Fanny Mendelssohn

As the eldest child of a wealthy family in Berlin, Fanny Mendelssohn had the benefit of a robust education, including musical studies in piano and composition. These she shared with her younger brother, Felix. Their parallel musical educations led the already close siblings to relate on an even deeper creative and intellectual level, and their talents were considered equal. However, Fanny, by dint of her gender, was kept from continuing with composition, while Felix saw his star rise.

Fanny did find encouragement in adulthood after her marriage to painter Wilhelm Hensel, who was more liberal in his view of a woman’s prospects in the arts. She composed throughout her lifetime, largely in the genre of Romantic-era miniatures—piano pieces and art songs that she could perform at in-home salons. Her work was mostly unpublished and went unheard for more than a century after her early death. Her name, if recognized at all, remained known through the lens of her famous brother. Only after the discovery of her authorship of a work originally attributed to Felix, and the growing interest in music by women composers over the last few decades of the 20th century, did Fanny Mendelssohn become a lauded composer of the Romantic era in her own right, a talent once again seen as equal to her little brother.

Early Years: Prodigious Beginnings

Fanny Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany, on November 14, 1805, to a family of prominence. Her father, Abraham, was the son of noted Jewish philosopher and theologian Moses Mendelssohn, and her mother, born Lea Salomon, descended from members of the Prussian court. In an effort to distance his own family from backlash related to their Jewish background, Abraham had them convert to Lutheranism, and the children were baptized with the surname Mendelssohn-Bartholdy—hence the name which is sometimes used to identify both Felix and Fanny, although each disliked the usage.

The two eldest of four children, Fanny and Felix formed an especially close bond, referring to themselves as twins despite the three years separating them. Their wide-ranging education included lessons in languages, literature, mathematics, geography, and drawing; when their musical abilities showed real promise, they spent some time studying piano in Paris. At home in Berlin, where the family had settled, Fanny and Felix had the opportunity to perform at regular Sunday music salons hosted by the Mendelssohns.

In spite of her obvious talent, Fanny’s musical interests were only encouraged up to a point. Young women of her social status were expected to marry and maintain a home; drawing public attention to themselves was considered most inappropriate. At 14, Fanny asked her father for permission to continue with music and received a written reply spelling out what lay ahead for her and Felix: “Music will perhaps become his profession, while for you it can and must be only an ornament, never the basis of your being and doing.” Fanny was destined to watch from afar as her younger brother toured Europe and wrote back about his musical experiences.

Middle Period: Art Songs and Reflections of Family Life

In 1829, Fanny married painter Wilhelm Hensel. The two had first met when she was 16, and their courtship continued for several years while Hensel, who was 11 years older, established his career and became a court painter for King Friedrich Wilhelm III. Understanding his bride’s creative needs, Hensel had declared he would not marry her unless she continued composing. The couple established a routine in which they would spend their days in their individual pursuits: Wilhelm would set a blank sheet of manuscript paper on her music stand each morning before he went off to paint.

The Hensels also began hosting music salons, which Fanny had become accustomed to at her parents’ home. The events allowed her music to be heard along with other works of the day, and they became popular among prominent members of Berlin society. Fanny’s works consisted mainly of miniatures—art songs, or Lieder, and piano pieces. Some reflected her personal life: the cantata Lobgesang (Song of Praise, 1831) celebrated the first birthday of her only child, a son who carried the composer-inspired name of Sebastian Ludwig Felix. A later Cholera Cantata emerged after the family recovered from the illness in 1831. Wilhelm contributed illustrations to the manuscript pages of Das Jahr (The Year, 1841), an ambitious work of movements representing months of the calendar. 

However, Fanny’s efforts to have her work published under her own name were discouraged even by Felix, who continually sought her input regarding his own compositions. The extent to which her musical expressions were suppressed is evidenced by the fact that some of her songs were published under Felix’s name: three each in his Op. 8 (1824–27) and Op. 9 (1827, 1829–30). She finally succeeded in having a composition—her Sechs Lieder (Six Songs), Op. 1—published in 1846, becoming one of the first women to do so.

Late Period: Kinship with Clara Schumann

In many ways, Fanny’s life mirrored that of her contemporary, Clara Schumann, the pianist, composer, and wife of Robert Schumann. Like Fanny, Clara’s compositional efforts took a back seat to those of a man in her life, although at the time of her marriage she was a concert pianist who was better known than Robert. The two German wives and composers shared similar social circles and finally met in 1846, striking up a correspondence as each worked on a piano trio. Clara reportedly intended to dedicate her Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (1846), to Fanny, who died before it was premiered.

Clara and Fanny had little time to correspond. On May 14, 1847, Fanny was rehearsing Felix’s cantata Die erste Walpurgisnacht (The First Walpurgis Night) when she experienced numbness in her arms. She suffered a stroke and died at the age of 41. Both Mendelssohn parents had died of strokes, and just six months later, Felix Mendelssohn would also succumb to the same affliction.

Legacy

Fanny Mendelssohn composed close to 500 works, although most remained unpublished. After her death, she became known mainly through her brother and the musical advice she provided to him. That very relationship was pivotal to the eventual rediscovery of her music. When the manuscript of a work inscribed “F. Mendelssohn” was discovered in a Paris bookstore in 1970, it was assumed to be a lost work by Felix. It was presented as such until 2010, when musicologist Angela Mace authenticated it as an original Fanny Mendelssohn composition by matching the handwriting to a bound volume of her music that was missing some pages. The Easter Sonata (1828) was officially premiered as a work by Fanny in 2017, on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

Watching and Listening

CMS has performed Fanny Mendelssohn’s Trio in D minor for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 11 (1847), and it is included on the 2025 CMS release Fanny and Clara. Her only piano trio notably replaces the usual scherzo movement with a Lied—a song without words. Felix Mendelssohn became famous for the format, but Fanny is believed to have been instrumental in its development.

Fanny began working on a piano sonata in E-flat major before deciding to rework the movements for the String Quartet in E-flat major, from 1834. As a pianist, she was uncertain of her abilities in string writing, but she was encouraged by Felix, and the quartet displays a sure-handed maturity and expressiveness.

The technically challenging Das Jahr (The Year), for solo piano, demonstrates Fanny’s abilities as both musician and composer. The 13 movements are named for months of the year, plus a postlude. The short character pieces express moods of the seasons, holidays, and celebrations. It was her Christmas gift to Wilhem in 1841, and he in turn created illustrations for an 1842 manuscript.

Ostersonate (Easter Sonata) approaches the Passion of Christ in the form of a piano sonata. Originally attributed to Felix, it was completed when Fanny was 22, as noted in her diary on April 6, 1828—Easter Sunday. It shows the influence of Beethoven, who had died only a year before, in the first movement, and Bach in the prelude and fugue of the second movement. Stormy passagework in the fourth movement marks the moment of Christ’s death before moving into the light with the chorale tune “Christe du Lamm Gottes” (“Christ, Lamb of God”).

From the National Radio Series:

The Piano Trio