Eight Songs

During the year 1823, Hensel’s single most pro-ductive year for song writing, she composed a total of eight, or perhaps nine, of Wilhelm Müller’s poems, beginning on the 10th of January with settings from Die schöne Müllerin (Im Winter zu lesen).3 Her three Die schöne Müllerin Lieder were written several months before Franz Schubert’s famous cycle. Fanny Hensel met Wilhelm Müller personally during July 1823 when he visited Berlin.

Fanny Hensel was only 18 when she wrote her Wilhelm Müller settings. At first glance, these early songs seem simple, strophic, and not particularly vo-cally challenging. A closer examination of the compo-sitions, however, leads to the discovery of more so-phistication than may be assumed at first glance.