Welcome to Hensel Songs Online
This page walks you through Fanny Hensel’s (born Mendelssohn) life in song.
During her impressive musical life, Fanny composed nearly 250 songs for solo
voice and piano, setting texts in German, French, Italian and English. This
resource chronicles her song repertoire, linking its users to downloadable PDF
scores, including 100 songs that have not previously been available. Each
entry also includes links to the autograph manuscripts, alongside other information
including the date of composition and the author of the set text [see below.]
Also featured throughout the resources is contextual information drawn from
Fanny Hensel’s life in practice [A Life in Practice] and her wider biography [Did you know?].
There are also suggested songs for performers who might like guidance in exploring
this impressive musical catalogue [Editor’s Choice.]
For further information see About the Edition and About the Editor. The edition is also available in print here.
A Life in Practice
Using the indispensable biography compiled by Larry R. Todd, I have traced Fanny’s musical life through documented instances of practice. Throughout the resource, this timeline (available here in full) is interwoven with Fanny’s song catalogue, linking users to playlists which immerse you in the musical context that surrounded the songs in this catalogue.
Editor’s Choice
These choices offer recommendations of songs that I have found especially enjoyable in practice. However, all of the songs introduce different qualities and layers of Fanny’s complex musical personality, so these only act as a guidance if you are feeling spoilt for choice!
Did you know?
These blocks provide contextual facts about Fanny’s life and music that are relevant to a certain moment in her career.
Did you know?
A year before she would compose her first song (Lied zum Geburtstag des Vaters’), aged 14, Fanny Mendelssohn performed the 24 preludes from J.S. Bach’s Well-Temperted Klavier for her family, from memory. This represents a feat of astounding technical and musical achievement for such a young musician (the performance would have lasted at least 45 minutes!). To create a sense of the scale of this event, you can immerse yourself in the adjacent playlist, which is modeled on Fanny’s performance.
Editor’s Choice
This song, written when Fanny was only 15, is a charming Mozartean pastiche that is lots of fun to sing and play. Fans of The Magic Flute will recognize some of the motifs.
A Life in Practice
During July of 1820, Fanny, who has been complaining of a lack of études for strengthening her fourth and fifth fingers is recommended these pieces by Johann Baptist Cramer. Fanny must have found them useful as she notated some in her composition album.
Did you know?
Both of the Mendelssohn siblings had an important relationship with the poems of Goethe. Their composition tutor, Karl Friedrich Zelter was both an avid supporter and friend of Goethe’s work and of his ideals for text-music relationships in German poetry. Fanny set more text by Goethe than other poet during her lifetime.
A Life in Practice
In October 1820, Fanny joined the alto section of the Singakademie choir, conducted by her composition tutor Karl Friedrich Zelter. Shortly after, she becomes friends with a soprano Therese Schlesinger, who soon began visiting the Mendelssohn family home on a daily basis.
Editor’s Choice
This charming song resembles a baroque oratorio aria - another example of the teenage Hensel experimenting across genres. The expressive vocal lines demonstrate Fanny’s talent for vocal writing and her gift for composing compelling melodies.
A Life in Practice
During 1821, the private concerts held in the Mendelssohn residence become a fortnightly Sunday tradition, which Lea Mendelssohn called the ‘Sonntags Übungen’ (‘Sunday Practices’). Fanny contributed regularly as a pianist.
Did you know?
In Hensel’s manuscripts there are two consecutive versions of this famous Goethe texts. She also returned to the poem for a third time later in her compositional career.
A Life in Practice
We are lucky to know the details of several instances of practice in Fanny’s life during the year 1822. The adjacent playlist includes the pieces that Fanny performed during this period: Hummel’s Piano Concerto (number unspecified), Rondeau Brillant and Sonata in Ab major for piano duet; and Felix’s Piano Concerto in A minor.
Did you know?
Die Nonne was amongst 6 songs that were published within song opuses under Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s name. Fanny’s authorship became an increasingly open secret within the local musical society.
Editor’s choice
This song is particularly well suited for a soprano voice. The text comes from Goethe’s character Mignon and Hensel’s setting reveals her continued affinity with the gesture and harmonies of baroque music. Hensel’s title alludes to her lifelong infatuation with Italy, where she spent most of the year 1840 after many years of wishing she could visit.
A Life in Practice
Though the details of what pieces were played exactly are unknown, there are several accounts of Fanny performing and hearing music by baroque composers during the closing months of 1822. This included performing Bach for the poet Goethe in Weimar and attending a rehearsal of Bach motets led by the choral music and Handel specialist Johann Nepomuk Schelble, after which the Mendelssohn siblings gave their own performance.
Did you know?
Luise Hensel was Wilhelm Hensel’s aunt. She was a known participant in Ludwig Berger’s salon performance of ‘Die Schöne Müllerin’, a cycle of texts that would be famously set by Franz Schubert. The salon participants treat the songs and story as a means of play-acting for both entertainment and as a means to live out romantic liaisons…
A Life in Practice
Though not to quite the same extent, there are several documents that reveal the some of repertoire performed by Fanny in her musical practice during the year 1823. Perhaps the most interesting is her performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1 in C Major, Op.15, a work that would typically have an orchestral accompaniment. We can only speculate as to the accompaniment to Fanny’s solo piano part, but common practices from the time suggest that this would have either been a second pianist playing an orchestral reduction, or even a string quartet (or double quartet) playing an arrangement of the full score.
Die Schöne Müllerin
Like her piano teacher Ludwig Berger, Fanny decided to set to music a number of texts from Müller’s ‘Miller’ poems. The early months of 1823 saw a large number of these settings being composed. In May and September of the same year, Franz Schubert would compose his collection of 20 songs after these poems. Hensel’s settings are more closely aligned with the 2nd Berlin School of Lieder as advocated by her composition tutor Karl Friedrich Zelter than with Schubert’s descriptive Lieder style.
Editor’s choice
At first glance, this song looks incredibly simple. This is Hensel’s gift as a song writer. Throughout these four verses the protagonist contemplates the seasons of a life and Hensel’s enchanting melody acts as an elegant vehicle for nuanced expression. A beautiful song that challenges traditional perceptions of the strophic form.
A Life in Practice
Die Spinnerin is one of the few songs named in accounts of Fanny’s performance of her own Lieder. This song was performed by Wilhelm Müller’s wife, Adelheid whilst the newlyweds were visiting the Hensels in April 1825.
Did you know?
In 1821, Felix was taken by Zelter to meet Goethe in Weimar. During this visit, upon which Fanny was not invited, Zelter showed the famous poet some of her compositions. Goethe was enthusiastically impressed and irritated that she was not there with her brother to visit. In response, he wrote this poem ‘An die Entfernte’ for Fanny, sending it to her with the request that she set it to music!
A Life in Practice
On December 3rd, 1823, Fanny performed Bach’s Concerto in D minor for Ignaz Moscheles. She performed other Bach for the composer on a least two prior occasions during the year.
H-U 109
Die Glückliche Fischerin
c.1823
Müller
Partial print (item search continues)
Autograph not yet located
Editor’s choice
This song is another example of Hensel’s ability to create a miniature form that has limitless expressive complexity when repeated with different verse text. A stunning addition to a recital.
A Life in Practice
During March of 1825, Fanny was preparing the Diabelli Variations by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Did you know?
At the time of composition, the authorship of this text was widely attributed to Goethe. Fanny would have been under this impression, however, the authorship has since been accredited to a female author - Marianne von Willemer. Unknowingly, Hensel is setting the work of another trailblazing female artist.
Did you know?
During his visits to England, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy became well acquainted with Queen Victoria and Albert. On one occasion, the monarch asked to perform her favourite of ‘Felix’s’ Lieder - Italien. With Felix at the piano, Queen Victoria gave a rendition of this piece! After the fact, Felix was compelled to share that the composer of this song was in fact Fanny…
A Life in Practice
Fanny received a copy the infamous Hammerklavier Sonata during 1825, and there are several instances where Fanny is described to have played music of similar characteristics to the brooding Adagio movement. Also on Fanny’s music stand during the Autumn of 1825 was Hummel’s Piano Quintet in E-flat Minor, Op.87 (composed 1822), which she performed in one of her Sunday music concerts.
Editor’s choice
The Lieder written by Fanny during the period of rehearsal and following the performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion represent some of her most interesting, diverse, and unique song compositions. Especially interesting are her setting of poems by Ludwig Christoph Heinrich Hölty. These are highly recommended as a way to better understand Fanny’s musical personality.
A Life in Practice
A diary entry from the Spring of 1827 reveals that Bach was not Fanny’s only baroque influence as she describes having spent the morning copying the score of a Handel aria.
Editor’s choice
This short song is a unique example from Hensel’s repertoire. This song feels like an odd recitation of an improvised poem. Each phrase offers an unusual harmonic turn as the singer seeks resolution.
A Life in Practice
Amongst the most defining musical events in both Fanny and Felix’s musical lives was the performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at the Singakademie in Berlin during the Winter of 1827. Conducted by Felix, this complete performance of Bach’s monumental composition was the first performance in nearly 100 years@ Fanny was a member of the choir tasked with rendering this virtuosic work for double orchestras and chorus and was, like her brother, deeply enthused by this long forgotten work.
Editor’s Choice
Though there is no documentation to speak of regarding Hensel’s practice during the year 1828, the influence of the St. Matthew Passion performance and baroque music can be felt keenly in songs such as this one. The pulsing piano chords with slow-moving harmonies resemble a baroque string section, each dissonance sparking memories of a past era of music.
Editor’s Choice
Die frühen Gräber is a song that showcases Hensel’s ability to create a visually simple single page of music that when performed comes alive in ways quite singular to her musical voice. The sonorous lower piano line from which the song emerges is quite a unique colour in her compositions and it is easy to see why Fanny chose this song to include amongst her published songs.
A Life in Practice
1829 was an important year for Fanny’s personal and musical lives as it saw the departure of her closest musical companion, her brother Felix, leave home to embark on a ‘Grand Tour’ of Europe by means of announcing his presence as a professional composer. Though Fanny was destined to remain a private musician, her life in practice during 1829 reveals that she was no less ambitious in her personal musical development, performing Beethovens Archduke Trio, a Handel oratorio (unspecified), Felix’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Lieder ohne Worte, as well her own pieces including the Festspiel, her Lieder ohne Worte and the Ostersonata, which has been recently reattributed to her name after decades of misattribution to Felix (see more here.)
Editor’s Choice
Another significant event during 1829 was the composition of Fanny’s Liederkreis. This is certainly not a ‘song cycle’ as might be associated with the likes of Schubert or Schumann, which might span a narrative both musically and emotionally. Instead, Fanny’s Liederkreis is a rather personal farewell to Felix. The final movement is a trio of two higher voices and one male voice. Taking this into account, and the varied range across the songs, it is possible to speculate that Fanny might have sung this piece after Felix’s departure with friends or members of the family.
Editor’s Choice
This stunning song offers performers a blanket of slowly shifting harmonies to explore the subtle colours of a night scene.
A Life in Practice
Though she composed just two songs during 1833, the year was in fact one of the busiest that we are able to piece together from documentary evidence owing to the discovery of five complete programs from Fanny’s Sunday Music gatherings. These gatherings were kickstarted in January of 1833 by Felix, who had found Fanny in a fallow period and wanted to encourage her back to the piano. It clearly worked and Fanny spent a year exploring concerti, oratorios, chamber works, and operas with friends and professional musicians visiting Berlin.
A Life in Practice
1834 was another year packed full of music-making for Fanny Hensel. Alongside her regularly programmed Beethoven and Felix, Fanny also continued her exploration of the baroque with Gluck and Handel works.
Editor’s Choice
This quite virtuosic song is a brilliant choice for a soprano or agile mezzo. The staccato piano part makes for a challenging play, just one of many examples of Fanny’s apparent technical brilliance!
A Life in Practice
Yet again, Fanny dedicates a large portion of her musical life to compositions from the baroque era, namely the oratorios Samson and Solomon by George Friedrich Handel as well as the Bach cantatas BWV 8 and BWV 105.
Editor’s Choice
This is the song that first gripped my attention by Fanny Hensel. This poem which has been set by so many composers is used by Fanny to unfold one of her most beautiful yet simple songs.
A Life in Practice
In May of 1836, Fanny again took her place amidst the choir for. alarge scale oratorio performance directed by Felix. This time it was his St. Paul, a work that Fanny was enthused with and which she performed frequently at Sunday music for years to come.
A Life in Practice
During December, Fanny prepared and directed choral works (motets and Psalms) by Felix.
A Life in Practice
During the Spring of 1837, Fanny was playing these Preludes and Fugues, composed by Felix.
A Life in Practice
The period from September to the end of 1837 was a busy one for Fanny the performer. We know that during these months she performed works including selections from the Handel oratorios Judas Maccabeaus and Samson; Beethoven’s Ghost Trio; and Weber’s operas Oberon and Euryanthe.
A Life in Practice
Fanny’s year began with a bang in 1838, when she performed her brother’s Piano Concerto in G minor at the Berlin Schauspielhaus for a charity concert. This was followed up with an ambitious Sunday performance of Mozart’s late opera La Clemenza di Tito, for which Fanny was joined by an array of in-demand opera singers.
A Life in Practice
Operas were now commonplace during Fanny’s Sunday concert performances. February 1839 saw performances of Gluck’s Alceste and Iphegénie en Tauride.
The Italian Trip
After a lifetime of longing to visit Italy, Fanny and Wilhelm spent much of the year 1840 travelling in Italy. This year seems to have swept Fanny off of her feet, and free from her normal surroundings of Berlin, she lived the freest months of her artistic life, performing regularly, encountering new types of music and musicians and embracing her creative voice in one of the most prolific periods in her life as a composer. Whilst she did not write many songs during this time, those that followed her trip to Italy demonstrate a new confidence and ambition within her composing. This playlist tracks some of the repertoire that Fanny performed while in Italy.
A Life in Practice
Fanny’s diary from 1841 reveals that she was spending a lot of time playing and singing the songs of a female contemporary composer - Josephine Lang. As can be seen from this quote, Fanny was enamoured with these songs and it is interesting to listen to Lang’s songs alongside Hensel’s output from 1841:
“I like them so much that I play them, and play them again - I can't tear myself away - and then finally: put them aside. I’ve been singing them all day so that I'll remember them.”
A Life in Practice
Though Fanny didn’t compose any songs during the year 1842, she continued to be an active performer of vocal music. Pieces featured in her Sunday concerts during this period include the first part of Haydn’s The Seasons, arias from Handel’s Messiah; songs by Felix; excerpts from Beethoven’s Fidelio; and her own cantata Lobgesang.
A Life in Practice
“I have totally lost my muse, and my energies for performing too have dropped off considerably.”
As illustrated by these words from Fanny in the early months of 1843, the year was not without its challenges. However, the year also saw her deepen her musical friendship with Charles Gounod, as well as becoming properly acquainted with Clara Schumann, who became a daily visitor to the Hensel home. The year ended with several Sunday music concerts, Fanny’s energies seemingly having returned.
A Life in Practice
After a fruitful beginning to the year composing the songs above, Fanny continued to run a fruitful season of concerts in the home, which included what she called the best-ever Sunday music when they performed Felix’s oratorio Die Erste Walpurgisnacht, directed by Fanny and played at the piano by Felix.
A Life in Practice
Between March and July of 1846 Fanny presented at least five concerts in her home. The repertoire reflects the maturity and skill that Fanny had developed as a musician. and performer. Like much of the repertoire during her lifetime, Bach, Beethoven and Felix featured prominently.
A Life in Practice
The last documented performance by Fanny Hensel was the Te Deum by Handel, which was given on 11th April 1847 at Sunday Music. The day prior to her sadly early death, Fanny was rehearsing for a performance of Felix’s Die Erste Walpurgisnacht. During this rehearsal she suffered a fainting spell, the first symptom of the successive stroke that would end her life, and had to retire to the next room to rest. As she listened to the choir continue to rehearse, she called through “How beautiful it sounds” - within a day she had passed away, an incredible life in music having come to a premature end.
