“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.
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 761649
E
for: Piano
Piano Solo
Item no.: 1553279
Duett für Sopran und Tenor
op. 8, Nr. 12
for: 2 voices (ST), piano
Sheet music, audio files
Item no.: 2168
for: Mixed choir (SAM) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 1339403
op. 8, No 4 Presto (Wanderlied)
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357319
op. 8, No 2 Andante con espressione
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357317
op. 2, No 4 Allegro molto vivace
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357311
Möseler Chorreihe
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 793495
op. 6, No 1 Andante espressivo
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357312
op. 2, No 1 Andante
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357308
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 761642
for: Voice, piano
Music score
Item no.: 733023
op. 6, No 4 Allegro molto
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357315
Seid gegrüßt mit Frühlingswonne
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 781799
for: Sopran solo, Chor SSATB, Klavier
Score
Item no.: 1337058
op. 2, No 3 Allegretto grazioso
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357310
op. 5/4
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 761611
op. 4/2
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 733015
op. 8, No 3 Larghetto (Lied)
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357318
op. 6, No 3 Andante cantabile
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357314
op. 6, No 2 Allegro vivace
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357313
Möseler Chorreihe
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 795525
op. 2, No 2 Andante con moto
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357309
taken from the collection "Twelve Clavier pieces" by Fanny Hensel née. Mendelssohn Bartholdy (first edition) (Hellwig-Unruh)
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 1632979
from: The Year
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 1566174
op. 8, No 1 Allegro moderato
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357316
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1357307
Urtext
for: 2 violins, viola, cello
Partitur, Stimmensatz, Urtextausgabe, Digitalartikel (AODP)
Item no.: 1639732
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 1639790
for: Cello, piano
Urtextausgabe, Digitalartikel (AODP)
Item no.: 1640085
Urtext
for: Voice, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1640081
Urtext
for: Voice, piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1640082
for: Piano
Sheet music
Item no.: 1640136