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Fanny Mendelssohn

Fanny Hensel, 1842, by Moritz Daniel Oppenheim

Fanny Cäcilie Mendelssohn (November 14, 1805 – May 14, 1847), later Fanny Hensel, was a German pianist and composer, and was the sister of Felix Mendelssohn; they were both the grandchildren of the distinguished Jewish philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn.

Fanny Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, the first child out of four children. Her father was Abraham Mendelssohn, (who was the son of Moses Mendelssohn and later changed the family surname to Mendelssohn Bartholdy), and his wife Lea, née Salomon, a granddaughter of the entrepreneur Daniel Itzig.

Fanny benefited from the same musical education and upbringing as her brother Felix, sharing a number of his music tutors, including Zelter. Like Felix (who was born in 1809), Fanny showed prodigious musical ability as a child and began to write music. Visitors to the Mendelssohn household in the early 1820s, including Ignaz Moscheles and Sir George Smart, were equally impressed by both siblings.

However, she was limited by prevailing attitudes of the time toward women, attitudes apparently shared by her father, who was tolerant, rather than supportive, of her activities as a composer. Her father wrote to her in 1820 'Music will perhaps become his [i.e. Felix's] profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament'. On the other hand, Felix was supportive of her, as a composer and a performer, although cautious (professedly for family reasons) of her publishing her works under her own name. He did however arrange with her for a number of her songs to be published under his own name. In turn Fanny helped Felix by constructive criticism of pieces, which he always considered very carefully.

In 1829, after a courtship of several years, Fanny married the painter Wilhelm Hensel who was supportive of her composing. Subsequently, her works were often played alongside her brother's at the family home in Berlin in the concerts which were held there.

Her public debut at the piano came in 1838, when she played her brother's Piano Concerto No. 1.

Grave of Fanny Hensel in Berlin

Fanny died in Berlin in 1847 of complications from a stroke suffered while rehearsing one of her brother's oratorios, 'The First Walpurgis Night'. Felix himself died less than six months later.

In recent years, her music has become better known thanks to concert performances and a number of CDs being released on labels such as Hyperion and CPO. Her reputation has also been advanced by those researching female musical creativity, of which she is one of the relatively few exemplars in the early 19th century.

See also List of compositions by Fanny Mendelssohn.

Fanny composed 466 pieces of music. Her compositions include a piano trio and several books of solo piano pieces and songs. A number of her songs were originally published under Felix's name in his opus 8 and 9 collections. One of these songs , 'Italy', was a favorite of Queen Victoria, who thought Felix had written it. Her piano works are often in the manner of songs, and carry the name Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words). This style of piano work was most successfully developed by Felix Mendelssohn, though some modern scholars assert that Fanny may have preceded him in the genre. She was also the only known composer of the time to depict the months of the year musically in her collection of pieces Das Jahr (meaning 'The Year').

Fanny's son Sebastian Hensel edited the family correspondence as 'The Mendelssohn Family 1729-1847' (tr. into English, 4th revised edition 1884) which still remains an important source of information about Fanny, Felix and their relatives.

Fanny's correspondence with Felix has been translated into English and edited by Marcia Citron; 'The letters of Fanny Hensel to Felix Mendelssohn'(New York, 1987).

R. Larry Todd's Mendelssohn - A Life in Music (Oxford University Press, 2003) ISBN 0-19-511043-9 is the most recent comprehensive survey of Felix and contains much information about Fanny.

• FannyHensel.de - comprehensive site
• Hensel-Biography - some notes about Fanny and her family
• Portraits of Anomaly: Nannerl Mozart, Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann
• Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel Piano Trio in d minor sound-bites and short bio

• Hensel