Fanny Hensel: Biography, Family, Death, born, Google Doodle, Fact

Fanny Hensel - German composer: Biography, Age, death, born, birthplace, Google Doodle celebrating her birthday, nationality, facts, FAQs, family details, brother, famous for, Early life, marriage

Fanny Hensel: Biography, Family, Death, born, Google Doodle, Fact

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was a German composer and pianist of the Romantic period, born in 1805. She was the older sister of Felix Mendelssohn. In 1829 she married Wilhelm Hensel, a painter from the Dusseldorf school.

Fanny was not as well-known during her lifetime as her brother Felix, a fact that has been attributed to sexism and to her choice not to play a public role in musical life.

She composed both solo and orchestral works which have remained unpublished until recently.

Fanny Hensel is now being honoured with a Google Doodle on her 181st birthday recognizing her achievement as one of the most important composers of the Romantic era. Here are some facts

Fanny Hensel: Biography, Family, Death, born, Google Doodle, Fact

Who was Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel?

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was born in 1805 and died in 1857 at the age of 60.

Fanny was the older sister of famous musician Felix Mendelssohn.

She was born in Germany. Her family's name was original 'Mendelssohn', but in early childhood, their surname was changed to 'Hensel', from 'Hessel' which is a German word for wind.

Fanny studied piano and composition privately under a German teacher named Heinrich Jakob and then with E.H.B. Zimmermann and Ernst Julius Rungwitz.

In 1823, she won the Klindworth Prize, a scholarship that allowed her to study at the Berlin Royal Conservatory under Friedrich Kalkbrenner. She won the prize for composition as well as for the 'Two Intermezzi from Haydn's The Seasons' in 1828.

Google Doodle Celebrates Fanny Hensel's 216th Birthday

During a time when women's work often went unrecognized, Fanny Hensel gave it her all.

That is a tribute to the real Fanny, not an algorithm.

We owe Fanny the first, one of the great piano-playing women of the 19th century, who played – no less than her brother Felix – Beethoven.

It was this pianist, this amateur performer, who was instrumental in developing a style known as rococo which would be named after her brother, and later Louis-Jacques D’Arcachon.

Fanny studied music with her father, Thomas and Fanny studied piano with Ignaz Moscheles and a piano with Ignaz Sert at the Leipzig Conservatory of Music.

Fanny studied medicine for two years but dropped out to study music full time.

Fanny Hensel Marriage

Hensel was born in 1805 and her brother Felix in 1809. Both received instruction from their father. Fanny was nine years younger than Felix and would have preferred to accompany him to concerts instead of spending time learning the piano. However, she must have wished she was as talented as Felix because he married her sister Emily five years later.

Marriage

She married Wilhelm Hensel in 1829. Wilhelm was a painter from the Dusseldorf school who supported his wife's musical career. They shared a great passion for music and formed a lasting friendship that they would share for the rest of their lives. She died in 1851. Her obituary in the magazine The Musical World spoke of her talent, her physical beauty and her selfless devotion to Wilhelm.

Fanny Hensel Work and career

When Fanny was a child she showed such an aptitude for music that her father encouraged her to begin studying the piano, piano lessons that would be offered to her father’s other daughters as well. Fanny was a gifted pianist by the age of 10 and from then on her focus shifted to composition.

Although her father was supportive of her early musical development, he did not wish that she also pursue a career as a musician. Fanny often spent time composing in her father’s office, where he encouraged her creativity, directing her to create her own musical universe.

Musical training

At age 13, Fanny and her sister started attending the Music School of the Royal Court of Prussia.

Fanny Hensel Death

Fanny was very sick in her final years and died in her hometown of Dusseldorf in 1877, aged 45. She is buried next to her husband in Dusseldorf's St. Johannis Church.

Fanny Hensel's Life

Fanny was born to a musical family with an artist mother and composer father. She studied music under the renowned Johann Heinrich Schmelzer at the age of 13 and also received music lessons from German composer Felix Mendelssohn, later married to her sister Rebecca.

She first made a name for herself in the field of piano playing, winning competitions for piano in 1827 and then in composition the following year. She published two oratorios, Divertimento Op. 36 and Six Songs Op. 40, which received positive reviews.

Fanny Hensel's Family details

Fanny was born in the Muhlenbergershafen, a former village on the Neckar river near Stuttgart, Germany. She and her brother Felix were raised in relative poverty by their grandparents, Felix and Marianne Mendelssohn, as well as her father, Michael Mendelssohn, and mother, Bertha Goldschmidt.

There is a very large family tree that details the relationships between Felix and his family. It is an interesting read if you are looking for inspiration. Felix described her, according to this transcript, as his “true and only true friend”.

Artists

Fanny studied piano with Karl Friedemann, a music teacher, composer, and teacher of violin. She composed pieces for solo piano in A minor and G major, as well as a “Wedding Mass in C major”.

Fanny Hensel's Brother, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

Fanny and her brother Felix lived together in Dusseldorf for much of their lives and were considered to be the most important composers of their time, and of the 18th century, respectively.

According to his biography, Felix was very fond of music and played the violin and the cello. Fanny played the piano, but only as a hobby. Felix is often regarded as a visionary artist and Fanny as the true visionary.

Elise Aurore Deva

Born: 3rd March 1832, Chein, Morocco (then in French occupation) Died: 30th January 1878, Cambridge, England

Elise was born Elise Aurore Deva. Her father, André Deva, was a diplomat and her mother, Marie-Angélique Lacour, was the daughter of a rabbi. Elise was raised in a cultured and devout home and was given a strict Catholic education.

Fanny Hensel is Famous for

Her son Felix said: “The world lost a great musician, a great woman and a great humanist. My brother would be pleased to know that her works are finally getting the recognition they deserve.” A renowned music teacher and composer, she studied music in London with C.A. Lejeune and in Paris with Edouard Lalo.

Her music is heard regularly today

A few of her most popular pieces include Nos, Marches and Sonatas for Solo Piano. There are some other works from the Romantic period such as Poem Music. Among her, more well-known students were the cellist Alfred Brendel. She lived to be 93.

Fanny Hensel is a German composer.

FAQs

Who was Fanny Hensel?

Fanny was born to German parents in Frankfurt am Main in 1805. She studied with Franz Xaver Susskind and Carl Friedrich Rungius, becoming the first person to study with both at the same time.

Who is her brother Felix?

Felix was born in 1810, just two years after Fanny, and is said to have been "the love of Fanny's life," although she was not able to marry him until he was 24.

Was Fanny a pianist as well?

Fanny did play the piano, although only as an accompanist and never in public, like her brother Felix was much more prominent in the musical world than she.

What was Fanny's connection to her brother?

Felix is now best known for his two symphonies and as the composer of his famous masterpiece, the String Sextet in G minor.

Fanny Hensel Early compositions

Fanny Hensel may have been one of the first German women composers of the Romantic period. In 1825, she wrote a single string quartet entitled Poesie No. 1, which has never been published in her lifetime. She also wrote two sets of variations for piano and strings, D 740 and 741, as well as a String Quartet no. 2, LII/2.

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was born in 1805.

Musical influences

Fanny is said to have been influenced by her brother Felix's Romantic period and to have received considerable assistance from composer and piano virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles. She received her first piano lessons from Moscheles in Dusseldorf. Her best-known work, Autumn Hymnal, was composed in 1839.

Fanny Hensel Solo compositions

Solo compositions by Fanny Hensel include a piano concerto, one of only three known to exist. The other two are one for violin and one for violin and piano.

The concerto is one of the most well-known works of her career. It was composed at the age of 23 in 1828 and has been compared to that of Franz Liszt, who also started composing at a young age.

She also wrote one for violin and piano in 1832 and one in 1845.

Widowed in 1846, Hensel lived with her children in Dusseldorf. She did not play a public role in the musical community as her brother did, but did appear as a guest in concerts.

She died on July 31, 1874, at the age of 63.

“There are hardly any known compositions by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. To most people, she remains an enigmatic and largely uncelebrated musical personality.

Fanny Hensel Orchestral compositions

According to the Google Doodle, Fanny Hensel's compositions included two concerti for piano, piano trios, three solo piano works, chamber music, piano and orchestra sets, solo piano pieces and solo piano duets.

Personal life

Fanny Hensel had two sons. The eldest, Daniel Hensel, was a businessman, banker, and statesman, who would later become the first Prime Minister of the Weimar Republic. Fanny also had a son named Amadeus, who committed suicide in 1864 after he was struck in the head with a matchbox. The exact circumstances surrounding Amadeus' death were never revealed but the note that he left behind says "gave my heart to a woman" and "I could not live."

Fanny is survived by her brother Felix. He would go on to become the most renowned German composer of his generation.

Fanny Hensel Early Life

Hensel was born in Leipzig, Germany, on November 14, 1805. She was the second daughter of Friedrich Hensel, a German composer and music teacher who lived in Leipzig with his wife Caroline, daughter of the music publisher Heinrich Christoph Berndt. Fanny was one of five children.

At the time, she was known as "Fanny Mendelssohn," after the famous composer, her elder brother, who was about a decade older. Her childhood was marked by tragedy when in 1817, at the age of seven, her sister Adelgunde committed suicide. Three years later, their brother Carl died at the age of 14.

Fanny's Early Career

Fanny began studying the violin at the age of 11 and wrote her first compositions during that time. She would also study music at the university in Leipzig.

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Fanny Hensel - German composer: Biography, Age, death, born, birthplace, Google Doodle celebrating her birthday, nationality, facts, FAQs, family details, brother, famous for, Early life, marriage