Staffa and Mendelssohn

The Isle of Staffa is an uninhabited nature reserve off the West Coast of Scotland. It was formed sixty million years ago by volcanic activity, the same activity that formed the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. Upright hexagonal basalt pillars formed in the cooling process.

It's difficult to get to Staffa. It requires two crossings of sea swells, often driven by wind and waves coming directly across the Atlantic Ocean. The first crossing went well. Caledonian MacBrayne's "Isle of Mull" carried RV and me from Oban to Mull and, en route, gave an excellent fish supper, fresh from the bay.

Years ago, when travelling for music, the realisation had struck that hoteliers knew the dates of Jazz Festivals in advance and, by some unseen hand, raised their prices. The antidote was an RV, a form of accommodation and transport well known to musicians, which still serves today.

Arriving on Mull, a simple parking lot housed RVs for the night, and the following day we drove along the coast before turning inland on a series of twisting single-track roads, with passing places for both oncoming and following traffic. A testing journey was made easier by cheerful waving and hooting locals going about their working day on hill farms. An hour later, the small port came into sight and disaster struck. High winds and heavy weather had cancelled all sailings, and it remained that way from Tuesday until Friday morning. A stray cat became a companion, begging chicken and milk.



The reason for going to Fingal's Cave on the Isle of Staffa was only partly because of the unusual geology. It was here on August 7th, 1829, that composer Felix Mendelssohn was rowed across the wild Atlantic waves from Mull to Fingal's Cave. It was here too that he was inspired by the ebb and flow of the waves to write the Overture to his Hebridean Suite. The Friday morning boat "Turus Mara" was not big enough for RV, but it was capable and sturdy. The engine made a comfortingly steady thrum. When rolling set in, the seawater splashed through the scuppers to wash the deck and shoes before hurrying back into the sea. Arriving at Staffa, the boat angled in to give a view of the cave, then turned away to land at a nearby dock. There followed a walk across the tops of uneven hexagonal pillars with a failing wire rope to hang onto. Entering the cave, the effect Mendelssohn felt became clear. Waves compressed the air in the confined space, and the sound and movement of the water became mesmeric.



During far distant school days, a windy Welsh music master had waxed lyrical about Mendelssohn's music as the class sat silently listening to a long-play (LP) record in a temporary building sited as far away as possible from school, close to the playing fields, to avoid disturbing other studies. Something stuck from that long-ago memory while sitting on a rock listening to a recording of Fingal's Cave on a cell phone.

The return to the mainland was an anticlimax. The weather held and both ships ran to time. It was Friday night, the fish was good and so back to Oban at dark o'clock.

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Posted to Big World with Martin McFie IN THE Jazz Discovery GROUP
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