Música Acuática Música para los Reales Fuegos Artificiales

Abstract

There is a story that George Frideric Handel's magnificent Water Music was originally intended as a peace offering to King George I, for duties to the former Elector of Hanover left unfulfilled by Handel. As the story goes, Handel seized the opportunity in 1717 to provide some musical entertainment for the King's now-famous barge party on the River Thames, and was restored in the royal eye. George I was completely enamored with the Water Music (asking for the hour-long work to be repeated three times and not returning to the palace until the wee hours) and all past transgressions were immediately forgotten. There was indeed a grand party on the Thames on July 17, 1717, during which some of Handel's music (possibly but not definitely the Water Music) was played, but the rest of the story is likely highly fictionalized.

It appears that Handel drew upon three already-composed suites of instrumental music when putting together the Water Music; for the Water Music Suite No. 2 in D major, HWV 349, Handel has added a pair of trumpets to the robust ensemble of two oboes, two horns, strings, and basso continuo that he used in the Water Music Suite No. 1.

The first of the Suite's five pieces is the only substantial through-composed movement to be found in it (the rest are all dances of one kind or another). Although given no heading by Handel, this fast-tempo movement is composed in very normal Baroque overture style, starting off with an accompanied trumpet fanfare and soon moving on to ponder a regal dotted-note motive that brings the French Overture to mind. The crystalline brilliance of Handel's scoring is plain from the start—witness the fiery descending string scales that support the opening trumpet blast and, a while later, the virtuoso sixteenth notes of the trumpets themselves.

After this overture movement comes a little musicological trouble, as the hornpipe dance included in some printed editions is very often replaced in performance and print by an entirely different dance (also a hornpipe). The more commonly-played of the two hornpipes is certainly one of Handel's most famous instrumental compositions, filled with wonderful syncopations and, during the middle of the first of the dance's two (quite lengthy) halves, some charming interplay between the trumpets, horns and strings.

Although most often called a minuet on account of its triple meter, the stately, binary-form piece that comes third in the D major Suite in fact carries the heading "Coro," or Chorus.

The Lentement that follows (the indication is Handel's own), is a delicate thing, rolling gently along on dotted quarter-eighth-quarter rhythms and providing just enough minor mode contrast in its second section to make the da capo reprise of the opening taste all the sweeter.

Handel marks the following Air—really in the rapid style of the bourrée—to be played three times all told, leaving it up to the musicians to decide what, if any, textural contrasts might be nice each time around. The War of Austrian Succession was brought to an end by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, signed in October 1748. Although England had been a somewhat reluctant participant and had gained little from the war, preparations for celebrations commenced the following month with the erection of a large wooden structure incorporating a triumphal arch in London's Green Park—the framework for a large and impressive display of fireworks. Peace was formally declared in the following February, and Handel, who had then just completed two contrasting oratorios, Susanna and Solomon, was commissioned to provide music for the occasion. Obviously, such music would have to be both grand in scale and suitable for open-air performance—this latter aspect, in practical terms, calling for a large contingent of wind and brass instruments. Handel originally intended to make use of no fewer than 16 each of trumpets and horns. However, he ran into trouble with the organizers, evidenced by a sequence of bad-tempered letters. Ultimately, he settled for something a little more "modest": 24 oboes, 12 bassoons (including a contrabassoon), nine each of trumpets and horns, three pairs of kettledrums, and an unspecified number of side drums.

Music for the Royal Fireworks consists of five movements, commencing with a suitably pompous and ceremonial Overture in the French style: a slow, dotted-rhythm introduction followed by a contrapuntal Allegro. The suite continues with a lively Bourée, a quieter movement entitled "La paix," the ebullient "La réjouissance," and a final Minuet. A second Minuet, in D minor, which seems to have been added later, was probably used by the composer as a trio section before a final triumphant return to the main Minuet in D major.

The rehearsal of Music for the Royal Fireworks in Vauxhall Gardens on April 21, 1749 takes a place as one of the best attended in the history of musical performance. A huge crowd, said to number in excess of 12,000, is reported to have turned up, blocking many surrounding streets and causing traffic chaos. The actual event was rather less successful; observers reported that in particular, many of the fireworks failed to impress. To make matters worse, the display set fire to one of the pavilions that formed part of the structure. A month later, the music was performed in the rather more peaceful surroundings of the Foundling Hospital. For this occasion Handel reverted to a traditional combination of strings and winds. This is the version in which the music, one of Handel's most popular works, is most often heard today, although at least two recordings have been made which employ the massive wind forces heard at the first performance.