{"id":8553,"date":"2026-07-13T08:00:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T06:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/?p=8553"},"modified":"2026-07-10T11:24:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T09:24:50","slug":"culminating-a-great-female-composers-career-emilie-mayers-cello-sonata-in-d-major-op-47-new-in-the-henle-urtext","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/2026\/07\/13\/culminating-a-great-female-composers-career-emilie-mayers-cello-sonata-in-d-major-op-47-new-in-the-henle-urtext\/","title":{"rendered":"Culminating a great female composer\u2019s career: Emilie Mayer\u2019s Cello Sonata in D major, op. 47 \u2013 new in the Henle Urtext"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Those of us no longer quite so young will be recalling this. It was in the 1990s; people in Germany were paying with the last series of D-Mark notes, a petrol litre cost less than two marks, and TSV (Gymnastics and Sport Club) 1860 Munich played in the Bundesliga (Germany\u2019s top football division) in light blue jerseys. The Henle Urtext editions were also already blue back then \u2013 and anyone paying cash for Henle\u2019s 18 Mozart piano sonatas (HN 1 and HN 2), 60 litres of petrol, or an 1860s football jersey, might well have reached for a blue banknote, showing a woman\u2019s portrait on the front and an old grand piano on the back. It was Clara Schumann who adorned the 100-mark banknote, known to everyone. But did all those recognising the 100-mark banknote from her image, also know who she was?<\/p>\n

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Lithograph by Eduard Meyer from a portrait by Pauline Suhrlandt<\/p><\/div>\n

Women in the history of music remains an under-explored topic to this day. Also in the Henle catalogue. But a shift has begun. Female composers and their works are being rediscovered. Musicians are increasingly programming these works in their concerts. And, another female composer now joining the Henle publishing programme is Emilie Mayer. Living from 1812 to 1883, she was repeatedly referred to as the \u201cfemale Beethoven\u201d. \u00a0According to new research, this is a misattribution \u2013 and, anyhow, Mayer\u2019s music doesn\u2019t need any masculine parallel. And certainly not an oblique one. Oblique parallels are, in any case, absurd.<\/p>\n

Like just a few 19th<\/sup>-century women, Emilie Mayer managed to gain a career foothold as a composer. She wrote lieder, piano and chamber music, and composed large-scale symphonies. Her music was professionally performed during her lifetime \u2013 on the most prestigious-possible concert stages in Berlin and regularly before the Prussian royal family. Mayer was appointed deputy director of the Berlin Opera Academy and became the first woman named as an honorary member of the Munich Philharmonic Society. Was it all so rosy? Certainly not. When in her late 20s her father committed suicide, this was a severe blow in her life. That at least part of her musical rise in her early creative phase was due to the fact that many people initially supposed that the music of \u201cE. Mayer\u201d (the way she often abbreviated her name) was written by a male composer, speaks both of the good impression that \u201cE. Mayer’s\u201d music made on her contemporaries and of discrimination against women. In 1851, the Neue Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Musik<\/em> stated, both benevolently and toxically:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is probably the first time that a lady has attempted to compose a larger work. Perhaps women in the future will also demonstrate a higher level of creativity in the music fields, as is already the case in the poetry field, and this will also eliminate the prejudice that such a talent is altogether denied to them.\u201d (<\/em>Neue Zeitschrift f\u00fcr Musik 23, vol. 34, 1851, pp. 247 f.)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a Henle editor with a special assignment focusing on female composers, how did I come across Emilie Mayer? I didn\u2019t. Before I knew it, Mayer had already come to me \u2013 in the person of the cellist and musicologist Seonhwa Lee.<\/p>\n

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Seonhwa Lee<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Lee is currently preparing a major research project and a complete recording of Emilie Mayer\u2019s cello sonatas. Not only did she bring with her an immense knowledge of Mayer, editorial acumen, and virtuoso cello skills, she also conjured up at our first meeting a visionary cover design, depicting how a Henle edition of Mayer\u2019s cello sonatas might appear. While Henle\u2019s set-in-stone design guidelines for covers necessitated a few changes, this cover \u2013 confidently projected onto the wall in vibrant blue \u2013 sealed Mayer\u2019s arrival at the Henle publishing house. Mayer wrote twelve cello sonatas (one of them titled \u201cDuet\u201d rather than \u201cSonata\u201d). Together with Seonhwa Lee, we quickly agreed \u00a0to make available in Henle Urtext edition the three sonatas selected by the composer herself for publication by the Berlin-based publisher Bote & Bock.<\/p>\n

Henle\u2019s first release, fresh off the press, with publisher\u2019s number HN 1688<\/a>, is the four-movement Sonata in D major, op. 47. Anyone who places this edition on the music stand gets the full package from Seonhwa Lee: a historically-contextualising preface, a meticulously-researched Urtext edition with critical apparatus, and modern, practical markings for the solo part. The piano fingering was contributed by Lee\u2019s duo partner, Nicholas Rimmer. Modern notation, thoughtfully designed page turns, and fold-out tables in the solo parts round out a wonderful, Henle-quality package.<\/p>\n

This sonata is a special work, both biographically and in terms of its sources. It marks the culmination of a remarkable compositional career. The sonata was presumably first performed just one month before Mayer\u2019s death on 10 April 1883. Included in that month\u2019s issue of the Neue Berliner Musikzeitung<\/em>, in which the sonata was announced as \u201cjust published\u201d, was also an obituary for the recently-deceased composer.<\/p>\n

In its source situation, this sonata differs from all of Emilie Mayer’s other cello sonatas. Only with this sonata can we draw upon a wealth of sources, as we have both a \u201cgenuine\u201d first edition, personally authorised by Mayer, complete with a separate solo part, and two autograph manuscripts. This is an editorial luxury. But it also presents a challenge: One autograph contains only the solo part and can be identified as the engraver\u2019s model for the first edition\u2019s separate cello part. Present here is a high degree of agreement between the sources regarding the music text. The autograph score reveals, however, an earlier stage in the sonata\u2019s composition. Its analysis thus required a delicate touch, offering, on the one hand, important clues in many cases for identifying and correcting errors in the first edition, but necessitating, on the other hand, careful attention so that the sonata does not regress to an earlier development stage. A fascinating task, which Seonhwa Lee and I, as supervising editor, tackled through lively conversation.<\/p>\n

It was well worth the effort, for with Emilie Mayer\u2019s Cello Sonata, op. 47, now available in scholarly Urtext, we hope this composition will soon expand the standard repertoire. Mayer\u2019s full compositional maturity is evident in this sonata. A slow introduction, notated without key signature, sets the stage for the first movement\u2019s blossoming D-major main theme (Allegro con spirito<\/em>). The solo part is beautifully lyrical, and the supple, at times virtuosic, piano accompaniment reveals the outstanding pianist that Mayer herself was. The solo cello and accompanying piano parts are closely intertwined thematically, creating a highly dialogic character.<\/p>\n

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1st<\/sup> movement, main-theme entry, Henle-Urtext<\/p><\/div>\n

Such a dialogue also characterises the following Scherzo. Mayer has given it a robust and spirited air. The piano opens the conversation and often propels the movement forward with a concise pulse. Noteworthy are also the abrupt tempo changes, greatly enlivening the music.<\/p>\n

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Energetically-driven piano part opening the Scherzo, Henle-Urtext<\/p><\/div>\n

In the Adagio, too, the piano begins alone \u2013 with an eight-measure introduction of chordal tranquillity almost resembling the prelude to a lied. The cello part then enters in a beautifully lyrical style (cantabile<\/em>).<\/p>\n

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Prelude to the Adagio, Henle-Urtext<\/p><\/div>\n

The Allegro finale is ultimately a playful celebration in radiant D major with figuratively animated, richly ornamented parts.\u00a0 Seonhwa Lee particularly appreciates that even here, at a rapid pace, Mayer maintains the lyrical, melodic approach of her music and masterfully incorporates it within the music dramaturgy \u2013 \u201cespecially where a recitative appears towards the end. For me, this is a passage where Mayer\u2019s personal style really comes to the fore,\u201d says Lee.<\/p>\n

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\u201dRezitativo\u201d in the fourth movement, mm. 143\u2013156, Henle-Urtext<\/p><\/div>\n

Recordings of this wonderful sonata are still hard to find.<\/p>\n