Water Music | |
---|---|
Orchestral suites by George Frideric Handel | |
Catalogue | HWV 348, 349, 350 |
Year | 1717 |
Period | Baroque |
Performed | July 17, 1717 London, England |
The Water Music (German: Wassermusik) is a collection of orchestral movements, often published as three suites, composed by George Frideric Handel. It premiered on 17 July 1717, in response to King George I's request for a concert on the River Thames.
The Water Music opens with a French overture and includes minuets, bourrées, and hornpipes. It is divided into three suites:
There is evidence for the different arrangement found in Chrysander's Gesellschaft edition of Handel's works (in volume 47, published in 1886), where the movements from the "suites" in D and G were mingled and published as one work with HWV 348. This sequence derives from Samuel Arnold's first edition of the complete score in 1788 and the manuscript copies dating from Handel's lifetime. Chrysander's edition also contains an earlier version of the first two movements of HWV 349 in the key of F major composed in 1715 (originally scored for two natural horns, two oboes, bassoon, strings, and continuo), where in addition to the horn fanfares and orchestral responses, the original version contained an elaborate concerto-like first violin part. [1]
The music in each of the suites has no set order today.
The first performance of the Water Music is recorded in The Daily Courant , the first British daily newspaper. At about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, 17 July 1717, King George I and several aristocrats boarded a royal barge at Whitehall Palace, for an excursion up the Thames toward Chelsea. The rising tide propelled the barge upstream without rowing. Another barge, provided by the City of London, transported about 50 musicians who performed Handel's music. Many other Londoners also took to the river to hear the concert. According to The Courant, "the whole River in a manner was covered" with boats and barges. On arriving at Chelsea, the king left his barge, then returned to it at about 11 p.m. for the return trip. The king was so pleased with Water Music that he ordered it to be repeated at least three times, both on the trip upstream to Chelsea and on the return, until he landed again at Whitehall. [2]
King George's companions in the royal barge included Anne Vaughan, Duchess of Bolton, Harriet Pelham-Holles, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Evelyn Pierrepont, 1st Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull, Sophia von Kielmansegg, Countess of Darlington, Henrietta Godolphin, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough, and George Douglas-Hamilton, 1st Earl of Orkney.
Handel's orchestra is believed to have performed from about 8 p.m. until well after midnight, with only one break while the king went ashore at Chelsea. [3]
It was rumoured that the Water Music was composed to help King George refocus London's attention from his son and heir (later George II of Great Britain), who, worried that his time to rule would be shortened by his father's long life, threw lavish parties and dinners to compensate for it; the Water Music's first performance on the Thames was the King's way of reminding London that he was still there and showing he could carry out gestures even grander than his son's. [4]
The Water Music is scored for a relatively large orchestra, making it suitable for outdoor performance. It is also performed in indoor concerts and has been regularly programmed.
In 1920 the Irish musician Hamilton Harty made an arrangement of some of the movements for the modern orchestra. [5] [6] Such re-orchestrations were normal at the time. According to the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham:
The original Handelian orchestra was composed of a handful of strings and about a dozen reed wind instruments, mainly oboes and bassoons, with an occasional reinforcement of horns, trumpets, and drums, restricted by necessity to the somewhat monotonous repetition of tonic and dominant. This makes hard going for any audience asked to listen to it with the opulent sound of a latter-day orchestra well in its ears. [7]
In recent years, performers have tended to avoid versions such as that of Hamilton Harty, being influenced by ideas regarding historically informed performance.
Legend has it that Handel composed Water Music to regain the favour of King George I. Handel had been employed by the future king George while he was still Elector of Hanover, before he succeeded to the British throne. The composer supposedly fell out of favour for moving to London during Queen Anne's reign. This story was first related by Handel's early biographer John Mainwaring; although it may have some foundation in fact, the tale as told by Mainwaring has been doubted by some Handel scholars.
Another version has it that the Elector of Hanover approved of Handel's permanent move to London, knowing the separation between them would be temporary. Certainly both were aware the Elector of Hanover would eventually succeed to the British throne after Queen Anne's death. [8]
Many portions of Water Music have become familiar in popular culture. From 1958 to 1988, it was featured as the theme music for Anglia Television, a regional franchise for the East of England by ITV.[ citation needed ] From 1983 to 1997, a movement of the music ("Bourrée") was used as the theme music to the PBS television show The Frugal Gourmet.[ citation needed ] A performance of Water Music plays a major role in the movie The Madness of King George , in which King George III exhibits very erratic and inappropriate behavior at a concert, yelling at the orchestra to play louder (and eventually taking the place of the harpsichordist, playing very badly), culminating in a physical altercation with the Prince of Wales, leading to the Prince of Wales asking to be named Regent.[ citation needed ] "Water Music" appears prominently in the 2003 Baby Einstein video Baby Neptune .[ citation needed ] "Water Music HWV 350 Suite No. 3 in G Major" appears in the 2012 film A Royal Affair . [9]
Captain Peter Pulcer of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald from 1966 to 1971 was noted for playing this tune over the ship's public address system as it passed through locks in the Great Lakes and connecting canals.[ citation needed ] From 1977 to 1996, Walt Disney World featured movements from both installments of Water Music as the background music for the Electrical Water Pageant, a parade of sea creatures lit up with electric lights off the coast of the Magic Kingdom. [10]
There are many recordings. The Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749), composed 32 years later for another outdoor performance (this time, for George II of Great Britain for the fireworks in London's Green Park, on 27 April 1749), has often been paired with the Water Music on recordings.
Hamilton Harty's re-orchestration was used in some earlier recordings of the Water Music. In 1956 the Australian conductor Charles Mackerras recorded this version, but he later changed his approach to Handel turning to the composer's original orchestration (his 1959 recording of the Music for the Royal Fireworks being seen as something of a watershed). [11] Recent recordings are generally influenced by historically informed performance.[ citation needed ]
There is a chamber version of the score known as the Oxford Water Music. The title comes from the location of the manuscript rather than the assumed place of performance: the arrangement was possibly intended by Handel for performance at Cannons by the band of his patron the Duke of Chandos. It has been recorded on the Avie label. [12]
A suite, in Western classical music, is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral/concert band pieces. It originated in the late 14th century as a pairing of dance tunes; and grew in scope so that by the early 17th century it comprised up to five dances, sometimes with a prelude. The separate movements were often thematically and tonally linked. The term can also be used to refer to similar forms in other musical traditions, such as the Turkish fasıl and the Arab nuubaat.
The Music for the Royal Fireworks 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.
A coronation anthem is a piece of choral music written to accompany the coronation of a monarch.
Alexander's Feast is an ode with music by George Frideric Handel set to a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton. Hamilton adapted his libretto from John Dryden's ode Alexander's Feast, or the Power of Music (1697) which had been written to celebrate Saint Cecilia's Day. Jeremiah Clarke set the original ode to music.
An Occasional Oratorio is an oratorio by George Frideric Handel, based upon a libretto by Newburgh Hamilton after the poetry of John Milton and Edmund Spenser. The work was written in the midst of the Jacobite rising of 1745–1746, the attempt to overthrow Handel's patrons – the Hanoverian monarchy under George II – and replace them with a Stuart restoration under Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie". The Occasional Oratorio is unique among Handel's works which he labelled "oratorio" in that it does not tell a story or contain elements of a drama, but was intended as a defiant and patriotic rallying piece.
An organ concerto is an orchestral piece of music in which a pipe organ soloist is accompanied by an an orchestra, although some works exist with the name "concerto" which are for organ alone.
The Handel organ concertos, Op. 4, HWV 289–294, are six organ concertos for chamber organ and orchestra composed by George Frideric Handel in London between 1735 and 1736 and published in 1738 by the printing company of John Walsh. Written as interludes in performances of oratorios in Covent Garden, they were the first works of their kind for this combination of instruments and served as a model for later composers.
The Handel organ concertos, Op. 7, HWV 306–311, refer to the six organ concertos for organ and orchestra composed by George Frideric Handel in London between 1740 and 1751, published posthumously in 1761 by the printing company of John Walsh. They were written for performance during Handel's oratorios, contain almost entirely original material, including some of his most popular and inspired movements.
A fine and delicate touch, a volant finger, and a ready delivery of passages the most difficult, are the praise of inferior artists: they were not noticed in Handel, whose excellencies were of a far superior kind; and his amazing command of the instrument, the fullness of his harmony, the grandeur and dignity of his style, the copiousness of his imagination, and the fertility of his invention were qualities that absorbed every inferior attainment. When he gave a concerto, his method in general was to introduce it with a voluntary movement on the diapasons, which stole on the ear in a slow and solemn progression; the harmony close wrought, and as full as could possibly be expressed; the passages concatenated with stupendous art, the whole at the same time being perfectly intelligible, and carrying the appearance of great simplicity. This kind of prelude was succeeded by the concerto itself, which he executed with a degree of spirit and firmness that no one ever pretended to equal.
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The Oboe Concerto No. 2 in B flat major was composed by George Frideric Handel for oboe, orchestra and basso continuo. It was first published in the fourth volume of Select Harmony by Walsh in 1740. Other catalogues of Handel's music have referred to the work as HG xxi, 91; and HHA iv/12,47.
The Oboe Concerto No. 1 in B flat major was composed by George Frideric Handel for oboe, orchestra and basso continuo. It was first published in the fourth volume of Select Harmony by Walsh in 1740. Other catalogues of Handel's music have referred to the work as HG xxi, 85; and HHA iv/12,17.
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The Musette, or rather chaconne, in this Concerto, was always in favour with the composer himself, as well as the public; for I well remember that HANDEL frequently introduced it between the parts of his Oratorios, both before and after publication. Indeed no instrumental composition that I have ever heard during the long favour of this, seemed to me more grateful and pleasing, particularly, in subject.
Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate is the common name for a sacred choral composition in two parts, written by George Frideric Handel to celebrate the Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, ending the War of the Spanish Succession. He composed a Te Deum, HWV 278, and a Jubilate Deo, HWV 279. The combination of the two texts in English follows earlier models. The official premiere of the work was on 13 July 1713 in a service in St Paul's Cathedral in London.
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The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music is a compilation of classical works recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor David Parry. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Royal Festival Hall and Henry Wood Hall in London, the compilation was released in digital formats in November, 2009 and as a 4-CD set in 2011. The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music has sold over 200,000 copies and spent over three days as one of the top 10 classical albums on iTunes.
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Hooked on Classics, produced by Jeff Jarratt and Don Reedman, is a multi-million selling album recorded by Louis Clark and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, published in 1981 by K-tel and distributed by RCA Records, part of the Hooked on Classics series.
Hooked on Classics 2: Can't Stop the Classics is an album by Louis Clark and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, published in 1982 by K-tel, part of the Hooked on Classics series.
Water Music, TWV 55:C3, is the common name of an orchestral suite by the German Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann, with the full title Hamburger Ebb' und Fluth.
The conductor Sir Thomas Beecham made several orchestral suites from neglected music by George Frideric Handel, mostly from the composer's 42 surviving operas. The best known of the suites are The Gods Go a'Begging (1928), The Origin of Design (1932), The Faithful Shepherd (1940), Amaryllis (1944) and The Great Elopement.
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