PROGRAM NOTES

Selections from Suite No. 1 in F Major from the Water Music
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL (Born February 23, 1685, Halle - Died April 14, 1759, London)

In 1714 Georg Ludwig, the Elector of Hanover (and Handel’s employer in Germany) became King George I of England.  Though he spoke no English, the new king quickly learned that one of the forms of opulent recreation in London was a boating trip on the Thames and that these excursions were sometimes accompanied by music.  In the first years of his tenure, King George made several such trips, and they were grand occasions indeed.  One of the most famous took place on July 15, 1717, and two days later the London Courant ran a lengthy description of the festivities:

Handel’s manuscript to the Water Music has disappeared, but numerous copies and arrangements have survived, and it has been possible to recreate fairly accurately the music he composed to accompany the king’s river excursion.  That music has been divided into three separate suites, and this concert opens with five movements from the Suite No. 1 in F Major.   These include some of the most famous music from the Water Music, particularly two spritely dances–a Bourrée and a Hornpipe–and the wonderful Air, whose lovely melodies and calm nobility have made it one of the most famous things Handel ever wrote. No wonder the king wanted this music played three times on that July evening in 1717.

Music for the Royal Fireworks
GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL

The English and the French signed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle on October 27, 1748, bringing to a close the War of Austrian Succession.  That war, which had dragged on for eight years, had proven so exhausting and costly that eventually all the parties were relieved to have it over. The English planned an elaborate victory celebration: George II’s staff brought in the designer Florentine Servandoni, who the following April erected what was called a “Machine” in Green Park, directly across from Buckingham Palace.  This structure, over four hundred feet long and a hundred feet high, took the form of a Doric-style pavilion with elaborate wings and a viewing stand.  The royal “victory” celebration on April 27, 1749, was to be a real show in every sense of that term: over a hundred cannons would fire a thunderous salute, followed by a massive fireworks show, and Handel was commissioned to write music to accompany all this.

George II, whose family had had music lessons from Handel, took an active interest in the music to be performed, and he made clear that he preferred the strident sound of martial instruments; specifically, his staff told Handel, the king “hoped there would be no fidles.”  Handel was loathe to do without stringed instruments, but he tried to satisfy the king’s tastes by writing for a massive military band of 18 brass instruments, 37 woodwinds, and three timpani.  Contemporary accounts speak of over a hundred musicians at the celebration, so perhaps Handel was able to sneak a few “fidles” into his orchestra.  News of the upcoming spectacle spread through London, and Handel’s open-air rehearsal of the music in Vauxhall Gardens on April 21 attracted a crowd of 12,000.  Traffic to this rehearsal was so heavy that it took some carriages three hours just to make it across London Bridge, and there were reports of scuffles and injuries among the footmen of these carriages (commuter gridlock and road rage are not strictly modern phenomena, apparently).  The actual celebration on April 27 turned into a wonderful fiasco.  Things began as planned, but the fireworks went awry, setting the “Machine” on fire.  A stiff wind blowing across the park quickly turned this into a conflagration, the crowd panicked and fled, and the gaudy pavilion burned to the ground.

Handel’s music for this occasion has survived, however, and it continues to excite audiences long after the occasion for which it was composed has faded into history.  Handel opens with a grand Ouverture, somewhat in the French manner but without the fugal writing of the normal French overture.  The music begins with a ringing slow introduction, full of dotted rhythms and fanfares that must have been particularly pleasing to George II’s desire for a martial sound; the overture then rushes ahead on rapid exchanges between brass and strings that overflow with energy.  Handel pauses for a brief slow interlude, then returns to the fast music to rush the overture to its close.  At this point in the original celebration came the salute by a hundred cannons, and Handel then offered a series of dance movements that were separated by fireworks.  First comes an agile Bourrée, and Handel specifies that the oboes are to have the first statement here, then they are to drop out and allow the strings the second.  There follow two movements with titles appropriate to the occasion.  Le Paix (“Peace”) takes the form of a slow Siciliana, which rocks gently and gracefully along its 12/8 meter, while La Rejouissance (“Rejoycing”) returns to the manner of the opening Ouverture with racing fanfare-like figures for brass and timpani.