![]() It includes a useful but dated bibliography, with the most recent entry from 1993, and an abridged works list.Ĭooper, John Michael. The article focuses more on Hensel’s biography than on her musical style. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007–2017.Ĭitron’s entry for Hensel in the standard English-language musicological reference work is taken from her article in the second edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2001). “ Mendelssohn(-Bartholdy), Fanny (Cäcilie).” In Grove Music Online. The biographical website Furore 2015 is indicative of the healthy relationship of scholarship and publishing in this area, as well as a desire to make information about Hensel available to the broader public outside of the scholarly community.Ĭitron, Marcia J. Citron 2007–2017 represents the strong feminist bent found in scholarship on Hensel in the late 20th century, whereas Cooper 2013 and Schwarz-Danuser 2016 speak to the more recent focus on Hensel’s works and compositional process. The multifaceted nature of Hensel scholarship is visible in the varying perspectives found in article-length introductions in standard works. In recent decades, many new primary source materials have been discovered or made accessible, ensuring that scholarship on and performance of Hensel’s work will continue to thrive. (This change in naming convention also helps to dispel the distressingly persistent popular misconception that Fanny Hensel was Felix Mendelssohn’s wife rather than his sister.) The rehabilitation of Mendelssohn studies and the flourishing of feminist scholarship in the second half of the 20th century led to a revival in Hensel scholarship, beginning with new biographical studies. ![]() ![]() ![]() Mendelssohn Bartholdy,” reflecting the name that she used for most of her adult life and the reputation that her work is gaining in its own right, apart from her relationship to her brother. An earlier tendency to call her “Fanny Mendelssohn” or “Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel” has given way more recently to a penchant to style her “Fanny Hensel,” or “Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy” (i.e., Fanny Hensel, née Mendelssohn Bartholdy). She was born “Fanny Mendelssohn” became “Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy” when she was baptized in 1816 then “Fanny Hensel” when she married in 1829 and, beginning in 1846, published as “Fanny Hensel geb. The shifting understanding of Hensel in both her personal and artistic identity is mirrored in the complex matter of her name. Subsequently, however, Hensel was virtually forgotten as a composer, and seen mainly as Mendelssohn’s sister. Her posthumous reputation was established by family members. Despite her extensive and sophisticated output, Hensel was deeply conflicted about bringing her work into the public eye, and she began publishing only a year before her sudden death at the age of forty-one. She composed over 460 works, largely Lieder and solo piano pieces, but also choral music, organ music, chamber music, cantatas, and other genres. Felix traveled throughout Europe, gaining musical exposure and experience, while Fanny remained at the family home in Berlin, married the court painter Wilhelm Hensel, and organized an important musical salon. Upon maturity, her path diverged from Felix’s. Educated alongside her brother Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, she studied composition with Carl Friedrich Zelter and piano with Marie Bigot and Ludwig Berger. Fanny Hensel (Fanny Cäcilie Mendelssohn Bartholdy, b. 1805–d. 1847) was one of the best-known and most prolific female composers of the 19th century.
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