Portrait of Fanny Hensel, 1842.
Artist: Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1800–1882)
Fanny Cäcilie Mendelssohn (b. 11/14/1805 – d. 5/14/1847) was a German composer and pianist of the early Romantic era, later known as Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy and as Fanny Hensel. Her compositions number over 450, and include a string quartet, a piano trio, a piano quartet, an orchestral overture, four cantatas, more than 125 pieces for solo piano, and over 250 lieder. Most of these were unpublished in her lifetime. Although lauded for her piano technique, she rarely gave public performances outside her family circle.
She grew up in Berlin and received a thorough musical education from teachers including her mother, as well as other composers. Her younger brother Felix, also a composer and pianist, shared the same education. Because of social constraints on females at the time, six of her songs were published under her brother’s name.
In 1829, she married artist Wilhelm Hensel and, in 1830, they had their only child, Sebastian Hensel. In 1846, despite the continuing ambivalence of some of her family, she published a collection of songs as her Opus 1.
A year later, she died from complications from a stroke, aged 41. Her brother, Felix, died less than six months later from the same cause after completing his String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, written in memory of his sister. This same medical condition was also responsible for the deaths of both of their parents and their grandfather, Moses.
During the 19th century Fanny mainly figured as a bystander in biographies and studies of her brother Felix; typically she was a representative of a supposed ‘feminizing’ influence that sapped his artistry. In the 20th century the conventional narrative switched to presenting Felix as disapproving of his sister’s musical activities and seeking to contain them, whilst the ‘feminizing’ accusation against Fanny evaporated.
Since the 1990s, her life and works have been the subject of more detailed research. Her Easter Sonata was inaccurately credited to her brother in 1970, before new analysis of documents in 2010 corrected the attribution.
The tale of Fanny, the ‘suppressed’ composer,’ has so readily found a place in the biographies of the siblings because of its resemblance to prevailing models for the life of a ‘Great Composer’ … based in Romantic ideology about male artists. … Hensel fits neatly into a traditional narrative of the suffering artistic genius … with a modern twist: the feminine gender of its main character. Thus two characters [Felix and Fanny] are forced to bear the weight of two centuries of gender ideology. – Marian Wilson Kimber (2004)
Tao-Talk 
In the midst of sadness and opposition she persisted. Strokes at forty! Good grief!
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I’m glad she’s been validated as a musician, late as it is. Her music is so beautiful! What a horrible affliction to strike her whole family :(
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It’s a shame that so many promising musicians died so young in that and earlier eras. Plus the challenge of being a woman in basically an exclusively male craft. I don’t know much of her work at all but featured the Adagio from her String Quartet a couple of years ago. Beautiful stuff.
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Thanks for all the information. Wonderful music. Many women who had to pose as male relatives are finally getting credit for their work in both the arts and the sciences. About time! (K)
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Wow, K, didn’t know that about the gender poseurs.
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I’m listening to Overture in C Major…and it’s wonderful. I can get into this music every now and then. It sounds so full… how music went from this to “She Loves You” is incredible. She was a genius no doubt…anyone who can compose things like this…is to me.
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Max, I love the sound of her music. I also agree that anyone who can compose like this is a genius. Many people get the training, but few, I think, make it their life passion. The idea of writing notes for each instrument, the timing, and everything else, and then all of the instruments together have to mesh!
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Yes…it’s like a wall of sound, no Spector like, but she puts them together like puzzles.
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Its weird I’ve heard of her brother, but not her.
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I’d like to see the doc on her.
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Went through your posts on Women Music March to see if you had already covered Fanny Mendelssohn, and you have! Great to see and thanks so much for the video from her great-great-great-granddaughter!
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Walt, I want to see that video!
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Just saw the short promo video you posted, but not the full-length actual video. I suspect that can be seen on Amazon Prime, but we are currently not subscribed.
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Walt, I avoid amazon like the plague these days.
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Totally understand.
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