Overture

Mendelssohn wrote his Hebrides Overture after visiting Fingal’s Cave in the west of Scotland. He sketched the theme to the overture on the back of a post card.

The overture as a genre has had different functions at different times. The overture evolved as the introduction to an opera, introducing listeners to key themes and setting the mood. Later, overtures came to be written as short, independent works intended to be performed at the beginning of a concert. Overtures vary greatly in structure. Later still, the overture morphed into the tone poem, which might be considerably longer and approaching the length and weight of a symphony. Overtures often have a specific mood or character, and sometimes even tell a story you can follow.