| Variant title |
String quartet in E flat |
| Series |
New Cambridge music handbooks
New Cambridge music handbooks. UNAUTHORIZED
|
| Contents |
Introduction. Hensel and current research ; Genre, gender, and the question of choice -- Background. Hensel's musical upbringing ; Fanny, Felix, and a shared Mendelssohnian style? ; Intimate correspondences within the family circle ; Receiving Beethoven ; The 'Easter' sonata (1828) -- Genesis and private reception. The unfinished Piano Sonata in E flat (1829) ; The string quartet: motivations and sources ; Fraternal reception: the critical exchange of 1835 -- First movement: Adagio ma non troppo. The opening paradigm ; Formal outline ; 'Innere Nothwendigkeit' and 'schematic fantasies' ; Musical correspondences and meaning -- Second movement: Allegretto. Larger design, difficulties with sources, and the two versions ; Opening scherzo ; Trio ; Dissolving reprise -- Third movement: Romanza. Opening section ; Development ; Reprise -- Finale: Allegro molto vivace. Formal dynamism ; The central C minor episode and intermovement elements across the quartet ; Coming to a close -- Responding to the quartet. Aftermath ; A creative response: the Piano Trio in D minor, op. 11 (1847) ; Rediscovery and reception from the 1980s. |
| Abstract |
The String Quartet in E flat major (1834) by Fanny Hensel, née Mendelssohn, is one of the most important works by a female composer written in the nineteenth century. Composed at a turning point in her life (as Hensel was not only grappling with her own creative voice but also coming to terms with her identity as a married woman, and the role her family expected of her), the quartet is significant in showing a woman composing in a genre that was then almost exclusively the domain of male artists. Benedict Taylor's illuminating book situates itself within developing scholarly discourse on the music of women composers, going beyond apologetics -- or condemnation of those who hindered their development -- to examine the strength and qualities of the music and how it responded to the most progressive works of the period--back cover. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 116-118) and index. |
| ISBN | 131651384X (hardback) |
| ISBN | 9781316513842 (hardback) |
| ISBN | 9781009074896 (paperback) |
| ISBN | 100907489X (paperback) |
