Fanny Hensel

A Research and Information Guide

Laura K. T. Stokes, Laura Stokes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315299815
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Fanny Hensel: A Research and Information Guide provides scholars in Hensel studies with a resource to navigate the research surrounding the composer's over 450 musical works. As part of the larger blossoming of women's music history, new research in the 1980s and 1990s promoted an awareness of Hensel's output, in particular in the genres of the lied and the solo piano work. This research guide includes an introductory chapter, a summary paragraph at the beginning of each chapter, and annotations for more than 500 entries, focusing on scholarly works as well as selected articles from trade publications, catalogs, and Internet resources.

1

Biographies

BIOGRAPHICAL STUDIES OF FANNY HENSEL

This section includes biographical studies that focus on Fanny Hensel as an individual. Please also note the remarks in the Introduction on the trajectory of Fanny Hensel’s biography in recent years.

1. Anonymous. “Fanny Mendelssohn.” The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular 29, no. 544 (1888): 338–341.

Useful primarily as an example of outdated views of women’s ability to compose, capacity for genius, and domestic role expectations. Framed as a review of “M. Sergy’s” (i.e. E. Sergy’s, i.e. Noëmie König’s) book Fanny Mendelssohn, d’après les mémoires de son fils (no. 31).

2. Anonymous. “The Sisters of Two Great Composers. II. Fanny Mendelssohn.” The Musical Times 42, no. 697 (March 1901): 156–60. Reprinted as “From the Archive: Fanny by Gaslight.” The Musical Times 138, no. 1850 (April 1997): 27–31. ISSN: 0958-8434, 0027-4666

A portrait of Fanny Hensel that emphasizes her excellence as a musician, both as a pianist and vocalist, notes that she played a significant role in the St. Matthew Passion revival, and refers to her eleven published opuses. Nonetheless, the claim in the 1997 republication that “The Musical Times was at the cutting edge of feminist musicology” as of 1901 may be overstated, as the original article indicates that she did little of interest, musically, during the eighteen years of her marriage.

3. Assenbaum, Aloysia. “Sonntagsmusikerin wider willen? Juste une dilettante? Zum 150. Todestag von Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn (1805–1847): Portrait de Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn.” clingKlong: Musikszene Frau 41 (Summer 1997): 4–17. ISSN: 1422-0466

A biographical portrait constructed as sketches of various relationships and aspects of Hensel’s life (such as her parents, her husband, “Sonntagsmusiken,” “Isolation,” etc.). Includes a short review of the state of scholarship on Hensel as of the late 1990s.

4. Bartsch, Cornelia. “Fanny Hensel.” MUGI: Musik und Gender im Internet. Updated March 22, 2010. Accessed September 26, 2018. https://mugi.hfmt-hamburg.de/Artikel/Fanny_Hensel

An extensive lexicographical overview of Hensel’s life, work, reception and evaluation, and the state of Hensel research. Includes a section on Hensel’s repertoire as a pianist. There are also links to multimedia presentations (which are not, as of this writing, in working order) and an annotated list of internet links. The emphasis is on Hensel’s work as a musician—composer, pianist, director of the Sonntagsmusiken—rather than on her personal biography.

5. Bartsch, Cornelia. Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Musik als Korrespondenz. Kassel: Furore, 2007. 382 pp. ISBN: 9783933617603

See no. 491.

6. Beer, Anna R. Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music. London, England: Oneworld Publications, 2016. 368 pp. ISBN: 978-1-78074-856-6

This book, which is oriented toward the non-specialist reader, portrays eight female composers from history. The chapter on Hensel is based on Todd’s Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn (no. 38); Beer’s discussion of the intersection of gender expectations, class expectations, and anti-Semitism is nuanced. There is an unusual emphasis on the effect that Hensel’s difficult pregnancies (including miscarriages), and various other family traumas, had on her psychological state and compositional output. Beer notes the nineteenth-century cultural tendency to place boundaries—especially generic—on women’s compositions, which affected Hensel’s work a great deal.

7. Borchard, Beatrix. “Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Fanny.” In Jüdische Frauen im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert: Lexikon zu Leben und Werk, edited by Jutta Dick and Marina Sassenberg. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1993. ISBN: 3-499-16344-6

A summary biography that emphasizes Hensel’s role as organizer of the Sonntagsmusiken and as a composer.

8. Büchter-Römer, Ute. “Fanny Hensel.” In Frauen um Felix, edited by Veronika Leggewie, 60–97. Koblenzer Mendelssohn-Tage. Bell, Germany: Top Music, 2002. ISBN: 3-9807515-1-1

An occasionally imprecise portrait of Hensel that emphasizes gender dynamics in the extended Mendelssohn family, Fanny and Felix’s compositional relationship, the mutually supportive Hensel marriage, and Hensel’s travel in Italy.

9. Büchter-Römer, Ute. Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 2001. 155 pp. ISBN: 3-499-50619-X

Büchter-Römer’s concise and accessible biography first covers Hensel’s life in the context of the larger Mendelssohn family, her upbringing, relationships with Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Wilhelm Hensel, travel to Italy and the Sonntagsmusiken, and then reviews her compositional output by the genres in which she composed: solo lieder, secular a capella choral works, piano works, chamber music, and works for choir and orchestra. Her perspective reflects the view (often found in scholarship of the 1990s) that Fanny’s reluctance to publish was due to Felix’s lack of encouragement. Büchter-Römer made use of the then-unpublished Tagebücher as well as sources held in private hands. Reviewed by Rebecca Grotjahn in the Frankfurter Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft 7 (2004): 38–39.

10. Cai, Camilla. “Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel as Composer and Pianist.” Piano Quarterly 35, no. 139 (1987): 46–50. ISSN: 0031-9554

Largely based on Sebastian Hensel’s Die Familie Mendelssohn (no. 49), this article briefly summarizes Hensel’s educational background, compositional activities, and relationship to her brother Felix. Published at a time when study of Hensel was still in the early stages, it portrays a number of her relationships in disputable terms, including those with Lea Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Carl Klingemann, and Wilhelm Hensel, whose role in encouraging Fanny’s compositional activity is not emphasized.

11. Citron, Marcia J. “Mendelssohn(-Bartholdy) [Hensel], Fanny (Cäcilie).” In Grove Music Online, edited by Deane Root. 2016.

Citron’s entry for Hensel in the standard English-language musicological reference work is taken from her article in the 2001 second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Includes a useful but dated bibliography, with the most recent entry from 1993.

12. Cooper, John Michael. “Hensel (née Mendelssohn), Fanny (Cäcilie) (1805–1847).” In Historical Dictionary of Romantic Music, 275–276. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780810872301

Cooper’s brief article focuses on Hensel’s compositional activities, including the range of genres in which she composed, and offers a new summary perspective on the issue of family support for her publication activities during her lifetime.

13. Grove, George. “Hensel, Fanny Cecile.” In Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 1, 729. London: Macmillan and Co., 1879.

George Grove’s article on Fanny Hensel emphasizes her influence on her brother as well as her composing. It ends with a brief excerpt from “Bergeslust” as engraved on her tombstone. This article, with minor alterations and a change of name from “Hensel, Fanny” to “Mendelssohn, Fanny,” was carried over as far as the fifth edition of Grove.

14. Hellwig-Unruh, Renate. “. . . so bin ich mit meiner Musik ziehmlich allein: Die Komponistin und Musikerin Fanny Hensel, geb. Mendelssohn.” In Stadtbild und Frauenleben: Berlin im Spiegel von 16 Frauenporträts, edited by Henrike Hülsbergen, 235–261. Berlinische Lebensbilder 9. Berlin: Stapp Verlag, 1997. ISBN: 3-87776-213-1

A compact but thorough portrait of Hensel’s life and works. This article also encompasses discussion of Hensel’s work as a pianist and perspective on contemporary virtuosi, the Sonntagsmusiken, and her interest in Berlin’s larger cultural, political, and musical structures.

15. Köhler, Karl-Heinz. “Mendelssohn(-Bartholdy) [Hensel], Fanny (Cäcilie).” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, vol. 12. London: Macmillan, 1980.

The biographical entry for Hensel in the 1980 New Grove. Contains numerous infelicities: the statement that her main historical importance stems from her relationship with Felix; the doubt cast upon many accepted aspects of her life and works (such as “she was apparently an excellent pianist”); and the startling omission of Hensel’s time in Rome in the description of her trip to Italy. Useful as a testament to the state of Hensel studies as of the 1970s.

16. Kriznar, Franc. “210. obletnica rojstva Fanny Hensel, roj. Medelssohn.” Glasba v Šoli in vrtcu 19, no. 3/4 (2016): 109–111. ISSN: 1854-9721

17. Mace Christian, Angela. “Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Amateur or Professional? A Closer Look at the Chronology of Her Compositional Output.” Mendelssohn Studien 20 (2017): 153–173. ISSN: 0340-8140

See no. 273.

17a. Mace Christian, Angela. “Hensel [née Mendelssohn (-Bartholdy)], Fanny Cäcilie.” In Grove Music Online, edited by Deane Root. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.3000000159

18. Maurer, Annette. “Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn: Biographie.” viva voce 42 (1997): 3ff.

19. Maurizi, Paola. “‘Ugualmente dotata’: Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy nel periodo giovanile.” In Il giovane Mendelssohn: Atti del Convengo internazionale di studi (Perugia, Conservatorio “F. Morlacchi”, 4–5 dicembre 2009), 189–223. Strumenti della ricerca musicale collana della Società Italiana di Musicologia 21. Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2016. ISBN: 978-88-7096-843-9

A chronology of Hensel’s life from 1805–1830, followed by historical-critical commentary with a focus on Hensel’s work as a composer. This material was later enfolded into Maurizi’s Per Fanny e Wilhelm Hensel (no. 116).

20. Müller, Gisela A. “Fanny Mendelssohn: Musikerin ohne Beruf.” In Musik.Frau.Sprache: Interdisziplinaere Frauen- und Genderforschung an der Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover, 295–305. Beiträge zur Kultur- und Sozialgeschichte der Musik 5. Herbolzheim: Centaurus, 2003. ISSN: 1616-2927

Müller first outlines Hensel’s biography, emphasizing the ways in which gender role differentiation affected every aspect of her life, then reviews the history of Hensel reception and scholarship from the time of her death to approximately the year 2000. A central qu...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Biographies
• 2 Conversations within Hensel Scholarship
• 3 Sources, Documentary Studies, and Catalogs
• 4 Letters, Documents, and Memoirs
• 5 Studies of Works and Genres
• 6 Compositional Influences
• 7 Cultural Studies
• Index of Hensel’s Compositions
• Index of Authors
• General Index