Fanny Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany on November 14, 1805, to a wealthy family. She was the oldest sister of the famous composer Felix Mendelssohn. The family moved to Berlin when both Fanny and Felix were children, and they received an excellent education, particularly in music and composition.
At the time when Fanny was growing up, it was not socially acceptable for girls and women to become professional musicians. However, Fanny’s parents recognized her talent and provided her with the same musical training as her brother Felix. Both children even studied piano in Paris with a famous teacher of the time, Marie Bigot.
One of the children’s most influential teachers in Berlin was the composer Carl Frederich Zelter. It was through the introduction of Carl Zelter that both Fanny and Felix had the opportunity to meet and perform before the very famous poet of that time, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In a letter their teacher Zelter boasted to the poet,“… adorable children, and his oldest daughter could give you something of Sebastian Bach. This child is really something special.” It would seem from the teacher’s letter that Fanny was his favorite student.
When both Fanny and Felix were children, their father organized a popular concert series in their home, called Sonntagskonzerte, where both children perform their own compositions, as well as other famous pieces by composers like J.S. Bach. Unfortunately, even though she was very talented, her father did not want her to grow up to become a musician because she was a woman. In 1820, her father wrote her a letter stating, “Music will perhaps become [Felix’s] profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament.”
It is for this reason that very few of her more than 400 compositions were professionally published during her lifetime. In fact, six of her songs, called lieder, were published under her brother Felix’s name in his two collections, Twelve Song, Opus 8 and Opus 9. The song Italien from that collection was actually a favorite song of Queen Victoria of England. When Felix met the Queen, he had to embarrassingly confess that the song was written by his sister.
Fanny married the artist Wilhelm Hensel, who was very supportive of her music. Unlike her father, Fanny’s husband did want her to professionally publish her music and perform more outside of the home. With his help, some of her short piano pieces; lieder (songs) for voice and piano; and her piano trio were all published under her married name while she was still alive. In fact, Mr. Hensel drew the artwork for her collections of piano pieces called Das Jahr (the Year), which had a song for each month of the year.
Here is a picture of the first page of the music for the song, September, with music written by Fanny, and the picture drawn by Wilhelm Hensel.
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel died in Berlin after a stroke in May of 1847. After she died, her only son Sebastian Hensel, used her diaries and letters to write a biography about the Mendelssohn family. This book became very helpful to music historians who wanted to know more about both important composers, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn.
Watch this video of Fanny Mendelssohn’s song “September” being performed on piano:
https://youtu.be/yCDd6EIJ9Z8?si=0T77a2Oag2RZXVAe