“If Fanny had been a man, she would have been one of the greatest composers of the 19th century.” Chen Reiss, Opera Singer
Anyone who has experienced the magnificent works of Fanny Hensel (1805-1847) will have no doubt about this statement! And great news… her splendidly versatile works have just been recorded in their entirety! Browse our sheet music and scores, and explore the wide world of Fanny Hensel with Stretta Music today!
Despite her exceptional musical talent, Fanny Hensel had many obstacles in her way during her lifetime, particularly from her own family. Today she is regarded as one of the most important female composers of all time, and one of the most important composers of the Romantic era.
As the older sister of Felix Mendelssohn, she enjoyed the same excellent piano teachers. Her teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter wrote in a letter to Goethe that she played “like a man”, which was considered great praise at the time, but also exemplified Fanny Hensel’s dilemma.
Since it was not appropriate for women to earn money and composer professionally, both her father and her brother were against her composing. During her lifetime, her works were almost exclusively published under her brother’s name. Her many letters show a special form of sibling love, but also a certain jealousy on the part of her brother. After she died suddenly of a stroke in 1847, Felix Mendelssohn suffered a nervous breakdown and died just six months later.
Fanny Hensel’s Diaries and Fanny Hensel’s Letters to Her Family from Rome, Venice and Paris are well worth a read.
As an outstanding pianist, Fanny Hensel composed a great deal for piano and many art songs.
Musicologist Angela Mace sees Fanny Hensel’s song compositions as much more experimental and “chromatically adventurous” than her brother’s, and found that it enabled her “to deliver the emotional charge of a longer work in a single-sided song”.
In 1965, her complete works were transferred from the family’s property to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Since then, musicologists have dealt much more intensively with Fanny Hensel, and it is only today that her extraordinary musical work is beginning to be fully recognised.
Both Fanny and her brother Felix were compositional prodigies. In 1819, they both set the same text to music for their father’s birthday - “You tones, sway happily through the strings”. Felix was ten, Fanny fourteen. On comparing the two versions, one gets an impression of their early talents, and they way the two siblings worked. Fanny’s song can be found in the selection Where are you from?, and Felix’s version is included in Mendelssohn Songs: Volume 3.
Leichte Stücke
Klavierstücke von Fanny Hensel 6
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 195077
for: Voice (high), piano
Music score
Item no.: 601583
Volume 1 and 2
First Publication
for: Piano
2 music scores
Item no.: 393465
Mittelschwere Stücke
Klavierstücke von Fanny Hensel 7
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 275744
für Klavier
for: Piano
Item no.: 393469
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 174014
for: 2 voices (SA), piano
Music score
Item no.: 276605
für Orgel
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE ORGEL ORGEL ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 275741
(mittel) und Gitarre, Spielpartitur
for: SOLOGESANG (INCL. MEHRERE SOLOSTIMMEN) EINE SINGSTIMME SONSTIGE
Item no.: 428479
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE KLAVIER KLAVIER ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 194112
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 659734
für Soli (SSSAA), Frauenchor und Klavier
Partitur (dt/en)
for: CHORMUSIK FRAUEN- + KINDERCHOR MIT BEGLEITUNG WELTLICH EINZELN
Item no.: 275818
für Klavier
for: Piano
Item no.: 393459
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE KLAVIER KLAVIER ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 133393
Breitkopf Urtext
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 286973
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE KLAVIER KLAVIER ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 628401
for: 2 violins, viola, cello (string quartet)
Score, Parts
Item no.: 393457
Weltliche a-cappella Chöre von 1846
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 165647
Präludium F-Dur, Postludium G-Dur
for: Organ
Music score
Item no.: 431097
Klavierstücke von Fanny Hensel Band 4
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE KLAVIER KLAVIER ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 273533
für Violine und Klavier
for: Violin, piano
Item no.: 393464
Dover Piano And Keyboard Editions
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 134730
Cholera Cantata
for: 4 soloists (SATB), mixed choir (SATB), orchestra
Piano reduction
Item no.: 485861
for: Piano
Music score (Urtext edition)
Item no.: 401374
for: Voice, piano
Item no.: 200191
Ein Zusammenstellung der Werke, Literatur und Schallplatten (Werkverzeichnis) (Catalog of works )
Book (lexicon)
Item no.: 392916
Für Akkordeon und Klavier (1823)
Bearbeitung
for: Accordion, piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 431098
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 761649
Klavierstücke von Fanny Hensel 2
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE KLAVIER KLAVIER ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 269133
Nr. 2 aus: Weltliche a-cappella-Chöre von 1846
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 1546516
for: Piano
Item no.: 175163
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 151518
Erstveröffentlichung
for: Piano 4 hands
Ensemble score
Item no.: 393456
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE KLAVIER KLAVIER ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 633482
für Klavier
for: Piano
Item no.: 151755
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 268399
von Fanny Hensel Band 3
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE KLAVIER KLAVIER ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 269134
Item no.: 374974
Songs by Women Composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries
for: Voice, piano
Music score (anthology)
Item no.: 275678
E
for: Piano
Piano Solo
Item no.: 1553279
Augewählte Lieder
for: Voice, guitar
Score
Item no.: 635993
Reihe: Klavierstücke von Fanny Hensel Band 10
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 615541
Zwölf Charakterstücke für das Forte-Piano
Faksimile, illustrierte Reinschrift mit Zeichnungen von Wilhelm Hensel
for: Piano
Score (facsimile hardcover)
Item no.: 314794
for: Cello, piano
Item no.: 286082
für Klavier
for: Piano
Item no.: 393468
für Singstimmen (S/A) mit Klavierbegleitung
Text: J. W. von Goethe
for: 2 voices (SA), piano
Score
Item no.: 191634
Klavierstuecke von Fanny Hensel 9
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 606853
für Viola und Klavier
for: STREICH- UND ZUPFINSTRUMENTE VIOLA VIOLA UND KLAVIER
Item no.: 472037