Doctoral Research
Hensel Songs Online was created as part of Dr. Tim Parker-Langston’s PhD project at Goldsmiths, University of London, awarded in 2025. His doctoral research, “My songs lie unheeded and unknown…”: Fanny Hensel’s Lieder in Reparative Practice Research, explored Hensel’s music through both scholarship and performance. The project includes the sheet-music editions featured on this site, the CD Hensel: Lieder, and recordings from the concert #HENSEL, where Dr. Parker-Langston accompanied 12 singers in the premiere performances of 22 previously unheard songs.
Abstract
Despite being one of the most established female figures in Western classical music, Fanny Hensel (born Mendelssohn) continues to face the underrepresentation that restricts women in music more broadly. Although her presence in scholarship is considerable, over a third of her 239 composed songs remain unpublished and unrecorded. This practice research asks: how can singing Fanny’s songs contribute to scholarship around her music and Lieder in general?
Positioning practice research as a feminist methodology, this study engages with Suzanne Cusick’s concept of “reparative musicology” to envision the dimensions of reparative practice research. This approach addresses the neglect of Hensel’s music through the creation of scores, recordings and resources while aligning with feminist calls for rebalancing Western classical music’s hierarchies of thought. An embodied ‘discovery-led’ trajectory prioritizes reparative practice and puts trust in the epistemic nature of technique.
Through embodied engagement with Hensel’s Lieder this research challenges dismissive notions of ‘simplicity’ and ‘repetition’ often ascribed to her unsung works. By tracing the technical responses required in performing her songs, the study foregrounds the dynamic interplay between text and music, revealing their expressive and technical depth.
The submitted portfolio of reparative practice includes the first complete song edition (via the open-access resource henselsongsonline.org), the CD Hensel: Lieder and 31 premieres recorded for the advocacy project #HENSEL. At the point of submission, all the unpublished Lieder are now widely available and only 14 songs await their (planned) premiere recordings.
Links
Parker-Langston, Tim. 2025. “My songs lie unheeded and unknown...": Fanny Hensel's Lieder in Reparative Practice Research. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.
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Fanny Hensel: A Life in Practice
Coming soon.
British Library Discovering Music
Coming soon.
Women Transforming Classical Music
This Open University free course was spearheaded by Dr Laura Hamer. Tim was interviewed about the creation of Hensel Songs Online for content that is delivered in week 2. The course outline and description are shown below.
“Women transforming classical music is a free course aimed at helping individual performers, ensembles and organisations within the classical music industry to diversify their repertoire by including more works by women composers.
The 6-week course invites learners to reflect on their own practice before considering the male-dominated nature of the contemporary classical music industry and how to support positive change by programming more women. It offers practical advice on how to curate diverse programmes, seeking funding, building audience engagement, and getting performers on board.
The course goes into depth on programming works by both historical and contemporary women composers, covering where to find scores and resources, creating performance editions, promoting and working with living women composers, and commissioning new music.
Learners are invited to bring all of their learning together by building their own practical toolkit to help them start to diversify their own repertoire and also to consider how to build inclusive musical practices more broadly.
The course is illustrated throughout by interviews with industry experts who are all leaders in the field of championing the music of women composers.”
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=166567§ion=6
DONNE Let Her Music Play
‘Let HER Music Play’ took place on 22-23 February 2024 reaching an international audience of over 10,000 viewers in over 50 countries, as well as a live audience in London.
Official page: https://donne-uk.org/let-her-music-play/
Spearheaded by soprano @GabriellaDiLaccioOfficial Donne Foundation live-streamed the concert for a total of 26 hours 18 minutes and 57 seconds, showcasing music exclusively by women and non-binary composers and songwriters. 96 musicians performed music by over 140 women and non-binary composers, arrangers and songwriters. Over 26 electrifying hours, we created history while championing for gender equality.
Here, you can watch Tim’s performance, given at 5.30am GMT live from the Brazilian Embassy in London.