though he made an initial score immediately after leaving the cave, and despatched it to his sister .....
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By Mark Nicholls
Section : Inspiring Scotland
Page number : 58
