String Quartet in E-flat Major, H 277

• Hensel composed her one mature string quartet between August 26-October 23, 1834. It received one performance in her home. 
• This piece is one of the first surviving string quartets composed by a woman. 
• Felix Mendelssohn criticized this piece for failing to adhere to his concept of sonata form (rather, it takes a more fantasia-like approach to sonata form). After receiving this criticism, Hensel never wrote another string quartet; however, she did not change her existing quartet to her brother’s specifications, either.¹
  • In a letter to Felix dated Feb. 17, 1835, Fanny Hensel responds to his criticism of the quartet, but still asks him it he’ll arrange to have it performed. She also offers a critique of one of Felix’s compositions in the same letter.²

“I’ve reflected how I, actually not an eccentric or overly sentimental person, came to write pieces in a tender style. I believe it derives from the fact that we were young during Beethoven’s last years and absorbed his style to a considerable degree.” 

Fanny Hensel, on the style of her String Quartet, letter to Felix Mendelssohn, Feb. 17, 1835³

1. Angela Mace Christian, “Hensel [née Mendelssohn (-Bartholdy)], Fanny Cäcilie,” Grove Music Online (November 28, 2018), accessed June 3, 2021, https://ww.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-3000000159.
2. Marcia J. Citron, ed., The Letters of Fanny Hensel to Felix Mendelssohn (UK: Pendragon Press, 1987), 173.
3. Ibid., 174.