Wikman, Solveig - Mendelssohn-Hensel, Fanny - Das Jahr
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The piano cycle ”Das Jahr” (The Year) was completed
in December 1841. At the age of thirty-six, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel succeeded in
producing a major piano composition, which dramatically
expanded the scope of the small-scale piano pieces she had hitherto
composed.
In the spring of 1840 Fanny wrote to her sister Rebecka: ”I have
composed a lot recently and I have named the short piano pieces
after my favourite places. Some of the pieces came into my mind
whilst I was in the places themselves, others were composed whilst
reflecting memories of wonderful excursions. Henceforth the cycle
will be a pleasant souvenir, a kind of second diary.” The composer
left out all allusions to her favourite places in the manuscript and
these Italy-inspired piano pieces got their names from the twelve
months instead. But if one compares them to the corresponding
months spent in Italy, there are often similarities in atmosphere
between her feelings expressed musically and those described in
her diary.
The idea of representing the year in a cycle of twelve pieces was
original and presumably unique in the literature for the piano.
After Fanny’s sudden death, following a stroke in May 1847, these
pieces were forgotten. Nearly 150 years of neglect came to an end
in 1989 with the publication of the composition in a Furore Edition.