Fanny first received piano lessons from her mother, who had herself received Berliner-Bach tradition by Johann Kimberger. [35] Her public debut at the piano (one of only three known public performances according to Mendelssohn scholar R. Larry Todd)[36] came in 1838, when she played her brother's Piano Concerto No. Thus two characters [Felix and Fanny] are forced to bear the weight of two centuries of gender ideology. Childhood and religion. [ Hensel, Fanny Mendelssohn] [n.d.] Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. She was taught to play the piano by her mother, who in turn had been taught by a student of J.S. "[54] She was an early example of women composers of a string quartet; she had also earlier written, with the assistance of Zelter, a piano quartet in 1822 (her first large-scale work), and, despite her reservations in her letter to Felix, she wrote in her last year a piano trio (Op. Felix Jakob Ludwig Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was born in Hamburg, Germany, on February 3, 1809, the son of Abraham and Leah Mendelssohn and the grandson of the famous Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786). List of compositions by Fanny Mendelssohn, International Music Score Library Project, "Hensel [née Mendelssohn (-Bartholdy)], Fanny Cäcilie", "Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: A Life of Music within Domestic Limits", "Influence, Individuality and Stylistic Evolution in the Music of Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn", "Duke Performances, Duke University Department of Music: Fanny Hensel Rediscovered: Part II", "A Fanny Mendelssohn Masterpiece Finally Gets Its Due", "Women's History Month: Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel", Free digital scores by Hensel, Fanny (Mendelssohn), Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel / Piano Trio in d minor, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fanny_Mendelssohn&oldid=1013939234, Burials at Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof I, Berlin, Articles with International Music Score Library Project links, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 24 March 2021, at 08:44. She and her younger brothers and sister Felix, Rebecca and Paul all received excellent education. It was discovered and attributed to her brother in 1970, before examination of the manuscript and a mention of the work in her diary finally established in 2010 that the work was hers.[56]. If [the publishers] want more from me, it should act as a stimulus to achieve. She received her first piano instruction from her mother, who may have learned the Berlin Bach tradition through the writings of Johann Kirnberger, a student of Johann Sebastian Bach. She is said to have memorized J.S. "[77], A catalogue of the works of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel has been prepared by Renate Hellwig-Unruh, according to which each work may be referred to by its "H-U number".[78]. Fanny is said to have been as talented musically as her brother, and the two children were given the same music teachers. "[17] Such attitudes were shared by Mendelssohn's father, who was tolerant, rather than supportive, of her activities as a composer. [45][55] Her Easter Sonata written in 1828, was unpublished in her lifetime. Fanny Cécilie Mendelssohn's father, Abraham, was a prosperous banker. [67], From the 1980s onwards there has been renewed interest in Mendelssohn and her works. The son of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, Abraham is supposed to … Fanny wrote about 500 musical compositions in all, including about 120 pieces for piano, many lieder (art songs), and chamber music, cantatas, and oratorios. She had three younger siblings: Rebecca, Paul, and most famously, Felix. 8, Zwölf Gesänge, was published in 1826 (Nos. 8. "[11][n 1] Both Mendelssohn and her brother Felix received instruction in composition from Zelter starting in 1819. I know that he is not quite satisfied in his heart of hearts, but I am glad he has said a kind word to me about it. [13] Much later, in an 1831 letter to Goethe, Zelter described Fanny's skill as a pianist with the highest praise for a woman at the time: "... she plays like a man. In 1846, despite the continuing ambivalence of her family towards her musical ambitions, Fanny Hensel published a collection of songs as her Opus 1. MENDELSSOHN HENSEL, FANNY CAECILIEMENDELSSOHN HENSEL, FANNY CAECILIE (1805–1847), pianist and composer. songs and piano works. "[14] Visitors to the Mendelssohn household in the early 1820s, including Ignaz Moscheles and Sir George Smart, were equally impressed by both siblings.[15][16]. Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, the oldest of four children, including her brother Felix Mendelssohn born four years after her. In contemporary publications. [45], On 14 May 1847 Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel died in Berlin of complications from a stroke suffered while rehearsing one of her brother's cantatas, The First Walpurgis Night. [65] She commonly used strophic form for her songs, and her piano accompaniments frequently doubled the voice-line, characteristics also of the music of her teachers Zelter and Berger. [70] Her Easter Sonata for piano, formerly attributed to Felix, was premiered in her name by Andrea Lam on 12 September 2012. If the matter comes to an end then, I also won't grieve, for I'm not ambitious. She is too much all that a woman ought to be for this. Notturno in G minor. 11 and Clara had recently completed her own Piano Trio (Op. Therefore lieder suit me best, in which, if need be, merely a pretty idea without much potential for development can suffice. In October 1820, they joined the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, which was then being led by Zelter. At one point, Zelter favoured Fanny over Felix: he wrote to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1816, in a letter introducing Abraham Mendelssohn to the poet, "He has adorable children and his oldest daughter could give you something of Sebastian Bach. Nov. 14, 1805. History has been less than kind to Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, the romantic-era composer and older sister of renowned composer Felix Mendelssohn. Born in Germany. He points to this type of meter being used by Mendelssohn to alter the speed of vocals in the song and to reflect emotions through distortion of duple norms. Despite this, she and her family continued an affinity … On 14 August Fanny wrote in her journal "Felix has written, and given me his professional blessing in the kindest manner. One was her visit to Italy with her husband and Sebastian in 1839–40. Felix's] profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament". Her compositions include a piano trio, a piano quartet, an orchestral overture, four cantatas, more than 125 pieces for the piano, and over 250 lieder, most of which went unpublished in her lifetime. Even Goethe proclaimed that "the two were to be the future of Germanic music." "[41], In 1846, after an approach by two Berlin publishers[42] and without consulting Felix, she decided to publish a collection of her songs (as her Op. November. Six of her songs were published under Felix’s name in his two sets of Twelve Songs (Opuses 8 and 9), while the few works published under her own name include several collections of short piano pieces, some lieder, and a piano trio. The Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn Museum, which is dedicated to the lives and work of the two siblings, opened on 29 May 2018 in Hamburg, Germany. Her family was … [49], Fanny Mendelssohn composed over 450 pieces of music. Fanny helped Felix by providing constructive criticism of pieces and projects, which he always considered very carefully. "[6], While growing up in the family's new home in Berlin,[7] Mendelssohn showed prodigious musical ability and began to write music. Fanny Mendelssohn is part of G.I. They will form a delightful souvenir, a kind of second diary. Most of her remaining works exist only in manuscript. The music historian Richard Taruskin suggests that "[t]he life of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel is compelling proof that women's failure to "compete" with men on the compositional playing-field has been the result of social prejudice and patriarchical mores (which in the nineteenth century granted only men the right to make the decisions in bourgeois households). I have always been his only musical adviser, and he never writes down a thought before submitting it to my judgment. "[20] Felix's friend Henry Chorley wrote of Fanny: "Had Madame Hensel been a poor man's daughter, she must have become known to the world by the side of Madame Schumann and Madame Pleyel as a female pianist of the highest class", suggesting that her social class was limiting for her career as well as her sex. During her life, her family converted to Lutheranism, though she continued to identify as culturally Jewish. In 1847 she died of a stroke. The consequence was that Rungenhagen consulted her closely about all details of the rehearsals and performance; this included her firm instructions not to add a tuba to the organ part. [48] Fanny was buried next to her parents in a portion of the Dreifaltigkeit Cemetery in Berlin reserved for Jewish converts to Christianity (Neuchristen). Letter to Lea Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, 24 June 1837. Drawn together by their shared love of music and exceptional talents, Felix Mendelssohn and his older sister Fanny (1805-1847) developed a close relationship that was to endure throughout their lives. They started [the passage] "mache dich auf" at half the right tempo, and then I instinctively called out, "My God, it must go twice as fast!" In early 1821, she fell in love with an artist named Wilhelm Hensel. 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