Fanny Hensel

by

Laura Stokes

• LAST MODIFIED: 11 January 2018
• DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199757824-0235

Introduction

Fanny Hensel (Fanny Cäcilie Mendelssohn Bartholdy, b. 1805–d. 1847) was one of the best-known and most prolific female composers of the 19th century. Educated alongside her brother Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, she studied composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter and piano with Marie Bigot and Ludwig Berger. Upon maturity, her path diverged from Felix’s. Felix traveled throughout Europe, gaining musical exposure and experience, while Fanny remained at the family home in Berlin, married the court painter Wilhelm Hensel, and organized an important musical salon. She composed over 460 works, largely Lieder and solo piano pieces, but also choral music, organ music, chamber music, cantatas, and other genres. Despite her extensive and sophisticated output, Hensel was deeply conflicted about bringing her work into the public eye, and she began publishing only a year before her sudden death at the age of forty-one. Her posthumous reputation was established by family members. Subsequently, however, Hensel was virtually forgotten as a composer, and seen mainly as Mendelssohn’s sister. The shifting understanding of Hensel in both her personal and artistic identity is mirrored in the complex matter of her name. She was born “Fanny Mendelssohn”; became “Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy” when she was baptized in 1816; then “Fanny Hensel” when she married in 1829; and, beginning in 1846, published as “Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy” (i.e., Fanny Hensel, née Mendelssohn Bartholdy). An earlier tendency to call her “Fanny Mendelssohn” or “Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel” has given way more recently to a penchant to style her “Fanny Hensel,” or “Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy,” reflecting the name that she used for most of her adult life and the reputation that her work is gaining in its own right, apart from her relationship to her brother. (This change in naming convention also helps to dispel the distressingly persistent popular misconception that Fanny Hensel was Felix Mendelssohn’s wife rather than his sister.) The rehabilitation of Mendelssohn studies and the flourishing of feminist scholarship in the second half of the 20th century led to a revival in Hensel scholarship, beginning with new biographical studies. In recent decades, many new primary source materials have been discovered or made accessible, ensuring that scholarship on and performance of Hensel’s work will continue to thrive.

General Overviews

The multifaceted nature of Hensel scholarship is visible in the varying perspectives found in article-length introductions in standard works. Citron 2007–2017 represents the strong feminist bent found in scholarship on Hensel in the late 20th century, whereas Cooper 2013 and Schwarz-Danuser 2016 speak to the more recent focus on Hensel’s works and compositional process. The biographical website Furore 2015 is indicative of the healthy relationship of scholarship and publishing in this area, as well as a desire to make information about Hensel available to the broader public outside of the scholarly community.

• Citron, Marcia J. “Mendelssohn(-Bartholdy) [Hensel], Fanny (Cäcilie).” In Grove Music Online. Edited by Deane Root. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007–2017.

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  Citron’s entry for Hensel in the standard English-language musicological reference work is taken from her article in the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001). The article focuses more on Hensel’s biography than on her musical style. It includes a useful but dated bibliography, with the most recent entry from 1993, and an abridged works list.

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• Cooper, John Michael. “Hensel (née Mendelssohn), Fanny (Cäcilie) (1805–1847).” In Historical Dictionary of Romantic Music. By John Michael Cooper, 275–276. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2013.

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  Cooper’s brief article focuses on Hensel’s compositional activities, including the range of genres in which she composed, and offers a new summary perspective on the issue of family support for her publications during her lifetime.

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• Furore Verlag. Fanny Hensel, née Mendelssohn, 2015.

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  Hosted by the Furore Verlag (which has published more than a hundred Hensel works in scores and recordings, as well as scholarship related to Hensel), this website includes a biography, chronicle of her life, excerpts from letters and other texts (in German only), and an overview of Romanticism, as well as lists of scores, books, CDs, and performances. In English and German.

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• Schwarz-Danuser, Monika. “Mendelssohn: Fanny (Caecilie), verheiratet Hensel.” In MGG Online. Edited by Laurenz Lüttekin. Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 2016.

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  Based on Schwarz-Danuser’s article in the second edition of Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (2004), this article treats both Hensel’s biography and her compositions in detail. The bibliography extends to 2002.

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Bibliographies and Catalogues

The growing quantity of scholarship and range of known and/or available primary sources make the bibliographical works that point to these sources both critically important and a moving target. The available bibliographic guide (Cooper 2001, cited under Bibliographies) is a starting place but is currently being updated. Thematic catalogues, manuscript catalogues, and exhibit catalogues assemble records of primary materials and reveal their existence to researchers.

Letters and Diaries

Unavailable for many decades, the recent publication of many of Hensel’s previously unknown letters, and of her diaries, has broadened the range of primary source material available to biographers and cultural historians, diminishing the reliance on Hensel 1881 (cited under Biographies).

Facsimiles

Hensel created exquisite fair copies of some of her works, some of which are available in facsimile. While not necessarily intended for publication, the fair copies do nonetheless suggest that the music contained therein comprises a fully worked-out version of the piece. All of the fair copies mentioned here—Das Jahr (Hensel 2000), the Reise-Album (see Hensel 2001 and Klein 2006), Traum (Hensel 1997), and “Der Fürst vom Berge” (Hensel 2001)—were joint musical-artistic ventures by Fanny and Wilhelm Hensel; they feature Fanny’s music and Wilhelm’s drawings.

• ‪Hensel, Fanny, geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy. “Traum”: Lied auf einen Text von Joseph von Eichendorff für Singstimme und Klavier F-dur (1844). Introduction by Hans-Günter Klein. Wiesbaden, Germany: Dr. Ludwig Reichert, 1997.

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  A facsimile of the fair copy of Hensel’s Lied “Traum” (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz, MA Ms. 89). The facsimile includes a vignette by Wilhelm Hensel. Klein’s introductory remarks provide context for Hensel’s work as composer and musician, and explicate the text of this Lied, which Hensel based on two Eichendorff poems, both titled “Erinnerung.”

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• Hensel, Fanny. Das Jahr: Zwölf Charakterstücke (1841) für das Fortepiano. Illustrierte Reinschrift mit Zeichnungen von Wilhelm Hensel. Faksimile nach dem Autograph aus dem Besitz des Mendelssohn-Archivs der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Epilogues by Beatrix Borchard, Ayako Suga-Maack, and Christian Thorau. Kassel, Germany: Furore, 2000.

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  A magnificent facsimile of the fair copy manuscript of Das Jahr held at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz, MA Ms. 155. The notated music, vignettes by Wilhelm Hensel, and epigraphs are all reproduced in full color. Includes commentary on the discovery of the new manuscript and its significance for our understanding of the work.

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• Hensel, Fanny, geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy. “Der Fürst vom Berge”: Lied auf einem Text von Wilhelm Hensel: für Singstimme und Klavier (1840). Introduction by Hans-Günter Klein. Weisbaden, Germany: L. Reichert, 2001.

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  “Der Fürst vom Berge,” with text by Wilhelm Hensel, was one of the five Lieder that Fanny Hensel selected to include in the Reise-Album. This color reproduction of the relevant pages of the manuscript (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz, MA Ms. 163) includes Wilhelm’s vignettes. Hans-Günter Klein provided a transcription of the Lied as well as commentary on the process of creating the Reise-Album.

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• Klein, Hans-Günter, ed. “‘O glückliche, reiche, einzige Tage’: Fanny und Wilhelm Hensels italienische Reise, mit einem Faksimile der 18 Bildseiten aus dem ‘Reise-Album 1839–1840.’” Wiesbaden, Germany: Dr. Ludwig Reichert, 2006.

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  This publication constitutes a combination book on the subject of the Hensel family’s trip to Italy in 1839–1840 and facsimile; a major component of it is the many generous full-color images from the Reise-Album (Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin—Preußischer Kulturbesitz, MA Ms. 163) created by Fanny and Wilhelm.

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Biographies

Perhaps no area of Hensel studies has been as controversial as her biography. Hensel’s son Sebastian was, in essence, her original biographer, and many subsequent biographies rely heavily on the source material contained within Hensel 1881, although that carefully selected material is far from comprehensive. Fanny Hensel was sidelined in the first half of the 20th century, often portrayed as merely a muse to and chronicler of her younger brother, whose own reputation went into decline, especially during the Nazi era. With the concurrent revival of Mendelssohn studies and blossoming of women’s studies in the second half of the 20th century, the field of Hensel biography underwent a seismic shift. Numerous studies informed by feminist thought appeared (Sirota 1981, Reich 1991, Tillard 1992); in addition, the psychoanalytical bent in musicological scholarship emerged in Hensel studies at this time, although such explorations also began to incorporate discussion of the musical works themselves (Rothenberg 1993). Examination of the broader cultural context in which Hensel lived and worked, outside of familial dynamics, led to a reconsideration of the very constructs of biography (Wilson Kimber 2002, Wilson Kimber 2004). In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, many new primary source materials became available, including music manuscripts, letters, and a published edition of Hensel’s diaries; these sources have sparked a great deal of deeply informed biographical work (Schleuning 2007, Todd 2010).

• Hensel, Sebastian. The Mendelssohn Family (1729–1847): From Letters and Journals. Translated by Karl Klingemann and an American collaborator. New York: Harper, 1881.

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  Originally published as Die Familie Mendelssohn 1729–1847: Nach Briefen und Tagebüchern (Behr, 1879), this biography by Hensel’s son remains an invaluable source of information about her and the Mendelssohn family, reaching back to Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786). It is underpinned by Sebastian Hensel’s desire to portray the Mendelssohns as an upright bourgeois German family, and by his carefully crafted portrayal of his mother; thus, it must be used in conjunction with other sources. Numerous editions.

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• Reich, Nancy B. “The Power of Class: Fanny Hensel.” In Mendelssohn and his World. Edited by R. Larry Todd, 86–99. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.

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  Reich’s essay was an important step in Hensel biography, pointing out that her career options and trajectory were not only deeply affected by her gender, but also by her relatively high social and economic class, which created an additional limitation on her ability to step into the public sphere.

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• Rothenberg, Sarah. “‘Thus Far, but No Farther’: Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Unfinished Journey.” Musical Quarterly 77.4 (Winter 1993): 689–708.

  DOI: 10.1093/mq/77.4.689Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Sketches Hensel’s life as a journey toward fulfillment: from her early years of education and rivalry with Felix toward finding an outlet for her musical abilities, which was only imperfectly fulfilled in her musical salon. The 1839–1840 journey to Italy was a turning point in Hensel’s self-understanding, giving her psychological space, spurring compositional productivity, and eventually leading her to publish. Ends with a discussion of the piano cycle Das Jahr.

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• Schleuning, Peter. Fanny Hensel, geb. Mendelssohn: Musikerin der Romantik. Europäische Komponistinnen 6. Cologne: Böhlau, 2007.

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  Traces Hensel’s life in the context of her relationship to Felix and the Mendelssohn circle (especially female members of the extended family), but also in the political, artistic, musical, social, and religious circumstances of the time, including the effects of anti-Semitism. This biography relies heavily on editions of Fanny’s letters (Citron 1987, Weissweiler 1997, both cited under Letters) and diaries (Klein and Elvers 2002, cited under Diaries). The final section contains analytical commentary on selected works.

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• Sirota, Victoria. “The Life and Works of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel.” DMA diss., Boston University, 1981.

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  Sirota’s thesis brought Fanny’s compositional activities, as well as her accomplishments as the organizer of the Sunday musicales, to greater attention in the scholarly world. Sirota describes complex aspects of the Mendelssohn family dynamics, including anxiety that Felix felt about his relationship with Fanny, as well as the relationships between the other Mendelssohn siblings.

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• Tillard, Françoise. Fanny Mendelssohn. Translated by Camille Naish. Portland, OR: Amadeus, 1992.

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  Traces the narrative of Hensel’s life in the context of the Mendelssohn family and how the issues of conversion and anti-Semitism may have shaped her interactions with the larger world. Tillard locates the silencing of Fanny’s public voice primarily with members of the immediate family (i.e., Felix and Abraham Mendelssohn). Originally in French (Paris: Belfon, 1992), also in German as Die verkannte Schwester (Munich: Kindler, 1994).

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• Todd, R. Larry. Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

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  Todd’s study is founded on resources newly available in recent decades, including Hensel’s diaries, new editions of musical works, and catalogues. Todd reevaluates Fanny’s relationship with Felix in light of developments in the field of sibling studies, arguing that Fanny had a unique compositional voice, independent of her brother’s. Musical analyses are woven into the biographical narrative. A companion website includes audio and score examples.

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• Wilson Kimber, Marian. “The ‘Suppression’ of Fanny Mendelssohn: Rethinking Feminist Biography.” 19th-Century Music 26.2 (2002): 113–129.

  DOI: 10.1525/ncm.2002.26.2.113Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Wilson Kimber questions the premises of feminist biography on Hensel. Much of this work is based on Hensel 1881, which itself was constructed to portray the Mendelssohn family as patriarchal. Wilson Kimber argues that the gender-based expectations of the culture, not just the discouragement of family members, prevented Hensel from having a professional career. This article ignited considerable controversy within Hensel studies.

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• Wilson Kimber, Marian. “Felix and Fanny: Gender, Biography, and History.” In The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn. Edited by Peter Mercer-Taylor, 42–52. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

  DOI: 10.1017/CCOL9780521826037.005Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Reviews the relationship between the Mendelssohn siblings, especially their education together, influence on each other, and close bond. Earlier male-oriented biography often blamed Fanny for supposedly “feminine” tendencies in Felix’s work, and later feminist biography tended to portray Felix as a “villain” whose influence denied Fanny a successful compositional career. These tendencies fit into a “Great Composer” model of biography, a model that Wilson Kimber argues is based in male-oriented Romantic ideology.

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General Collections

The generally significant journal Mendelssohn-Studien (cited under Journals) is included here, along with two special journal issues and two collections of essays, all of which stemmed from scholarly conferences or symposia.

Cultural Studies

The study of cultural practices embraces a wide swath of specific topics within those practices, but a few distinct trends can be discerned at the intersection of Hensel scholarship and cultural studies. These include studies of space, specifically the Mendelssohn family home (Borchard and Bartsch 2007); Hensel as performer and as “saloniste” (Quin 1981, Lambour 2001–2007); communication and relationships within the family (Sabean 1993, Bartsch 2007); the family’s multifaceted religious heritage (Schwarz-Danuser 1999, Thimme 1999); and iconography (Wasserman 2008), which in turn relates back to family relationships, since Hensel’s primary portraitist was her husband, Wilhelm.

• Bartsch, Cornelia. Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Musik als Korrespondenz. Kassel, Germany: Furore, 2007.

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  Bartsch’s book, based on her 2006 dissertation, demonstrates the complex interaction of gender roles and the 19th-century culture of communication, both in general and specifically within the Mendelssohn family, and how this culture shaped Hensel’s compositional decisions. The latter half of the book explores the nature of Felix and Fanny’s mode of communication through composition.

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• Borchard, Beatrix, and Cornelia Bartsch. “Leipziger Straße Drei: Sites for Music.” Nineteenth-Century Music Review 4.2 (2007): 119–138.

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  Considers the space of the Mendelssohn family home at Leipziger Straße 3, Berlin; modes of family communication; and how these both affected music-making in the Mendelssohn household. Borchard assesses the specifics of the rooms and spaces available at Leipziger Straße 3; in the second part, Bartsch examines the metaphorical space of written and musical correspondence, especially when Felix and Fanny communicated through composition.

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• Lambour, Christian. “Fanny Hensel—Die Pianistin.” Mendelssohn Studien 12, 14, 15 (2001–2007).

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  Lambour’s five-part portrait of Hensel as a pianist was published over the course of three volumes of Mendelssohn Studien. Hensel’s teachers, her instruments, contemporary reports on her playing, how she viewed her own playing, and how she viewed the playing of other contemporary pianists are all discussed.

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• Quin, Carol Lynelle. “Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: Her Contributions to Nineteenth-Century Musical Life.” PhD diss., University of Kentucky, 1981.

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  Quin evaluates the cultural milieu in which Hensel grew up and her contributions to it as composer, pianist, and correspondent. Her dissertation includes analysis of the published sources that were available at the time, especially Hensel’s Lieder. She focuses on Hensel’s compositions and the development of her musical style, and places Hensel’s works in the context of other 19th-century composers such as Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Robert Franz, and Johannes Brahms.

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• Sabean, David Warren. “Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and the Question of Incest.” Musical Quarterly 77.4 (Winter 1993): 709–717.

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  Sabean tackles the long-standing insinuations of incestuous feeling between the siblings, which is based on their extraordinary emotional closeness and Fanny’s epistolary outpourings. He recontextualizes it in post-Napoleonic cultural debates over brother-sister relationships, compares the Mendelssohn siblings to the Goethe siblings, and points to the limitations that women experienced as they reached maturity as a source of profound emotional attachment to the other sibling, who was allowed to experience freedom.

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• Schwarz-Danuser, Monika. “‘Weihrauchdampf’ und ‘Kopfhängerei’: Fanny Hensels belastetes Verhältnis zur katholischen Kirchenmusik.” In Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Komponieren zwischen Geselligkeitsideal und romantischer Musikästhetik. Edited by Beatrix Borchard and Cornelia Bartsch, 312–328. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1999.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-3-476-04298-9_23Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Discusses Fanny Hensel’s largely negative feeling toward Catholic church music and the Catholic religion. Fanny and Wilhelm’s early relationship was difficult for numerous reasons, including that Wilhelm was considering conversion to Catholicism, which Lea Mendelssohn found unacceptable. In the 1820s and 1830s, Protestantism and being an upright Prussian became equivalent in nationalistic discourse. On her trip to Rome, Fanny reacted to the music at the Vatican with distance and irony.

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• Thimme, Eva Maria. “‘Gedanken gehn und Lieder fort bis ins Himmelreich’: Fanny Hensel, die jüdische und die christliche Tradition.” In Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Komponieren zwischen Geselligkeitsideal und romantischer Musikästhetik. Edited by Beatrix Borchard and Cornelia Bartsch, 305–311. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1999.

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  The Jewish Enlightenment changed expectations for Jewish women, especially in allowing for more extensive education. This led to conflict when traditional expectations came into play with marriage. Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn raised their children as Christians, at first secretly to avoid family conflicts—conflicts that Fanny perceived. The tensions in this environment included conversion as a path to social acceptance, internalized Christian belief, and consciousness of Jewish heritage.

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• Wasserman, Janet I. “Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: Portrait Iconographies.” Music in Art 33 (2008): 317–371.

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  Discusses the history of portraiture of both Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Fanny Hensel, making particular note of Wilhelm Hensel’s significant influence on their image reception. Includes a list of authenticated portraits as well as sources.

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The Sonntagsmusiken, or “Sunday Musicales”

For many years after her marriage, Hensel directed a midday Sunday musical performance series; this institution is alternately called her “musical salon,” the “Sunday musicales,” or, as she herself termed them, the Sonntagsmusiken. Dinglinger 2006 clarifies the differences between Hensel’s Sonntagsmusiken and the previous series run by her parents. Klein 2005 and Klein 2006 assemble documentary evidence about this institution, and Bodley 2015 explores how Hensel developed artistically through it.

• Bodley, Lorraine Byrne. “In Pursuit of a Single Flame: Fanny Hensel’s ‘Musical Salon.’” In Women and the Nineteenth-Century Lied. Edited by Aisling Kenny and Susan Wollenberg, 45–59. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2015.

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  Places the phenomenon of the salon within Vormärz political culture, the contemporary emphasis on Bildung, and the salon as a place for women’s intellectual development. The essay then turns to Fanny Hensel’s “Sunday musicales” as a space in which she could operate musically on a professional level, in the process forming her own artistic identity as well as a community of intellectuals with whom she could engage.

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• Dinglinger, Wolfgang. “Sonntagsmusiken bei Abraham und Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” In Die Musikveranstaltungen bei den Mendelssohns—Ein “musikalischer Salon”? Edited by Hans-Günter Klein, 35–46. Leipzig: Mendelssohn-Haus, 2006.

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  Differentiates between the early phase of the Sonntagsmusiken, which was instituted by Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn beginning around 1821, and the later phase, which was organized by Fanny starting in 1831. Dinglinger clarifies the didactic purpose and private character of the early phase: the Sonntagsmusiken under Abraham and Lea were not social occasions, but rather intended for serious music-making by the Mendelssohn children and preparation for Felix’s compositional career.

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• Klein, Hans-Günter. “. . . mit obligater Nachtigallen- und Fliederblütenbegleitung”: Fanny Hensels Sonntagsmusiken. Wiesbaden, Germany: Reichert Verlag, 2005.

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  This book pulls together commentary and documentary evidence concerning Hensel’s Sonntagsmusiken, as well as, to a lesser extent, other musical performances that took place in the Mendelssohn/Hensel home. Includes an annotated list of Hensel’s collaborators, a chronology of the known programs and performers from 1831 through 1847, and excerpts from three memoirs that discuss these performances.

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• Klein, Hans-Günter. “Sonntagsmusiken bei Fanny Hensel.” In Die Musikveranstaltungen bei den Mendelssohns—Ein “musikalischer Salon”? Edited by Hans-Günter Klein, 47–59. Leipzig: Mendelssohn-Haus, 2006.

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  In some ways a continuation of Klein 2005, this chapter offers new details and evidence regarding how Hensel ran her musical performance series. This includes the manner in which regular invitations were issued, the specifics concerning the spaces in which the events took place, and the character and changing half-private–half-public status of the events, which took on elements associated with concerts.

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Musical Style

The increasing availability of published editions of Hensel’s musical works and the increasing availability of manuscripts for scholarly study has redirected energy toward evaluation of her musical style. There has been much debate concerning the parallels and differences found between Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s styles, and whether one should distinguish between them (Klein 2002, Todd 2002, Todd 2008) or see them composing in a mutually influenced idiom (Mace 2013).

• Klein, Hans-Günter. “Similarities and Differences in the Artistic Development of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn in a Family Context: Observations Based on the Early Berlin Autograph Volumes.” In The Mendelssohns: Their Music in History. Edited by John Michael Cooper and Julie D. Prandi, 233–243. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

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  Discusses aspects of the Mendelssohn household that stimulated the young Fanny and Felix to begin composing. These stimuli included a series of composition notebooks for both children (notebooks now at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin), as well as engagement with contemporary literature and composition lessons. Klein notes that Fanny was drawn to the Lied genre, and suggests that her early instrumental compositions were patterned after Felix’s, but with a freer approach to form.

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• Mace, Angela Regina. “Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and the Formation of the Mendelssohnian Style.” PhD diss., Duke University, 2013.

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  This work reframes discussions of the “Mendelssohnian style” through an exploration of Fanny’s contributions to its development, rather than seeing her work as influenced by it, and the relationship that both siblings had to the work of Bach, Beethoven, and each other. Mace also rediscovered the manuscript to Fanny Mendelssohn’s Ostersonate (Easter Sonata), was able to attribute the authorship securely to Fanny (it had earlier been attributed to Felix), and includes a performing edition of the sonata as an appendix.

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• Todd, R. Larry. “On Stylistic Affinities in the Works of Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.” In The Mendelssohns: Their Music in History. Edited by John Michael Cooper and Julie D. Prandi, 233–248. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

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  Explores the musical parallels in works by the siblings—in particular, Fanny’s Il Saltarello romano and the saltarello in Felix’s Italian Symphony; Fanny’s Andante in G Major and Felix’s Andante in G Major; and Fanny’s Allegro moderato in B Minor and Felix’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht. Todd argues that their work bears signs of familial similarity and interchange, but that later in life Fanny’s unique musical voice began to emerge more clearly.

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• Todd, R. Larry. “Fanny Hensel and Musical Style.” In Mendelssohn Essays. By R. Larry Todd, 217–231. New York: Routledge, 2008.

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  Examines Hensel’s musical style to differentiate her aesthetic from her brother’s. Todd analyzes three piano works by Hensel (Wanderlied, op. 8 no. 4; Andante con moto, op. 2 no. 2; and Andante con espressione, op. 8, no. 2) and two works by Mendelssohn (op. 38 no. 3 and op. 71 no. 6) in parallel. Hensel had a greater propensity for destabilizing and extending harmonic frameworks and using third relationships.

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Lieder

Hensel’s tremendous output in the Lied (249 extant works) has sparked a vast and diverse scholarly literature. Citron 1983 provides an overview of this work and her text selections, and places Hensel relative to the North German Lieder school. Williams 2007 views Hensel’s Lieder as a form of self-biography, and Mace Christian 2015 reevaluates the issues surrounding the Lieder that were published under Felix’s name. Iitti 2006 applies post-structuralist feminist theory to interpretation of these works. Music theorists have also begun to explore Hensel’s Lied aesthetic (Rodgers 2011a), with particular attention to metrical considerations (Malin 2010, Rodgers 2011b).

• Citron, Marcia. “The Lieder of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel.” Musical Quarterly 69.4 (Autumn 1983): 570–594.

  DOI: 10.1093/mq/LXIX.4.570Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Slightly dated (with regard to sources) but still highly useful overview of Hensel’s Lieder output, which tabulates the works that were published during Hensel’s lifetime and immediately after her death, considers the poets and languages of her Lieder, and explores her relationship to the North German Lieder school aesthetic, especially through the influence of her teacher Zelter.

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• Iitti, Sanna. The Feminine in German Song. New York: Peter Lang, 2006.

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  Iitti frames her study of the 19th-century German art song in post-structuralist feminist theory, developing a concept of the feminine in music as encoded through musical gestures, with a focus on libidinal expression. Includes commentaries on several of Hensel’s works, including the “Gondollied,” op. 6 no. 1, and an extended discussion of “Suleika” (1836) that compares it to other settings of Goethe/Willemer’s text by contemporary composers.

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• Mace Christian, Angela. “‘Der Jüngling und Das Mädchen’: Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn and the Zwölf Lieder, op. 9.” In Women and the Ninteenth-Century Lied. Edited by Aisling Kenny and Susan Wollenberg, 63–84. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2015.

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  Mace Christian addresses the problem of agency in Mendelssohn’s op. 9, which includes three Lieder that were written by Fanny but published under Felix’s name. She examines Fanny’s role in both selecting the content and determining the organization of op. 9. Mace Christian argues that Fanny was an equal participant in the construction of this cycle, even though her name did not appear on the publication.

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• Malin, Yonatan. Songs in Motion: Rhythm and Meter in the German Lied. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

  DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340051.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Malin explores the intertwining of poetic and musical rhythm and meter in the songs of Fanny Hensel, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, and Hugo Wolf. Hensel is a bridge figure between the Berlin Lieder school and the Romantic Lied aesthetic. Chapter 3 includes analyses of Hensel’s opus 1 and the first song in opus 7 to explore her developing use of rhythmic and metrical fluidity. Musical examples are found on a companion website.

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• Rodgers, Stephen. “Fanny Hensel’s Lied Aesthetic.” Journal of Musicological Research 30 (2011a): 175–201.

  DOI: 10.1080/01411896.2011.588641Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Rodgers aims to discern stylistic elements of Hensel’s unique musical voice in the Lied. Through analysis of four songs—“Verlust” (1827), “Die frühen Gräber” (1828), “Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh” (1835), and “Im Herbste” (1846)—Rodgers identifies several stylistic key elements: the avoidance of the tonic, a characteristic emphasis on text-painting, and the use of the piano in a “commentary” role.

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• Rodgers, Stephen. “Thinking (and Singing) in Threes: Triple Hypermeter and the Songs of Fanny Hensel.” MTO: Music Theory Online 17.1 (2011b).

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  Building on preexisting scholarship on hypermeter in songs (including Malin 2010), Rodgers explores Hensel’s use of triple hypermeter, which he names a Henselian “stylistic hallmark.” Triple hypermeter serves as a means of stretching or shortening the text for emphasis or to create instability. Rodgers illustrates these ideas through analysis of “Morgenständchen,” op. 1, no. 5; “Suleika” (1836); “Die Mainacht,” op. 9, no. 6; and “Die Ersehnte,” op. 9, no. 1.

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• Williams, Briony. “Biography and Symbol: Uncovering the Structure of a Creative Life in Fanny Hensel’s Lieder.” Nineteenth-Century Music Review 4.2 (2007): 49–65.

  DOI: 10.1017/S1479409800000884Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Williams discusses art as a potential form of self-biography (as opposed to autobiography), which blurs the boundary between Self and Other while reconceptualizing time, voice, and the relation of internality and externality. She reads several of Hensel’s Lieder in terms of self-biography, seeing a psychological journey that eventually led Hensel to bringing her music into a public space through publication.

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Piano Music

Hensel was an outstanding and virtuosic pianist, and through her Sunday musicales she created a venue in which she could perform her own and other’s works on a regular basis. Cai 2002 explores her compositional relationship to virtuosity. Her creations in the genre Lieder für das Pianoforte, related to her brother’s Lieder ohne Worte, are considered in Huber 2006, Todd 2007, and Wollenberg 2007. Hensel’s approach to sonata form is discussed and analyzed in Head 2007 and Nubbemeyer 2002. In addition, larger issues of texture (Cai 1997) and form (Ng 2011, Wilson Kimber 2004) offer a means to approach her unique compositional voice.

• Cai, Camilla. “Texture and Gender: New Prisms for Understanding Hensel’s and Mendelssohn’s Piano Pieces.” In Nineteenth-Century Piano Music: Essays in Performance and Analysis. Edited by David Witten, 53–93. New York: Garland, 1997.

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  Cai explores the handling of texture in similar piano works by Fanny and Felix, demonstrating that even when the siblings composed works that were comparable in key, length, tempo, and form, their handling of texture was distinct, particularly in the construction of inner voice(s), melodic phrasing, and linearity, and in how these elements relate to form. Cai argues that some of the differences in the use of texture correspond to the differences in gender and role expectations.

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• Cai, Camilla. “Virtuoso Texture in Fanny Hensel’s Piano Music.” In The Mendelssohns: Their Music in History. Edited by John Michael Cooper and Julie D. Prandi, 263–277. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

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  Although Hensel’s reaction to the compositions of the virtuoso performers of her own era was, on balance, negative, she was herself a pianist of virtuoso capabilities. Cai discusses Hensel’s relationship with virtuosic compositional idioms over the span of her oeuvre, and describes how she adopted some of the compositional principles that were typically found in virtuoso pieces without compromising her own sense of artistic integrity.

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• Head, Matthew. “Genre, Romanticism and Female Authorship: Fanny Hensel’s ‘Scottish’ Sonata in G Minor (1843).” Nineteenth-Century Music Review 4.2 (2007): 67–88.

  DOI: 10.1017/S1479409800000896Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Discusses Hensel’s Sonata in G minor (1843), not only as Hensel’s entry into and reshaping/revival of the “masculine” and professional form of the piano sonata, but also as in compositional conversation with her brother’s Scottish works (Sonate écossaise, Hebrides Overture, and Scottish Symphony). Head analyzes the work in detail, especially for Hensel’s structural use of tonality and the reconceived second, “feminine” theme.

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• Huber, Annegret. Das Lied ohne Worte als Kunstübergreifendes Experiment: Eine komparatistische Studie zur Intermedialität des Instrumentalliedes 1830–1850. Wiener Veröffentlichungen zur Musikwissenschaft 41. Tutzing, Germany: Hans Schneider, 2006.

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  Huber reconsiders the Lied ohne Worte genre in view of the simultaneously musical and literary aspects of the concept of the Lied. Enfolding semiotic and narrative methodologies into analytical discussion of Hensel’s Lieder für das Pianoforte, she delineates typological facets of the Lied (in comparison with other genres, especially the mélodie) and compares them to and in the work of other contemporary composers, including Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Wilhelm Taubert, Josephine Lang, Adolf von Henselt, and others.

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• Ng, Samuel. “Rotation as Metaphor: Fanny Hensel’s Formal and Tonal Logic Reconsidered.” Indiana Theory Review 29.2 (Fall 2011): 31–70.

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  Building on preexisting analyses (Wollenberg 2007, Sirota 1981, cited under Biographies), Ng examines Hensel’s use of rotational form in three works: Allegro Moderato in A-flat Major (1840), Allegro molto vivace in E-flat Major (1838), and Lied ohne Worte, op. 8, no. 1 (1846). Ng interprets Hensel’s rotational forms as emblematic of the tensions in her life—contentment and restlessness, restraint and freedom—and reads her compositions as providing a means for her artistic voice to emerge.

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• Nubbemeyer, Annette. “Die Klaviersonaten Fanny Hensels: Analytische Betrachtungen.” In Fanny Hensel, geb. Mendelsson Bartholdy. Edited by Beatrix Borchard and Monika Schwarz-Danuser, 90–120. Kassel, Germany: Furore, 2002.

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  Nubbemeyer explores Hensel’s development as a composer in the genre of the piano sonata based on her three multi-movement sonatas from 1824, 1829, and 1843. Nubbemeyer argues that Hensel’s developing idea of sonata construction distanced her considerably from the formal models postulated by contemporaries such as A. B. Marx; instead, Hensel grappled with the formal concepts in Beethoven’s piano sonatas.

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• Todd, R. Larry. “Fanny Hensel’s Op. 6, No. 1 and the Art of Musical Reminiscence.” Nineteenth-Century Music Review 4.2 (2007): 89–100.

  DOI: 10.1017/S1479409800000902Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Discusses Hensel’s op. 6, no. 1 as a musical reminiscence of Hensel’s time in Italy, since it demonstrates characteristics similar to other piano works that are related to that trip. For example, Hensel’s op. 6 no. 4 (“Il saltarello Romano”) has a strong relationship to Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Italian Symphony, providing further evidence of biographical and Italian connections. Todd analyzes op. 6 no. 1 with a particular focus on Hensel’s complex harmonic scheme.

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• Wilson Kimber, Marian. “From the Concert Hall to the Salon: The Piano Music of Clara Wieck Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel.” In Nineteenth-Century Piano Music. Edited by R. Larry Todd, 316–355. New York: Routledge, 2004.

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  Provides an overview of the musical output of Clara Wieck Schumann and Fanny Hensel, comparing aspects of their compositional style for the piano and how those styles might have been affected by the contexts in which they worked and performed. Schumann’s compositions demonstrate more adherence to formal expectations and greater virtuosity than Hensel’s; Hensel had a freer approach to generic norms and tended to include more programmatic content.

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• Wollenberg, Susan. “Fanny Hensel’s Op. 8, No. 1: A Special Case of ‘multum in parvo’?” Nineteenth-Century Music Review 4.2 (2007): 101–117.

  DOI: 10.1017/S1479409800000914Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Wollenberg’s essay offers an analytical reading of Hensel’s “Lied für das Pianoforte,” op. 8, no. 1, including an alternate analysis from that found in Sirota 1981 (cited under Biographies). She makes special note of Hensel’s tonal and formal innovation and intensity, as well as her references to Bach, Beethoven, and her brother’s Das erste Walpurgisnacht. Wollenberg clarifies the differences in compositional approach between Hensel and Mendelssohn in the “Songs without Words” genre.

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Other Genres

Although Hensel’s compositional output is dominated by works for solo piano and for voice and piano, she also composed works in other genres, including chamber music, choral music, cantatas, dramatic scenes, and others; much of this music remains underexplored. Cadenbach 1999 and Hellwig-Unruh 1999 examine the creation of and controversy surrounding the String Quartet in E-flat Major (1834), while Hinrichsen 1997 looks at Hensel’s three cantatas in light of the Berlin Bach revival, and Wolitz 2007 provides a comprehensive review of Hensel’s choral works. Wilson Kimber 2006 discusses how some of Hensel’s choral works were transformed in their later reception as band music in the United States.

• Cadenbach, Rainer. “‘Die weichliche Schreibart,’ ‘Beethovens letzte Zeit’ und ‘ein gewisses Lebensprinzip’: Perspektiven auf Fanny Hensels spätes Streichquartett (1834).” In Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Komponieren zwischen Geselligkeitsideal und romantischer Musikästhetik. Edited by Beatrix Borchard and Cornelia Bartsch, 141–164. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1999.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-3-476-04298-9_8Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  Hensel’s 1834 string quartet ignited a debate between Hensel and her brother about the aesthetics of the string quartet form and genre. Cadenbach reviews the discussion between Felix and Fanny, then contextualizes Fanny’s work in the contemporary conversations about Beethoven’s late string quartets.

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• Hellwig-Unruh, Renate. “Zur Entstehung von Fanny Hensels Streichquartett in Es-Dur (1829/34).” In Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Komponieren zwischen Geselligkeitsideal und romantischer Musikästhetik. Edited by Beatrix Borchard and Cornelia Bartsch, 121–140. Stuttgart: J. B. Metzler, 1999.

  DOI: 10.1007/978-3-476-04298-9_7Save Citation »Export Citation » Share Citation »

  This essay demonstrates, through examination of the manuscript materials and related sketches, that Hensel’s unfinished piano sonata (1829) served as source material for her 1834 String Quartet in E-flat Major. This quartet shows Hensel grappling not only with the influence of her brother, whose String Quartet op. 12 was a likely inspiration, but also the influence of Beethoven’s string quartets.

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• Hinrichsen, Hans-Joachim. “Kantatenkomposition in der ‘Hauptstadt von Sebastian Bach’: Fanny Hensels geistliche Chorwerke und die Berliner Bach-Tradition.” In Fanny Hensel, geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Das Werk. Edited by Martina Hemig, 115–129. Munich: Edition Text + Kritik, 1997.

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  Hensel’s three cantatas of 1831—Lobgesang, Hiob, and the Cantate nach Aufhören der Cholera in Berlin, 1831 (the Cholera Cantata)—demonstrate her engagement with the works of J. S. Bach. While Bach serves as a model for her cantatas, she reinterprets the Bachian pattern, especially in her selection of cantata texts and her stylistic heterogeneity. Hinrichsen discusses Felix’s criticism of the cantatas and his own grappling with sacred music at this time.

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• Wilson Kimber, Marian. “Fanny Hensel Meets the Boys in the Band: The Brass Transcriptions of the Gartenlieder, Op. 3.” Historic Brass Society Journal 18 (2006): 17–36.

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  Hensel’s op. 3 Gartenlieder were published in arrangement for brass band in Boston in 1871. Wilson Kimber meditates on how these arrangements mediate between the typically feminine and masculine 19th-century musical spheres, and also examines the post–Civil War brass band movement and the impact of the influx of German culture and musicians on late-19th-century America.

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• Wolitz, Stefan. Fanny Hensels Chorwerke. Wiener Veröffentlichungen zur Musikwissenschaft 42. Tutzing, Germany: Hans Schneider, 2007.

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  Wolitz’s overview of Hensel’s approximately forty known choral works is the only book-length work currently available on this topic. Wolitz includes works for four or more voices under this rubric, thus covering her cantatas and theatrical scenes as well as chorales and choral Lieder; he blends discussion of the cultural context of these works with musical analysis.

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