Music for the Royal Fireworks

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Music for the Royal Fireworks
Orchestral suite by George Frideric Handel
Elevationvanda.jpg
Machine for the fireworks for the peace of Aix la Chapelle in May 1749 performed in Green Park; structure designed by Franco-Italian architect Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni
Catalogue HWV 351
Year1749 (1749)
Period Baroque
Performed27 April 1749 (1749-04-27): London Green Park
MovementsFive

The Music for the Royal Fireworks (HWV 351) is a suite in D major for wind instruments composed by George Frideric Handel in 1749 under contract of George II of Great Britain for the fireworks in London's Green Park on 27 April 1749. The music celebrates the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1748. The work was very popular when first performed and following Handel's death.

Contents

Rehearsal and final production

During the preparations, Handel and John Montagu, Duke of Montagu, the Master-General of the Ordnance and the officer responsible for the Royal Fireworks, had an argument about adding violins. The duke made clear to Handel that King George had a preference for only martial instruments (winds and percussion), and hoped there would be "no fiddles". Handel omitted the string instruments against his will. Also, against Handel's will, there was a full rehearsal of the music in Vauxhall Gardens and not in Green Park. On 21 April 1749 an audience, claimed to be over twelve thousand people, each paying two shillings and six pence (half a crown) rushed to get there, causing a three-hour traffic jam of carriages on London Bridge, the only vehicular route to the area south of the river. [1]

Six days later, on 27 April, the musicians performed in a specially constructed building designed by Servandoni, a theatre designer, assisted by four Italians. [2] Andrea Casali and Andrea Soldi designed the decorations. The fireworks themselves were devised and controlled by Gaetano Ruggieri and Giuseppe Sarti, both from Bologna. [lower-alpha 1] [4] [5] Charles Frederick was the controller, captain Thomas Desaguliers was the chief fire master. [6] The display was not as successful as the music itself: the weather was rainy, causing many misfires, and in the middle of the show the right pavilion caught fire. Also, a woman's clothes were set on fire by a stray rocket and other fireworks burned two soldiers and blinded a third. Yet another soldier had his hand blown off during an earlier rehearsal for the 101 cannon which were used during the event. [7]

Music and instrumentation

Recordings

Notes

  1. "The Ruggieri family represents one of the longest surviving dynasties in the pyrotechnical trade; they later fired the celebrations for the French Revolution and were still around to supervise the display in New York Harbour when the Statue of Liberty was rededicated in 1986." [3]

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References

  1. Hunter, David (2015). The Lives of George Frideric Handel. Boydell & Brewer. p.  85. ISBN   978-1-7832-7061-3.
  2. Simon, Jacob (1985). Handel, a celebration of his life and times, 1685–1759. National Portrait Gallery (Great Britain). p. 212.
  3. Hogwood, Christopher (2005). Handel: Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Cambridge University Press. p. 80. ISBN   978-0-521-83636-4.
  4. Great Britain. Board of Ordnance A description of the machine for the fireworks, with all its ornaments, and a detail of the manner in which they are to be exhibited in St. James's Park, Thursday, 27 April 1749, on account of the general peace, signed at Aix La Chapelle, 7 October 1748. Published by order of His Majesty's Board of Ordnance. London: printed by W. Bowyer, sold by R. Dodsley, and M. Cooper. 1749.
  5. Bomgardner, David L. (2000). The Story of the Roman Amphitheatre. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge. p. 225. ISBN   113470738X.
  6. Fraser, Antonia; et al. (2005). Gunpowder Plots: A Celebration of 400 Years of Bonfire Night. London: Penguin Books. ISBN   978-0-14-190933-2.
  7. Holdsworth, Rachel (March 2013). "Fire And 18th Century Traffic Jams: Handel And The Royal Fireworks". londonist.com. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
  8. Preface notes and score, Fr. Chrysander, Water-Music, Firework-Music, Concertos and Double Concertos for Full Orchestra by George Frederic Handel, reprinted 1965, Gregg Press, New Jersey, US
  9. Greenfield. "Handel orchestral works". Gramophone.
  10. Vickers, David (June 2003). "Le Concert Spirituel (on period instruments)". Music for the Royal Fireworks. gfhandel.org. Archived from the original on 21 April 2014. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  11. Biggs, E. Power (1944). Handel–Biggs: Firework Music (Suite from the Music for the Royal Fireworks) for Organ Solo (with Pipe Organ Registrations) (Media notes). New York: B. F. Wood Music.
  12. Queen's Jubilee Concerts, Buckingham Palace (2002) on YouTube