about HenselPushers
HenselPushers exists to share and celebrate the work of Fanny Hensel. By making her compositions more accessible, we invite musicians to explore and engage with her work.
HenselPushers PDF Project
HenselPushers’ primary project since its initiation in June 2020 has been providing free PDF engravings of Hensel’s compositions which are otherwise only available as expensive print editions or hard-to-read scans of the original manuscripts. In its first year, HenselPushers more than doubled the number of Hensel’s solo piano works whose scores were freely available online in PDF format (from 22 to 45). In February 2024, we achieved another milestone: all of Hensel’s instrumental and chamber works are now available online. As of August 2024, all of Hensel’s completed solo piano compositions are now online for free thanks to HenselPushers efforts.
All PDF scores of Fanny Hensel’s original compositions will be free in perpetuity for anyone to use for study or performance.
The Fanny Hensel PDF Project by HenselPushers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Arrangements
To broaden the range of instruments, ages, and skill levels of musicians able to engage with Fanny Hensel’s music, HenselPushers publishes arrangements of her works available as books or PDF downloads.
Easy piano: Das Jahr Easy Piano Music & Lesson Books or eBooks—simplified and shortened cycle with teaching and study materials.
Piano duet: Das Jahr Four-Hands Piano—full-length arrangement of the 1842 illustrated version.
Horn: Four Songs for Horn and Piano and Three Horn Duets.
More arrangements are in the works. Check back regularly or sign up for email updates.
Sheet Music and Recording Directories
HenselPushers hosts directories of all of Hensel’s compositions, with links to free downloadable scores available online and print editions available for purchase from high-quality editors and publishers. These directories are organized by instrumentation:
Lieder (songs for one voice and piano)
Chamber music/Instrumental works (multiple instruments not including voice, or solo instruments other than piano)
Part songs/Choral works/Stage works (multiple voices, or solo voice with instrumental ensembles)
HenselPushers is in the process of assembling a directory of recordings of Fanny Hensel’s compositions. Recordings of roughly two thirds of Hensel’s 460+ works have been found. You are invited to help find recordings for missing works—or record and submit your own premieres.
Custom Editions
I'm currently accepting commissions for custom Hensel editions. Some of the custom projects I've been commissioned for include:
Critical editions: detailed manuscript analysis/comparisons and biographical context for specific works,
Custom arrangements: transcriptions for instrumental soloists or ensembles,
Easy piano editions: arrangements for specific levels to accommodate learners,
Preview editions: early access to single works before a whole collection is published.
Please get in touch if you are looking for any of these.
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Visit the HenselPushers YouTube channel for MIDI visualizations of scores
about Fanny Hensel
Fanny Hensel geb./neé Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1805-1847) composed over 450 musical works in her lifetime. In the last year of her life, she began to publish her compositions in her own name, after publishing some of her childhood compositions in the collections of her brother, Felix Mendelssohn.
But most of her compositions remained unpublished until the late 20th century.
This site refers to Hensel’s works by H number—based on a catalogue of Hensel’s compositions compiled by Renate Hellwig-Unruh.
Biographies
Most biographical information shared on this site is from the biography Fanny Hensel: The Other Mendelssohn by R. Larry Todd.
The first major biography of Fanny Hensel was Françoise Tillard’s Fanny Mendelssohn, originally published in French in 1992.
Documentary
Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn (2023) is an excellent documentary about Fanny Hensel’s life by BAFTA-winning filmmaker Sheila Hayman, who is also Fanny’s great great great granddaughter.
19th-century sources
An edition of Hensel’s diaries (in German) is available from Breitkopf & Härtel: Fanny Hensel Tagebücher.
A translation of many of Hensel’s letters to her brother Felix are published in Marcia Citron’s The Letters of Fanny Hensel to Felix Mendelssohn.
Hensel’s son Sebastian wrote a history covering over 100 years of the Mendelssohn family; this book includes excerpts of many family letters: The Mendelssohn Family (1729-1847)
Websites
Visit Hensel Songs Online for a complete edition of Hensel’s lieder. Consider donating to support this incredible (& self-funded) initiative by Tim Parker-Langston.
Publisher Furore, who have been publishing Hensel’s works for decades, have a site with lots of Hensel resources.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the correct name to use for this composer? Hensel? Mendelssohn? Mendelssohn-Hensel?
A: I am not the authority on what she should be called, but I will try to offer some insight. She was born with the name “Fanny Mendelssohn”. When the family converted from Judaism to Protestantism, they added the name “Bartholdy” and she became “Fanny Mendelssohn-Bartholdy” (this is sometimes referred to as her birth name even though “Bartholdy” was added later). Later she married Wilhelm Hensel and became “Fanny Hensel”.
In popular use, you will see “Fanny Mendelssohn”, “Fanny Hensel”, “Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel”, “Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn”, and occasionally “Fanny Mendelssohn-Bartholdy”; there is little consensus. In academic literature, especially in recent writing, “Hensel” seems to be the most commonly used.
This site favors “Hensel” because that is the name Fanny used in her daily life and on her compositions when she published. Occasionally I use “Mendelssohn Hensel”, typically on introductory pages where recognition of the Mendelssohn name would be useful, and on scores that Hensel wrote before she was married. I recognize that I am not consistent on this site! I’m not too worried about it. Over the years of running this site, I have shifted more toward exclusively “Hensel” as Fanny has become more widely recognized.
Q: Am I allowed to play/print/share/perform/record the scores on this site?
A: There are two different types of scores on this site: (1) free editions of Hensel’s original works, and (2) arrangements of Hensel’s works that you can purchase in the store.
Free scores: These include any scores you can access for free on this site; all of the free scores say “share this music” in the footer. You are free to print and copy these scores. You can also record or perform from them, including for profit. The only things you can’t do with the free scores: (1) sell them/their derivatives, (2) remove the attribution to Henselpushers. More details here.
Paid arrangements: This applies to any scores you purchase on this site; these arrangements will all have the copyright symbol (©) somewhere on the score. What you are allowed to do may differ slightly between different editions, and will be stated on the product page and/or in the score itself. Typically, you are allowed to record or perform from these scores (including for profit), but there are restrictions on sharing/copying the score, and a limit to the number of copies you are allowed to print.
Q: Why not just put these scores on IMSLP?
A: The major and most popular scores are cross-posted to IMSLP, where they can reach the widest audience. I prefer to have most of the scores on this site because of how easy it is for me to receive user comments, make edits, and reupload.
On each composition page, (pages with “h-numbers/h[###]” in the URL), there is a field where users can comment to bring typos or other errors/problems to my attention. I will get notified of any comments and can usually address the issue and, if necessary, upload a revised version of the score within a day or two.