Schluss is the last Übungsstück (Exercise) in the book 14 Klavierstücke, written in 1823 by Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn).
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We're happy that you have arrived here for what has previously been a free sheet music download. Schluss by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Morgen! by Richard Strauss, and Canción by Manuel de Falla have been our most popular publications, with downloads by over 1,000 site visitors. Unfortunately, due to ever-increasing software, hardware and site-hosting costs we are no longer able to offer all our piano publications for free download. In order to improve our service and to widen our audience, you can now buy all the following pieces (including our three most popular pieces, listed above) in one, printed album, Songs without Words, Book 1, from Amazon at https://amzn.eu/d/cr9QtEQ
 
Also included in the album are:
 
         Agustín Barrios (Mangoré), Prelude in C minor
         ‡ Amy Beach, A Mirage 
                      [Advanced version in Db maj & Intermediate version in C maj]                 
         Manuel de Falla, Canción
         ‡ Louise Farrenc, Mélodie
         Gabriel Fauré, Fantaisie (à la Satie)
         Zdoněk Fibich, Poème
         ‡ Chiquinha Gonzaga, Valsa
         Edvard Grieg, Siri Dale-visen
         ‡ Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Schluss (Conclusion)
         ‡ Hélène de Montgeroult  Étude No. 26
         ‡ Dora Pejačević,  Song without words
         Gabriel Pierné, Variation on Romance sans Paroles
         Roger Quilter, Take, O take those lips away 
                 [Arrangement in Db maj & Easier version in C maj]         
         Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vocalise
         Robert Schumann, Chopin
         Richard Strauss, Morgen!
         
              ‡ Women composers
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Listen to Heather Schmidt’s 2010 Naxos recording (2m 15s) of Schluss here on Spotify (or here on YouTube).
 
Fanny Mendelssohn was born in 1805 into a wealthy Jewish/Christian family in Hamburg, Germany. She was a prodigiously gifted piano player as a child, composing early in her years. Her adult life was defined by the social and gender conventions of her time; her father appreciated that music may become her profession but urged her that it should only be an ornament, not the root of her being and her doing. As both a woman and musician, she nevertheless pursued her musical talent and battled contemporary prejudice: "It must be a sign of talent that I do not give up, though I can get nobody to take an interest in my efforts." She was acknowledged as a better pianist than her more famous (and four years younger) brother Félix Mendelssohn, but found herself in his shadow. 
 
Fanny met Wilhelm Hensel when she was 16 but waited until she was 24 years old, in 1829, to marry the impecunious artist. She continued to compose and her piano work, Das Jahr (The Year) is considered to be one of the great piano suites of the 19th century. Her first publication was in 1846, just a year before she died. 
 
Fanny composed 450 musical works (including over 250 lieder, plus piano études, sonatas and quartets, string quartets, choral works) but died young from a stroke in 1847, aged 41. Her brother died of similar apoplexies six months later, aged 38, as had both their mother, father and grandfather. Felix once described death as a place ‘where it is to be hoped there is still music, but no more sorrow or partings.’ The Nazis may have tried to erase the Mendelssohns from German history, but their music happily now lives on.
 
A longer biography is here at fannyhensel.de
 
Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn film documentary review [click for link] - a tale of two siblings. The salutary tale of a neglected composer, neatly told. The Guardian review of the above 2023 film.
 
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Cover painting: Die Gartenlaube by Robert Pötzelberger, depicting Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn.