Fanny Mendelssohn (1805 – 1847), later Fanny
[Cäcilie] Mendelssohn Bartholdy and, after her
marriage, Fanny Hensel, was a German composer and
pianist. She composed over 460 pieces of music. Her
compositions include a piano trio and several books of
solo piano pieces and songs. A number of her songs were
originally published under her brother, Felix
Mendelssohn's, name in his opus 8 and 9 collections.
Her piano works are often in the manner of songs, and
many carry the name Lieder für das Pia...(+)
Fanny Mendelssohn (1805 – 1847), later Fanny
[Cäcilie] Mendelssohn Bartholdy and, after her
marriage, Fanny Hensel, was a German composer and
pianist. She composed over 460 pieces of music. Her
compositions include a piano trio and several books of
solo piano pieces and songs. A number of her songs were
originally published under her brother, Felix
Mendelssohn's, name in his opus 8 and 9 collections.
Her piano works are often in the manner of songs, and
many carry the name Lieder für das Pianoforte (Songs
for the piano, a parallel to Felix's Songs without
Words). In Hamburg, the Fanny & Felix Mendelssohn
Museum is dedicated to the lives and the work of Fanny
and her brother Felix.
Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, the oldest of four
children, including the composer Felix Mendelssohn. She
was descended on both sides from distinguished Jewish
families; her parents were Abraham Mendelssohn (who was
the son of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and later
changed the family surname to Mendelssohn Bartholdy),
and Lea, née Salomon, a granddaughter of the
entrepreneur Daniel Itzig. Her uncle was the banker
Joseph Mendelssohn. She was not brought up as Jewish,
and never practised Judaism, though it has been
suggested that she "retained the cultural values of
liberal Judaism".
She received her first piano instruction from her
mother, who had been trained in the Berliner-Bach
tradition by Johann Kirnberger, who was himself a
student of Johann Sebastian Bach. Thus as a 13 year
old, Fanny could already play all 24 Preludes from
Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier by heart, and she did
so in honor of her father's birthday in 1818. She
studied briefly with the pianist Marie Bigot in Paris,
and finally with Ludwig Berger. In 1820 Fanny, along
with her brother Felix, joined the Sing-Akademie zu
Berlin which was led by Carl Friedrich Zelter. Zelter
at one point favored Fanny over Felix: he wrote to
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1816, in a letter
introducing Abraham Mendelssohn to the poet, 'He has
adorable children and his oldest daughter could give
you something of Sebastian Bach. This child is really
something special'. Much later, in an 1831 letter to
Goethe, Zelter described Fanny's skill as a pianist
with the highest praise for a woman at the time: "She
plays like a man." Both Fanny and Felix received
instruction in composition with Zelter starting in
1819.
Fanny showed prodigious musical ability as a child and
began to write music. Visitors to the Mendelssohn
household in the early 1820s, including Ignaz Moscheles
and Sir George Smart, were equally impressed by both
siblings. She may also have been influenced by the
role-models of her great-aunts Fanny von Arnstein and
Sarah Levy, both lovers of music, the former the
patroness of a well-known salon and the latter a
skilled keyboard player in her own right.
However, Fanny was limited by prevailing attitudes of
the time toward women, attitudes apparently shared by
her father, who was tolerant, rather than supportive,
of her activities as a composer. Her father wrote to
her in 1820 "Music will perhaps become his [i.e.
Felix's] profession, while for you it can and must be
only an ornament". Although Felix was privately broadly
supportive of her as a composer and a performer, he was
cautious (professedly for family reasons) of her
publishing her works under her own name. He wrote:
"From my knowledge of Fanny I should say that she has
neither inclination nor vocation for authorship. She is
too much all that a woman ought to be for this. She
regulates her house, and neither thinks of the public
nor of the musical world, nor even of music at all,
until her first duties are fulfilled. Publishing would
only disturb her in these, and I cannot say that I
approve of it."
Fanny Mendelssohn composed over 460 pieces of music.
Her compositions include a piano trio and several books
of solo piano pieces and songs. A number of her songs
were originally published under Felix's name in his
opus 8 and 9 collections. Her piano works are often in
the manner of songs, and many carry the name Lied ohne
Worte (Song without Words). This style (and title) of
piano music was most successfully developed by Felix
Mendelssohn, though some modern scholars assert that
Fanny may have preceded him in the genre.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Mendelssohn).
Although this piece was originally written for Soprano
& Piano, I created this Arrangement of "Italien" (Op. 9
No. 3) for Viola & Classical Guitar.
SHEET MUSIC