“If Fanny had been a man, she would have been one of the greatest composers of the 19th century.” Chen Reiss, Opera Singer
Anyone who has experienced the magnificent works of Fanny Hensel (1805-1847) will have no doubt about this statement! And great news… her splendidly versatile works have just been recorded in their entirety! Browse our sheet music and scores, and explore the wide world of Fanny Hensel with Stretta Music today!
Despite her exceptional musical talent, Fanny Hensel had many obstacles in her way during her lifetime, particularly from her own family. Today she is regarded as one of the most important female composers of all time, and one of the most important composers of the Romantic era.
As the older sister of Felix Mendelssohn, she enjoyed the same excellent piano teachers. Her teacher Carl Friedrich Zelter wrote in a letter to Goethe that she played “like a man”, which was considered great praise at the time, but also exemplified Fanny Hensel’s dilemma.
Since it was not appropriate for women to earn money and composer professionally, both her father and her brother were against her composing. During her lifetime, her works were almost exclusively published under her brother’s name. Her many letters show a special form of sibling love, but also a certain jealousy on the part of her brother. After she died suddenly of a stroke in 1847, Felix Mendelssohn suffered a nervous breakdown and died just six months later.
Fanny Hensel’s Diaries and Fanny Hensel’s Letters to Her Family from Rome, Venice and Paris are well worth a read.
As an outstanding pianist, Fanny Hensel composed a great deal for piano and many art songs.
Musicologist Angela Mace sees Fanny Hensel’s song compositions as much more experimental and “chromatically adventurous” than her brother’s, and found that it enabled her “to deliver the emotional charge of a longer work in a single-sided song”.
In 1965, her complete works were transferred from the family’s property to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Since then, musicologists have dealt much more intensively with Fanny Hensel, and it is only today that her extraordinary musical work is beginning to be fully recognised.
Both Fanny and her brother Felix were compositional prodigies. In 1819, they both set the same text to music for their father’s birthday - “You tones, sway happily through the strings”. Felix was ten, Fanny fourteen. On comparing the two versions, one gets an impression of their early talents, and they way the two siblings worked. Fanny’s song can be found in the selection Where are you from?, and Felix’s version is included in Mendelssohn Songs: Volume 3.
Book (softcover)
Item no.: 1665005
für gem Chor a cappella
Partitur
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 1546520
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 180973
Cholera Cantata
for: 4 soloists (SATB), mixed choir (SATB), orchestra
Choir score
Item no.: 194084
für Sopran, Bass, Chor (SATB) und Klavier
for: Soloists, mixed choir (SATB), piano
Score
Item no.: 275819
(Die "Müller-Lieder")
for: Voice (high), piano
Music score
Item no.: 552422
Möseler Chorreihe
for: Mixed choir (SABar) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 132296
Fanny Hensels Sonntagsmusiken
Book (softcover)
Item no.: 472518
Weltliche a cappella Chöre von 1846 band 5
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 1043650
Klaviertrio
Unbekannte Werke der Klassik und Romantik 95
for: Violin, cello, piano (piano trio)
Single part Cello
Item no.: 622667
for: CHORMUSIK GEMISCHTER CHOR A CAPPELLA WELTLICH ALBEN
Item no.: 393473
Mittelschwere Stücke
Klavierstücke von Fanny Hensel 7
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 275744
(mittel) und Gitarre, Spielpartitur
for: SOLOGESANG (INCL. MEHRERE SOLOSTIMMEN) EINE SINGSTIMME SONSTIGE
Item no.: 428479
for: 2 voices (SA), piano
Music score
Item no.: 276605
für Orgel
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE ORGEL ORGEL ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 275741
Möseler Chorreihe
for: Mixed choir (SABar) a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 1671132
für gem Chor a cappella
Partitur
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 1546515
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Item no.: 1678402
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Score
Item no.: 1678401
Ausgewählte Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier
Erstveröffentlichungen
for: Voice, piano
Score
Item no.: 656663
für Sopran, Alt, Tenor und Klavier
Partitur
for: SOLOGESANG (INCL. MEHRERE SOLOSTIMMEN) DREI SINGSTIMMEN DREI SINGSTIMMEN MIT TASTENINSTRUMENT
Score
Item no.: 207600
Book (softcover)
Item no.: 330509
Cholera Cantata
for: 4 soloists (SATB), mixed choir (SATB), orchestra
Score
Item no.: 332606
for: Women's choir (SAA) [mixed choir (SAT)] a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 143174
Fünf Duette für Sopran, Tenor und Klavier
Gesamtausgabe in 5 Bänden – Band 4
for: 2 voices (ST), piano
Piano score
Item no.: 331090
Songs by Women Composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries
for: Voice (soprano), piano
Audio-CD
Item no.: 313439
Dramatische Szene
for: Voice, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 275811
for: Violin, viola, cello, piano
Score, Parts
Item no.: 393466
Sieben Duette für zwei Frauenstimmen und Klavier
Gesamtausgabe in 5 Bänden – Band 1
for: 2 voices, piano
Piano score
Item no.: 331088
für Klavier
for: Piano
Item no.: 393469
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE KLAVIER KLAVIER ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 633482
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 268399
von Fanny Hensel Band 3
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE KLAVIER KLAVIER ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 269134
für Klavier
for: Piano
Item no.: 151755
Item no.: 374974
Songs by Women Composers of the 18th and 19th Centuries
for: Voice, piano
Music score (anthology)
Item no.: 275678
Terzett
for: Women's choir (SSA) a cappella
Score
Item no.: 194494
for: Piano, orchestra
Score
Item no.: 555769
und Orchester
Partitur
for: ORCHESTERWERKE GROßES ORCHESTER SOLO-SINGSTIMME
Score
Item no.: 456774
Ausgewählte Lieder in zwei Bänden
for: Voice, piano
Score
Item no.: 375114
4. Band der Vortragsreihe der Koblenzer Mendelssohn-Tage
Book
Item no.: 372394
Nach den Quellen zum ersten Mal herausgegeben von Hans-Günter Klein
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 472516
Book (Hardcover)
Item no.: 161087
für Orgel
for: TASTEN- UND BALGINSTRUMENTE ORGEL ORGEL ZWEIHÄNDIG
Item no.: 393460
Volume 5
for: Mixed choir (SATB) a cappella
Item no.: 1565737
Weltliche a cappella Chöre von 1846 band 5
for: Mixed choir a cappella
Choir score
Item no.: 1043640
Leichte Stücke
Klavierstücke von Fanny Hensel 6
for: Piano
Music score
Item no.: 195077
Zwölf Charakterstücke für das Forte-Piano
Faksimile, illustrierte Reinschrift mit Zeichnungen von Wilhelm Hensel
for: Piano
Score (facsimile hardcover)
Item no.: 314794