Biographies

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Useful primarily as an example of outdated views of women’s ability to compose, capacity for genius, and domestic role expectations.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/old/A_lexartikel/lexartikel.php?id=hens1805" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">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" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">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 quandary in publishing Hensel’s work now is that, although she prepared only a small percentage of her compositions for the public, she clearly wanted her music to be more widely available.

21. Mustakallio, Marja. “Teen nyt paljon musiikkia”: Fanny Henselin (1805–1947), toiminta modernisoituvassa musiikkikulttuurissa. Åbo Akademi Förlag, 2003. 358 pp. ISBN: 951-765-150-3

Mustakallio’s published dissertation is a cultural study of Fanny Hensel’s musical work and music-making; this serves as a microhistorical case study to explore the world of educated bourgeois women in the nineteenth century and their interaction of the modernization of musical culture at that time. In Finnish with an English summary.

22. Naegele, Verena. “Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1805–1847).” Schweizer Musikzeitung/Revue Musicale Suisse/Rivista Musicale Svizzera 8, no. 12 (2005): 3–5. ISSN: 1422-4674

23. Olivier, Antje. Mendelssohn[s] Schwester Fanny Hensel: Musikerin, Komponistin, Dirigentin. Düsseldorf: Droste, 1997. 221 pp. ISBN: 3-7700-1075-2

A culturally oriented biography of Hensel that places the story of her life in context, especially with respect to the city of Berlin and to Hensel’s travels. This biography is bracketed with the larger story of the Mendelssohn family, starting with Moses Mendelssohn’s move to Berlin in 1743, and ending with the Nazi liquidation of the Mendelssohn family bank in 1938. Reviewed by Dagmar Zurek in Das Orchester: Zeitschrift für Orchesterkultur und Rundfunk-Chorwesen 46, no. 2 (1998): 72–73.

24. Radoux, Christian. “Trois femmes compositeurs: Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, et Cécile Chaminade.” Les Cahiers rationalistes: revue mensuelle 513 (1997): 5–19. ISSN: 0008-0462

This article discusses each of the three composers named (although without particularly exploring their relationships, personal or musical). Radoux argues for the application of the term “genius” (génie) to these women. The section on Hensel highlights Marie Bigot’s influence; it also includes a conventional (and now outdated) portrayal of Mendelssohn family dynamics, emphasizing Abraham’s suppression of Fanny’s ambitions and Felix’s publication and performance of Fanny’s work under his own name. Hensel’s relationship with Charles Gounod is also considered.

25. Roster, Danielle. Die grossen Komponistinnen: Lebensberichte. Frankfurt am Main: Insel, 1998. 433 pp. ISBN: 9783458338161

This book consists of a series of portraits of female composers from Hildegard of Bingen to Germaine Tailleferre. The section on Hensel (“Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn”) emphasizes the relative encouragement she experienced from her mother and husband and discouragement she experienced from her father and brother. This portrait ends with information about her manuscripts in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin and an excerpt from Sebastian Hensel’s Die Familie Mendelssohn.

26. Rothenberg, Sarah. “‘Thus Far, but No Farther’: Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Unfinished Journey.” The Musical Quarterly 77, no. 4 (1993): 689–708. ISSN: 0027-4631

Sketches Hensel’s life as a journey toward fulfillment: from early years of education and rivalry with Felix, then toward finding an outlet for her musical abilities, which was only imperfectly fulfilled in her musical salon. Rothenberg argues that the 1839–1840 journey to Italy was a turning point in Hensel’s self-understanding, giving her psychological space and new insight about her role in the larger world, spurring compositional productivity, and eventually leading her to publish. Ends with a discussion of the piano cycle Das Jahr.

27. Schleuning, Peter. “‘Aber erst wiederhaben’: Fanny Hensels langes erstes und kurzes zweites Leben.” In History/Herstory: Alternative Musikgeschichten, edited by Annette Kreutziger-Herr and Katrin Losleben, 304–313. Musik–Kultur–Gender 5. Köln: Böhlau, 2009. ISBN: 978-3-412-20243-9

Schleuning presents two sides of Hensel’s biography: the first emphasizes Hensel’s relationship with Felix and her much-discussed compositional “dependence” on him, as well as the limitations on her professional opportunities placed on her by her family and larger cultural attitudes toward women. The second, opposite side of the biographical story emphasizes that Hensel enjoyed a comfortable home and the artistic support of her husband, and was politically engaged (but not an aficionada of radical feminist thought); Schleuning speculates on how she might have developed as a composer and artist had she lived longer. This article is a reworked version of a lecture that Schleuning gave at the Sophie-Drinker-Institut Bremen in 2007.

28. Schleuning, Peter. Fanny Hensel, geb. Mendelssohn: Musikerin der Romantik. Europäische Komponistinnen 6. Köln: Böhlau, 2007. 349 pp. ISBN: 978-3-412-04806-8

Schleuning’s biography aims to place Fanny’s life in the context not only of her complex relationship to Felix and to the larger Mendelssohn circle, especially female members of the extended family, but in the wider political, artistic, musical, social and religious context of the time. This includes a nuanced reading of anti-Semitic politics and how they may have affected Mendelssohn family dynamics, including gender dynamics. This biography relies heavily on the editions of Fanny’s letters edited by Citron (no. 232) and Weissweiler (no. 252) as well as the Tagebücher edited by Klein and Elvers (no. 254). The bulk of the book is devoted to chronological recounting and contextualizing of Fanny’s life; the final fifty-two pages, in a separate section, contain analytical commentary on selected works. Works discussed at length include the Piano Trio, op. 11; “Nachtwanderer” op. 7, no. 1; various pieces in sonata form (her Ouvertüre, String Quartet, and Piano Sonata in G minor); the “Cholera” cantata; and the choral work “Nachtreigen.” Reviewed in numerous publications, including Martina Rebmann, Forum Musikbibliothek 29, no. 1 (2008): 59; Monika Schwarz-Danuser, Jahrbuch Musik und Gender 1 (2008): 183–186; and Claudio Bolzan, Nuova rivista musicale italiana 41, no. 3 (July–September 2007): 397–399.

29. Schleuning, Peter. “‘. . . nun bleibt das Einpassen in das Hauskleid des Lebens noch übrig.’ Fanny Hensel zum 200. Geburtstag.” Musica Sacra: Zeitschrift für katholische Kirchenmusik 125, no. 2 (January 2005): 9–11. ISSN: 0179-356X

30. Schwarz-Danuser, Monika. “Mendelssohn: Fanny (Caecilie), verheiratet Hensel.” In MGG Online, edited by Laurenz Lüttekin. 2016.

Based on Schwarz-Danuser’s article in the 2004 second edition of Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, this article treats both Hensel’s biography and her compositions in substantial detail. The bibliography includes items dating up to 2002.

31. Sergy, E. Fanny Mendelssohn d’après les mémoires de son fils. Paris: Fischbacher, 1888. 424 pp.

This biography by E. Sergy (a pseudonym for Noëmie König) is, as the title states, largely based on Sebastian Hensel’s Die Familie Mendelssohn (no. 49).

32. Shichtman, Sandra H., and Dorothy Indenbaum. Gifted Sister: The Story of Fanny Mendelssohn. Greensboro, NC: Morgan Reynolds, 2007. 128 pp. ISBN: 978-1-59935-038-7

A young adult biography of Hensel; Shichtman is the author of numerous other biograpies (including those of many current political figures) for a similar audience. Valuable for the rare images of postcards depicting the Mendelssohn family and their milieu. Unfortunately, includes errors both minor (such as “Die frehen Graber” for “Die frühen Gräber”) and major (multiple mistakes in the chronology of Fanny and Wilhelm Hensel’s relationship, and vague definitions of musical terminology).

33. Sirota, Victoria Ressmeyer. “The Life and Works of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel.” DMA thesis, Boston University School for the Arts, 1981. 333 pp.

Sirota’s seminal doctoral thesis brought Fanny’s prolific compositional activities to greater attention in the scholarly world. Fanny’s accomplishments as the organizer of the Sonntagsmusiken and the way that her salon fed her compositional inspiration are also at the heart of this work. Sirota also describes complex aspects of the Mendelssohn family dynamics, including anxiety that Felix felt about his relationship with Fanny, as well as the relationships with the other Mendelssohn siblings. Includes a 489-item works list and information on sources, which are both out of date, but which provide a snapshot of the state of Hensel source studies in the late 1970s/early 1980s.

34. Sonntag, Brunhilde. “Fanny Hensel-Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: ‘. . . daher gelingen mir am besten Lieder, wozu allenfalls ein hübscher Einfall ohne viel Kraft der Durchführung gehört’.” In Annäherung IV—an sieben Komponistinnen: Mit Berichten, Interviews und Selbstdarstellungen, edited by Brunhilde Sonntag and Renate Matthei, 27–35. Kassel: Furore, 1988. ISBN: 3-9801326-6-8

This brief sketch of Hensel’s life appears as part of the Annäherung series from Furore; the series offers biographical information on a wide range of female composers. This biography is unfortunately marred by an imprecise approach to factual information (for example, there is little evidence that Fanny was allowed to perform her own works at the early instantiation of the Mendelssohn Sonntagsmusiken). The author compares works by Felix and Fanny to demonstrate that they were equally musically gifted, then notes Fanny’s relative conservatism vis-à-vis the women’s emancipation movements of her time.

35. Sparre, Sulamith. Eine Frau jenseits des Schweigen: Die Komponistin Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel (1805–1847). Widerständige Frauen 1. Lich, Hessen: Verlag Edition, 2006. 120 pp. ISBN: 9783936049602

A thematically organized biography (on topics such as “Genius and feminine modesty” or “A Jewish Berlin family, or Jewish existence ca. 1800”). Suitable for a non-specialist audience; there is little discussion of Hensel’s music itself.

36. Tillard, Françoise. “Fanny Hensel, musicienne berlinoise au dix-neuvième siècle.” PhD diss., Univ. XII (Paris), 1992.

37. Tillard, Françoise. Fanny Mendelssohn. Paris: P. Belfond, 1992. 389 pp. ISBN: 2714429432. Translated into English by Camille Naish. Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1992. 399 pp. ISBN: 0931340969. Translated into German as Die verkannte Schwester: Die späte Entdeckung der Komponistin Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy by Ralf Stamm. München: Kindler, 1994. 400 pp. ISBN: 3463402459

Tillard’s biography was one of the first published book-length works devoted to Fanny available in English (translated from the original French). Tillard places the narrative of Fanny’s life into its cultural context, including the family circle in which she lived her life and how the issues of Jewishness, conversion, and anti-Semitism may have shaped her interactions with the larger world. Tillard’s approach is steeped in the feminist thought of the late 1980s and early 1990s. She locates the silencing of Fanny’s public voice primarily with members of the immediate family, i.e. Felix and Abraham Mendelssohn. This work includes little discussion of Fanny’s compositions. The English translation was reviewed by Jeffrey Sposato, Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 53, no. 3 (March 1997): 800–801; and Robin Armstrong, Women & Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture 1 (1997): 93–95; and the German translation by Renate Hellwig-Unruh, Musica: Zweimonatsschrift 50, no. 2 (März-April 1997): 127–128.

38. Todd, R. Larry. Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. 426 pp. ISBN: 9780195180800

Todd’s chronological study of Hensel’s life and works makes extensive use of new primary sources that became available in the early 2000s, and thus is the most current monograph-length biography available (as of this writing). These sources include her published Tagebücher (no. 254), newly published editions of musical works, and the catalogs of her compositional output. Todd extensively re-evaluates Fanny’s relationship with Felix in light of new developments in the field of sibling studies; he also argues that Fanny had a unique compositional voice, independent of her brother’s. The analytical discussion of her compositions are interwoven into the narrative of her life. The book has a companion website, which includes audio and score examples discussed in the text. Reviewed in numerous publications, including Susan Wollenberg, Nineteenth-Century Music Review 8, no. 2 (December 2011): 332–337; Camilla Cai, Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association 67, no. 3 (March 2011): 537–540; Renée McBride, Fontes Artis Musicae 58, no. 1 (January–March 2011): 92–94; and others.

39. Vetter, Edith. Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy, die gleichbegabte Schwester: überarbeitete Fassung eines Vortrages. Bad Soden: Historischer Verein, 2003. 13 pp.

40. Wilson Kimber, Marian. “The ‘Suppression’ of Fanny Mendelssohn: Rethinking Feminist Biography.” 19th-Century Music 26, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 113–129. ISSN: 0148-2076

Wilson Kimber questions the premises of feminist biography on Hensel. Many Hensel biographies are based on Sebastian Hensel’s Die Familie Mendelssohn (no. 49), which itself was constructed to portray the Mendelssohn family as patriarchal and conventionally bourgeois. Wilson Kimber argues that the gender-based expectations of the culture, rather than just the discouragement of family members, were a significant factor that prevented Hensel from having a professional career. This article ignited considerable controversy within the field; see Marcia Citron, nos. 173 and 174, as well as Wilson Kimber’s response, no. 188.

41. Zavala, Mercedes. “Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: apuntes para un bicentenario.” Doce notas: revista de música 46 (May 2005): 15. ISSN: 1136-6273

A brief summary of Hensel’s life and career.