Forgotten Women: Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was the elder sister of Felix Mendelssohn, and an accomplished pianist and composer in her own right.

She lived in a time when women were discouraged from pursuing activities that were not related to marriage and family. Even so, Fanny did receive a strong musical education alongside her younger brother. Her music could be heard along with her brother's at 'Musicales' staged in her family home in Berlin each Sunday. These weekly events were attended by the best known musicians and artists of the time. The poet Goethe considered Fanny to be just as gifted as her brother, Felix.

Music was not to be part of her future s it was for her brother though, and while she was given a strong education in music, it was pressed upon her that her aim in life was to be a wife and mother, not a composer. Both her father and her brother discouraged her from publishing the more than 400 pieces that she created.

She married Wilhelm Hensel, a painter. Her music was left behind for a number of years but eventually she returned to it, staging musical recitals in her own home. Here, her own compositions would be performed by small chamber orchestras and individual musicians as she conducted. Hensel encouraged her to publish her works, something her family had discouraged strongly, which is why a small sampling of her music is now available today for us to listen to. The remainder is either lost to the world, or held in family archives.

"I'm beginning to publish... and if I've done it of my own free will and cannot blame anyone in my family if aggravation results from it... then I can console myself with the knowledge that in no way did I seek or induce the kind of musical reputation that might have brought me such offers. I hope I shall not disgrace you all, for I am no femme libre... If it [my publication] succeeds, that is, if people like the pieces and I receive further offers, I know it will be a great stimulus to me, which I have always needed in order to create. If not, I shall be at the same point where I have always been."

~ Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel

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