Great Composers Note Reading Worksheet

Here is one of the great women composers note reading worksheet! Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel is one of the great composers of the 19th century. Her brother, Felix, was very famous in his lifetime. (Not all composers were famous while they were living.) Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was not recognized as a composer, because she was a woman. But today, we recognize her as one of the great composers. In that time publishing companies did not publish music by women. But, they did publish a few of her pieces, but under her brother’s name! It was not until after she died that they published some of her compositions under her name. Aren’t you glad that women composers get published under their own name today?

Musical biography

Fanny Mendelssohn’s mother was her first teacher. The Mendelssohn’s mom taught both Felix and Fanny to play the piano. Fanny and Felix began to composer their own music, but Fanny’s father didn’t think it was proper for a women to be a published composer. He thought that Fanny should marry, stay home, have children and only dabble in music.

But her father did organize weekly home concerts at which Fanny and Felix performed. After her father’s death, Fanny continued these weekly home concerts. In 1829 Fanny married Wilhem Hensel, a painter. Welhem thought differently than Fanny’s father and Wilhem encouraged Fanny to compose. Thankfully this means we have the written compositions of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. Wilhelm and Fanny had one son, Sebastian.

Brother and Sister Composers

Fanny Mendelssohn and her younger brother Felix were best friends. Their influence on each other is heard in how similar their style in their compositions. As you will hear in the Overture below. Some of her works were published under her brother’s name. The story is told that Queen Victoria was complementing Felix on his composition, “Italien” and he had to inform her that it was really composed by his sister Fanny. Correspondence between the two siblings shows that they critiqued each other’s work and that the the other’s opinions and thoughts were welcomed and valued. Listen to the Overture below to hear some of Fanny’s orchestral work and see if you hear similarities to Felix’s works.

There are not very many resources on the life of Fanny Mendelssohn. I could not find any children’s books or composer CDs that told Fanny Mendelssohn’s story. But, Classics for kids does have an episode on women composers that includes Fanny. There are several biographies available, but are for adults not children.

Compositions

Fanny wrote over 460 works. Most of her compositions are for piano, or piano and voice, but she does have some chamber music for strings and

In 1847 Fanny died from a stroke at the young age of 41. She had the stroke while rehearsing one of Felix’s compositions, Felix completed a string quartet just after her death and referred to it as, “A requiem for Fanny.” Felix died just 6 months later after a series of strokes. Both Felix and Fanny are buried in Berlin next to each other. You hear a younger brother’s sadness and grief after loosing his older sister. Several scholars say that this work is different from Felix’s other works. Typically upbeat and positive sounding even, this work is different. What a profound effect this sister had on her brother.