Volume 5, Issue 2 The Kapralova Society Journal Fall 2007 A Journal of Women in Music Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: A Life of Music within Domestic Limits By Eugene Gates Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, the Mendelssohn (1777-1842), was a tal- elder sister of Felix Mendelssohn, was ented pianist and a good singer; she deemed by her contemporaries to be as spoke French and English fluently, musically gifted as Felix. She was not could read Homer in the original only a superb pianist, but also an ex- Greek,2 and was, by all accounts, a ceptionally fine composer. Fanny's charming and witty hostess. In an- compositional style is very similar to nouncing Fanny's birth to his that of her more famous brother. Her mother-in-law, Abraham wrote: "Lea more than 400 works include lieder, pi- says that the child has Bach-fugue fin- ano and organ pieces, chamber music, gers"3--a statement which proved to Special points of interest: cantatas, dramatic scenes, an oratorio be prophetic. and an orchestral overture. Despite her Before leaving Hamburg, • prolific creative output, however, few Abraham and Lea had two more chil- Fanny Mendelssohn’s 1 of her compositions were published, dren. Felix, their first son, was born story and, until very recently, historians have on February 3, 1809, and another limited her importance to the fact that daughter, Rebecca, was born on April her diaries and letters provide valuable 11, 1811. The Mendelssohn family Inside this issue: source material for biographical studies moved to Berlin the following year, of Felix Mendelssohn. This article dis- where Paul, their youngest child, was 4 Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel: 1 cusses the life and creative achieve- born on October 30, 1813. All four A Life of Music within Do- ments of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Mendelssohn children were musical, mestic Limits and the forces that impeded her prog- but Fanny and Felix were extraordi- New publications 5, 11 ress as a composer: her relationship narily gifted. They were both child with her father and brother, her respon- prodigies. sibilities as wife and mother, her often Hoping to shield their young debilitating sense of isolation, and her family from religious discrimination ambivalence about her creative talent. in a less than tolerant society, Abra- Born in Hamburg on November ham and Lea had the children bap- 14, 1805, Fanny Mendelssohn was the tized at Berlin's New Church in eldest of four children. Her father, 1816. While on a trip to Frankfurt six Abraham Mendelssohn (1776-1835), years later, the parents themselves son of Jewish philosopher Moses Men- quietly underwent conversion to Prot- delssohn, was a cultured and wealthy estantism. To ensure that his progeny banker who was passionately interested would not be confused with their Jew- in music. Her mother, Lea Salomon ish relatives, Abraham changed the Page 2 The Kapralova Society Journal Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel family name from Mendelssohn to Mendelssohn Bar- only thirteen, she played by memory twenty-four tholdy, but he was never entirely successful at mak- preludes from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier as a ing the new name stick.5 surprise for her father.14 Abraham Mendelssohn has been aptly de- Both for the enrichment of their children's scribed as “the very model of the German paterfamil- education as well as for their own pleasure, Abraham ias, his home an absolute monarchy."6 He valued and Lea Mendelssohn set out to make their home the education above all else, and demanded almost unat- intellectual centre of Berlin. Their visitor's book read tainable standards of excellence from his children--a- like a "Who's Who" of early nineteenth-century cul- cademically, musically and morally, Like most fa- tural and intellectual leaders: Leopold Ranke, the his- thers and husbands of his time, Abraham believed un- torian; Jacob Grimm, collector of fairy tales; writer, conditionally that the only vocation for a respectable composer and critic E. T. A. Hoffmann; the poets young woman was that of a housewife. However, he Ludwig Tieck, Rahel Varnhagen and Heinrich Heine; did not see this as a reason to neglect the education of the philosopher Hegel--and so the list continues. his daughters; in his opinion, women should be Musician friends of the family included such lumi- taught to combine knowledge with charm.7 It was es- naries as violinist Eduard Rietz, and composers Fer- pecially important to both Abraham and Lea that dinand Hiller, Carl Maria von Weber, Ludwig Spohr, Fanny's great musical talent be thoroughly devel- Gasparo Spontini and Zelter.15 oped.8 Sometime around 1822, Abraham and Lea be- Fanny and Felix received their first piano in- gan to hold bi-weekly Sunday concerts in their home, struction from their mother, who had studied music the purpose being to provide their children with an with Johann Philipp Kirnberger, a pupil of appreciative audience for their musical endeav- J. S. Bach.9 Lea taught them together in several ours. All four children participated in these musi- five-minute sessions per day, gradually extending the cales: Fanny and Felix played the piano; Rebecca length of the lessons as her students' ability to con- sang and Paul played the cello. For each recital Lea centrate increased. For several years she supervised issued personal invitations to local musicians and every moment of their piano practice. When the other prominent people.16 Since, for the first few Mendelssohns lived for a short time in Paris, Fanny years, space was limited in the Mendelssohn resi- and Felix, then eleven and seven respectively, contin- dence, the audiences were small. However, in 1825, ued their piano lessons with Madame Marie Bigot, an Abraham purchased an enormous estate at Leipziger acquaintance of Haydn and Beethoven.10 Strasse 3, on the outskirts of Berlin. This property, Upon returning to Berlin, Abraham engaged which in later years became the Upper Chamber of the finest available tutors to guide the education of the Prussian Parliament, included the family man- his children. Thus, Fanny and Felix studied piano sion, a smaller garden-house, and about seven acres with Ludwig Berger, a pupil of Muzio Clementi and of beautifully landscaped parks and gardens.17 This John Field. For theory and composition they worked became the new locale of the Sunday musicales, with Carl Friedrich Zelter, a respected friend of which, under Fanny’s direction in the 1830s and Goethe, and director of the Berlin Singakademie.11 1840s, were destined to assume a major role in the Their rigorous academic education was supervised by musical life of Berlin. philologist Ludwig Heyse, father of the poet Paul Even before the move to Leipziger Strasse 3, Heyse.12 Schooling was taken very seriously in the invitations to the Sunday musicales were much Mendelssohn household. The children's lessons be- sought after by visiting musicians. It was at one of gan at 5 AM; only on Sundays were they permitted to these concerts in 1824 that Fanny and Felix met pian- sleep late, that is, until 6 AM.13 Fanny was blessed ist Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870), the most important with a phenomenal musical memory. In 1818, when touring virtuoso of the time. On first hearing them Volume 5, Issue 2 Page 3 A Life of Music within Domestic Limits play, Moscheles recorded the following in his diary: set it.26 She did, however, continue to set other po- ems of Goethe to music; in fact, she set more of his This is a family, the like of which I have texts than those of any other poet.27 never known. Felix Mendelssohn is Fanny herself met Goethe in the autumn of already a mature artist, and he is still only 1822, when she and her parents accompanied Felix fifteen! . His elder sister Fanny, also on his second visit to the poet. Recounting the immensely talented, played some of events of this visit, Lea wrote: “[Goethe] Bach’s fugues and passacaglias by heart was . very friendly and condescending to Fanny; and with admirable precision. I believe she had to play a good deal of Bach to him, and he she can justifiably be called ‘a good mu- was extremely pleased with those of his songs which sician.’18 she had composed.”28 Thereafter, Goethe maintained a keen interest in both Felix and Fanny, and was kept Zelter, who began to teach Fanny and Felix in informed of their musical progress through Zel- 1819, exerted a profound influence on their musical ter. In one of his letters to Felix, Goethe referred to development. Following his method, they worked Fanny as "your equally gifted sister,"29 high praise first from models, later progressing to exercises in indeed from a man who once said that "the very best counterpoint and figured bass.19 From Zelter, Fanny thing that a woman ever did can only be compared to received a thorough grounding in harmony, counter- the second-rate performance of a man."30 point, and composition;20 in short, she was given Because of their common musical pursuits, much the same musical education as her brother. On Fanny and Felix became very close as children, and October 1, 1820, both Fanny and Felix joined the Ber- remained so throughout their entire lives. From the lin Singakademie, where they sang alto in the cho- moment they began to compose, each sought and rus.21 valued the other's criticisms; their letters bear wit- Fanny's first known composition was a song, ness to the fact that this practice continued into their written as a birthday gift for her father on December adulthood. When they were children, their mother 11, 1819.22 Many other songs followed in rapid suc- was once heard to say: "They are really vain and cession.