Notes

Composer Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, sister to the well-known composer Felix Mendelssohn, was never encouraged to publish her work because she was a woman and it would lower her class in society. Despite this, as a highly skilled pianist and composer, she wrote over 400 works for the piano – the instrument that she had access to in her home. Her most famous piano piece, Das Jahr, (The Year) was written as she and her husband traveled on a yearlong journey. At the end of each month, on different colored pieces of paper, she wrote a musical reflection of their experience. Das Jahr is 13 movements, one movement for each month and a final postlude that reflects the end of her year.