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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2011
We are accustomed to seeking the ‘music itself’ in the musical text. The actual and spiritual spaces that are inscribed in music, and the people connected to these sites, are thereby in danger of being left out of consideration. In my view, place and people are part of the music. It is thus against a background of an understanding of music that does not only mean the opuses in the sense of the written musical texts, but also implies all aspects of life connected with the production, reproduction and reception of music, that I offer this enquiry into the meaning of the Leipziger Straβe Drei for the artistic works emanating from Fanny Hensel.
1 Hensel, Sebastian, The Mendelssohn Family, from Letters and Journals, trans. Klingemann, Carl (London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1881): I, 121.Google Scholar
2 See also Borchard, Beatrix, ‘“Mein Singen ist ein Rufen nur aus Träumen”: Berlin Leipziger Str. 3’, in Fanny Hensel, geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Das Werk, ed. Helmig, Martina (Munich: edition text + kritik, 1997): 9–22Google Scholar , in which the private musical life of Berlin is discussed. Leipziger Straβe Drei is commonly subsumed under the term ‘Salon’ without differentiating any further: see especially Wilhelmy, Petra, Der Berliner Salon im 19. Jahrhundert (1780–1914) (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1989): 140–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar . For a critical discussion of the conventional idea of a salon see the various publications by Barbara Hahn, esp. ‘The Myth of the Salon’, in Hahn, Barbara, The Jewess Pallas Athena. This Too a Theory of Modernity, trans. McFarland, James (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005): 42–55Google Scholar.
3 See Gradenwitz, Peter, Literatur und Musik in geselligem Kreise (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1991)Google Scholar , esp. the chapter ‘Musik im Salon und Salonmusik’: 175–267. Thus the significance of the Mendelssohns’ home in the Leipziger Straβe Drei for Berlin’s musical life has tended to be subsumed under the category of salon, as was seen in an exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York on the subject of ‘Jewish Women and their Salons’: see Bilski, Emily D. and Braun, Emily, ‘The Music Salon’, in Jewish Women and their Salons: The Power of Conversation (New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2005): 38–49Google Scholar.
4 See Bartsch, Cornelia, ‘Musikalische Geselligkeitsformen im Hause Mendelssohn’, in Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Musik als Correspondenz (Kassel: Furore, 2007)Google Scholar ; Hellwig-Unruh, Renate, ‘… so bin ich mit meiner Musik ziehmlich allein. Die Komponistin und Musikerin Fanny Hensel, geb. Mendelssohn’, in Stadtbild und Frauenleben: Berlin im Spiegel von 16 Frauenportraits, ed. Henrike Hülsbergen (Berlin: Stapp, 1997)Google Scholar , Berlinische Lebensbilder 9: 245–61; and Annette Maurer: ‘… ein Verdienst um die Kunstzustände unserer Vaterstadt – Hensels, Fanny “Sonntagsmusiken”’, in Viva voce, 42 (May 1997): 11–13Google Scholar.
5 Printed in translation in Tillard, Françoise, Fanny Mendelssohn, trans. Naish, Camille (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1996): 199–201Google Scholar . Fanny Hensel probably drew up this ‘Proposal to establish an instrumental music-lovers’ association’ for her friend Eduard Rietz, who in 1826 founded a Philharmonische Gesellschaft (Philharmonic Society) consisting of amateur musiciansGoogle ScholarPubMed.
6 See Klein, Hans-Günter, Das verborgene Band: Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy und seine Schwester Fanny Hensel (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 1997): 189–90Google Scholar ; and Bartsch, Musik als Korrespondenz.
7 Hensel, Fanny, Tagebücher, ed. Klein, Hans-Günter and Elvers, Rudolf (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 2002)Google Scholar . For details of her programmes see Klein, Hans-Günter ‘… mit obligater Nachtigallen- und Fliederbütenbegleitung’. Fanny Hensels Sonntagsmusiken (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2005)Google Scholar ; and Bartsch, Musik als Korrespondenz.
8 Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and Gluck’s Iphigenia in Aulis were announced for Sunday musicales and probably performed. Two other operas by Gluck (Iphigenia in Tauris and Orpheus) were performed by Fanny Hensel, but on other days. See Klein, ‘… mit obligater Nachtigallen- und Fliederbütenbegleitung’ and Bartsch, Musik als Korrespondenz.
9 Bartsch, ‘Musikalische Geselligkeitsformen im Hause Mendelssohn’, in Musik als Korrespondenz.
10 Ludwig Rellstab, ‘Nachruf auf Fanny Hensel’, Vossische Zeitung (18 May 1847), reprinted in Helmig, , Fanny Hensel: 162–3Google Scholar.
11 Devrient, Eduard, Meine Erinnerungen an Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy und seine Briefe an mich (Leipzig: Weber, 1872)Google Scholar : passim; see also the detailed description of the whole estate in Michael Cullen, ‘Leipziger Straβe Drei – Eine Baubiographie’, Mendelssohn Studien, 5 (Berlin, 1982): 9–77Google Scholar ; and Lowenthal-Hensel, Cécile, ‘Neues zur Leipziger Straβe Drei’, Mendelssohn Studien, 7 (Berlin, 1990): 141–51Google Scholar.
12 The youngest brother Paul also played music, but there is no evidence of his room serving as performance space.
13 Hensel, , The Mendelssohn Family: I, 122.Google Scholar
14 For further discussion of these see Bartsch, Cornelia, ‘Music as Correspondence’, on pp. 125–38 of this issueGoogle Scholar.
15 Letter of 1 Aug. 1839 in Klingemann, Karl, ed., Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdys Briefwechsel mit Legationsrat Karl Klingemann in London (Essen: Baedeker, 1909): 241Google Scholar . For Klingemann and his relevance for social entertainment in the garden see Cornelia Bartsch, ‘Music as Correspondence’, below.
16 See Konold, Wulf, Felix Mendelssohn und seine Zeit (Laaber: Laaber, 1984): 268–9.Google Scholar
17 With reference to the expressions Umgangsmusik and Vorführmusik see Kaden, Christian, Musiksoziologie (Berlin: Verlag Neue Musik, 1984)Google Scholar.
18 See Cornelia Bartsch, ‘Music as Correspondence’, below.
19 See Borchard, Beatrix, ‘Traditions- und Kanonbildung: Quartettsoireen’, in Stimme und Geige: Amalie und Joseph Joachim. Biographie und Interpretationsgeschichte (Vienna: Böhlau, 2005)Google Scholar , Wiener Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte 5: 521–52; and Bauer, Elisabeth Eleonore, Wie Beethoven auf den Sockel kam. Die Entstehung eines musikalischen Mythos (Stuttgart and Weimar: Metzler, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
20 See Bauer, Beethoven. The Mendelssohn family's involvement with Bach's music is also well-documented. Lea's mother, Bella Salomon, was probably a student of Kirnberger. Sara Levy (1761–1854), great-aunt of Fanny and Felix, was one of the most important patrons of C.P.E. Bach; she collected musical sources of numerous members of the Bach family and studied with Wilhelm Friedemann Bach. She herself was an outstanding keyboard player. See Wollny, Peter, ‘Sara Levy and the Making of Musical Taste in Berlin’, Musical Quarterly 77/4 (1993): 651–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar and ‘Ein förmlicher Sebastian und Philipp Emanuel Bach-Kultus: Sara Levy, geb. Itzig und ihr musikalisch–literarischer Salon’, in Musik und Asthetik im Berlin Moses Mendelssohns, ed. Gerhard, Anselm (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar , Wolfenbütteler Studien zur Aufklärung (Lessing-Akademie) 25: 217–55Google Scholar ; and, further, his ‘Abschriften und Autographe, Sammler und Kopisten’, in Bach und die Nachwelt, ed. Heinemann, Michael and Hinrichsen, Hans-Joachim, vol. 1: 1750–1850 (Laaber: Laaber, 1997): 27–62, esp. 54Google Scholar.
21 The correspondence was initially published in 1833–34. For the ambivalent meaning of baptism see Julius H. Schoeps, ‘Christliches Bekenntnis oder modernes Marranentum? Der Übergang vom Judentum zum Christentum: Das Beispiel Abraham und Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’, in Fanny Hensel geb. Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Komponieren zwischen Geselligkeitsideal und romantischer Musikästhetik, ed. Borchard, Beatrix and Schwarz-Danuser, Monika, 2nd edn (Kassel: Furore, 2002): 265–79Google Scholar.
22 Theories of music's social and aesthetic function were elaborated by Rahel Levin Varnhagen and by Moses Mendelssohn. See Barbara Hahn, ‘Häuser für die Musik. Akkulturation in Ton und Text um 1800’, in Borchard and Schwarz-Danuser, eds, Fanny Hensel: 3–26; and Carsten Zelle, ‘Verwöhnter Geschmack, schauervolles Ergötzen und theatralische Sittlichkeit. Zum Verhältnis von Ethik und Ästhetik in Moses Mendelssohns ästhetischen Schriften’, in Gerhard, Musik und Ästhetik im Berlin Moses Mendelssohns: 97– 115; also Laurenz Lütteken, ‘Zwischen Ohr und Verstand: Moses Mendelssohn, Johann Philipp Kirnberger und die Begründung des “reinen Satzes” in der Musik’, in Gerhard, Musik und Ästhetik: 135–63.
23 Discussed by Beatrix Borchard, on pp. 123–4 of this issue.
24 D-B1, MA Ms. 63, 1 and 2.
25 Gartenzeitung of 13 Sep. 1826: D-B1 MA Ms. 63, 1, fol. 27v.
26 Supplement to Gartenzeitung No. 2 of Friday, 1 Sep. 1826, D-B1, MA Ms 63, fols.10v–11r.
27 Examples of glosses exist in German Romantic poetry; one of the best known is probably Ludwig Tieck's Mondbeglänzte Zaubernacht. It is obvious from a dramatic scene described by Lessing in the Hamburgischen Dramaturgie that glossing was a highly suitable means of conveying secret messages. See Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, Sämtliche Schriften, ed. Lachmann, Karl, vol. 10 (Stuttgart: Göschen, 1894): 50–51Google Scholar.
28 Schnee-und Theezeitung D-B1 MA Ms. 63, 2, fol. 1r. Karl Klingemann was a friend of the family who lived in the front part of Leipziger Strasse 3 until summer 1827. He initiated the Gartenzeitung in 1826.
29 See August Langen, ‘Zur Liedparodie im deutschen Roman des 18. Jahrhunderts’, in Festschrift für Walter Wiora zum 30. Dezember 1966, ed. Finscher, Ludwig and Mahling, Christoph-Hellmut (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1967): 362–74Google Scholar ; and Müller, Ruth E., Erzählte Töne: Studien zur Musikästhetik im späten 18. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1989)Google Scholar.
30 The first song is dated ‘25th May, [18]29’, but the entry in Fanny Hensel's diary for 10 April 1829 suggests that she ‘composed’, although did not write down, the first song in the cycle on the evening of the day her brother left for England. ‘Droysen brought me a very charming poem about Felix which put me into a very pleasant mood, so that the tune occurred to me straight away’ ( Hensel, Fanny, Tagebücher: 14)Google Scholar . Regarding the suspicion that this is a reference to the idea on which the first song in the cycle is based, see Fanny Hensel, Tagebücher: 287.
31 Lieder von Fanny für Felix 1829, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ms MDM c.22, 8, fols 22–5. Fanny Hensel used the title Liederkreis. An Felix während seiner ersten Abwesenheit in England in the fair copy of the cycle which she included in the retrospective of her songs for her husband on their first wedding anniversary. D-B1, MA Ms. 128, pp. 44–51. The music examples follow this latter version, which differs slightly from the earlier. The Liederkreis has been published as Fanny Hensel, Liederkreis an Felix (Kassel: Furore, 2005)Google Scholar.
32 The text of Felix Mendelssohn's song ‘Frage’ begins with the words: ‘Is it true? – That you constantly wait for me at the trellis on the vine-clad wall?’
33 Letter dated 4–10 Jun. 1829, quoted from Citron, Marcia, The Letters of Fanny Hensel to Felix Mendelssohn, Collected, Edited and Translated with Introductory Essays and Notes (Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon, 1987): 50Google Scholar ; German original on p. 403.
34 For the permutations of the motif, see Ex. 7.
35 Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, letter to his brother Paul, 3 Jul. 1829, US-Nyp MFL, No. 70: ‘Last night I played for myself the close of the 2nd with the Vöglein in der Linden very quietly, and then did crazy things in my room, banged upon the table and may also have cried a lot. But then I played it on and on for quarter of an hour and now I know it very well. But as soon as I go to the piano and play it again, a shudder gets into me again, because I have never heard anything like it. It is the very innermost soul of music. And if I start to play the ending, I have to sing them all, for none is weaker. I can stop nowhere. At the end I sing the first once again, in which the words are spoken …’
36 See Uhde, Jürgen, Beethovens Klaviermusik, vol. 3, Sonaten 16–32 (Stuttgart: Reclam, 1974): 270–99, esp. 272–5.Google Scholar
37 Cf. my essay ‘Lebewohl – Fanny Hensels Auseinandersetzung mit Beethovens späten Werken’, in Der “männliche” und der “weibliche” Beethoven. Bericht über den Internationalen musikwissenschaftlichen Kongress vom 31. Oktober bis 4. November 2001 an der Universität der Künste Berlin, ed. Bartsch, Cornelia, Borchard, Beatrix and Cadenbach, Rainer (Bonn: Verlag Beethoven-Haus Bonn, 2003)Google Scholar , Schriften zur Beethoven-Forschung 18: 295–330. Victoria Sirota has already suggested that Fanny Hensel alludes to Beethoven's An die ferne Geliebte in her song-cycle: see Sirota, Victoria Ressmeyer, ‘The Life and Works of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’, DMA diss. (Boston, 1981)Google Scholar.
38 Wilhelm Hensel is also included in the ‘game’. Fanny Hensel uses her ‘Lebewohl’ motif in the song she composed on the poem her fiancé sent her with the official wedding notice (Schlafe, schlaf; D-B1, MA Depos. Lohs 2, p. 35, published in Fanny Hensel, geb. Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Namen. Ausgewählte Lieder für Singstimme und Klavier, ed. Bartsch, Cornelia and Heymann-Wentzel, Cordula, 2 vols (Kassel: Furore, 2003): II, 16f.) As she changes the harmonic context of the original farewell motif its meaning is completely reversed; it could almost be said to become a ‘welcome’ motifGoogle Scholar.
39 Ibid.: II, 20–2.
40 D-B1, MA Depos. Lohs 2, pp. 39f.
41 D-B1, MA Ms. 128. ‘Genesungsfeier’ is on pp. 52–4.
42 The text of the middle section is ‘Hörst Du nicht auf meine Lieder, möcht ich in den Frühlingschören fragend bald die Deinen hören; alle Vögel warten drauf’ (‘If you don’t listen to my songs, I wish to ask for and hear yours in the choirs of spring; all birds are waiting for them’).
43 Felix Mendelssohn, letter of 14 Jun. 1830 to Hensel, Fanny, in Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Eine Reise durch Deutschland, Italien und die Schweiz. Briefe, Tagebuchblätter, Skizzen, ed. Sutermeister, Peter (Tübingen: Heliopolis, 1979): 29Google Scholar.
44 Ibid.
45 A facsimile of the song is printed in Ibid., between pp. 24 and 25.
46 Rainer Cadenbach pointed out the possibility of the ‘play on the name’.
47 D-B1, MA Ms. 143. The first page is printed in facsimile with commentary in Klein, Das verborgene Band: 203–4.
48 ‘People usually complain that music has so many meanings, it is so unclear what to think of it, whereas everybody understands words. I find the opposite to be true. Not just with whole speeches, but individual words as well, they too seem to me so full of meanings, so indefinite, so easy to misunderstand in comparison with proper music that fills one's soul with a thousand better things than words. What the music I love says to me are thoughts not too indefinite to be put into words, they are too definite.’ Letter to Marc-André Souchay, 15 Oct. 1842, in Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Briefe aus den Jahren 1830–1847, ed. Paul, and Bartholdy, Carl Mendelssohn, vol. 2 (Leipzig: H. Mendelssohn, 1863): 337–8Google Scholar.
49 D-B1, MA Ms. 43. There are two editions of the quartet, by Renate Eggebrecht Kupsa (Kassel: Furore, 1987)Google Scholar and Günter Marx (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1987)Google Scholar , respectively. For a review of the latter see Huber, Annegret, ‘Zerschlagen, zerflieβen oder erzeugen? Fanny Hensel und Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy im Streit um musikalische Formkonzepte nach “Beethovens letzter Zeit”’, in Maβstab Beethoven? Komponistinnen im Schatten des Geniekults, ed. Brand, Bettina and Helmig, Martina (Munich: edition text + kritik, 2001): 120–44Google Scholar.
50 Huber, ‘Zerschlagen, zerflieβen oder erzeugen?’
