3 Creating new editions

If you are investing time in researching and learning new repertoire by women composers, you might want to consider creating a new performance edition, which will make it easier for you to perform from. Once you have created your own new performance edition, you might also want to consider making it available to other performers too.

Activity 2

Watch the following interview with Tim Parker-Langston discussing his work raising the profile of the music of Fanny Hensel, creating new performance editions of her songs, and making these available to other performers via Hensel Songs Online.

Transcript (opens in new window)

Then consider the following questions:

  1. Why did Tim choose to focus on Fanny Hensel.
  2. How has Tim gone about this work?
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Discussion

  1. Tim describes himself as ‘shamedly’ discovering Fanny Hensel just before embarking on his PhD and reflects on the shock of this, given his training and professional experience as a singer. (You might have found that his comments resonated with your own experiences, which you reflected on at the start of Week 1.) He also shares that he chose to focus on Hensel because he found her music emotionally visceral, distinct from her contemporaries, and was particularly struck by how different it was to that of her brother’s (Felix Mendelssohn).
  2. Tim explains that he used the high-quality scans of Hensel’s manuscript songs which the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin had already made available online. He focused on producing practical performance editions which would be clear, easy to read, and user-friendly by removing the elements that a modern musician might find it difficult to read from. He then used Sibelius engraving software to create PDFs (including versions in different keys), which are hosted on Hensel Songs Online.

For another excellent online resource dedicated to Fanny Hensel, see Hensel Pushers.

OpenLearn - Women transforming classical music
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