Note: You may wish to consult the chapters on ‘Music of the Baroque Period’ and ‘Dance Music – Renaissance to Romantic’ in the Study Area before reading this analysis

Background and Overview
On a visit to Venice 1709-10, having set out for Italy to seek his operatic fortune [ ‘on his own bottom’ ], Handel met prince August of Hanover whose brother the Elector was looking for a successor to Steffani. Handel was thus invited to be Kapellmeister at Hanover and he accepted on the condition that he was allowed to visit England first. In doing this he exchanged secure employment by a city or court for the more empirical world of public concerts and ad hoc patronage by the nobility. Presumably he wished to expose London to his Italian Operas.

Over the following two years Handel spent more time in London than he did in Hanover, his position in London having been firmly established by the grand Te Deum and Jubilate composed to celebrate the Peace Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Indeed these two pieces brought him to the notice of Queen Anne, as well as earning him a pension of £200. Handel must have been a little disconcerted when Queen Anne died in 1714 and, for lack of a direct heir, his employer George of Hanover became King.

The king was not fond of the trappings of pageantry and tried to avoid public appearances. There was soon, therefore, a pervading air of royal anonymity (most people only knew the King’s features from coinage or engravings, and fewer than one per cent had ever heard his voice). To counteract this it was decided there should be a royal progress (the traditional ritual of reassurance) and the least tiresome version was considered by the king to be a summer water party. Handel was thus engaged to provide the music and, although when it was first performed on 17th July 1717 George did not know who had written the Water Music, or indeed that Handel was conducting, there seems to be no truth in the legend that the composer had provided it as a surprise gift to make his peace with George. In fact, on discovering the man behind the music, the king soon doubled Handel’s pension, and a further £200 was added later when he became music master to the royal children.

Handel’s three suites (here played as two suites, the second and third being combined) are wonderfully varied collections of outdoor music, combining the grandeur of French ceremonial music with a German appreciation of woodwind sonorities and Italian concertante interplay. Indeed his Concerti Grossi Op. 6 are now seen as the summit of a tradition begun some years earlier by Corelli.

Analysis

Suite No. 1

I. Overture: Largo - Allegro

Handel chose to open his entertainment with a style of Overture which would have sounded reassuringly familiar to his older listeners. The insistent rhythmic pattern shown below is exploited in every bar of the opening section except at its final cadence.

The gesture may have been wasted on his royal master, since the style was no longer very fashionable, but for his English audience it would have carried an enormous resonance of Purcell and his contemporaries.

Though the beginning of the movement is firmly in the tonic (F major) it doesn’t take long for Handel to explore other keys and from 0.15 to 0.41 the music slides into much darker water, namely D minor and G minor before resting on an imperfect cadence in preparation for a return to the beginning.

The subject of the fugue (1.28) emerges organically from the opening section with the outline of the rising fourth common to both sections (see bracketed sections in Ex.1 and 2).

The movement is, however, more dependent on the development of the new countersubject (violin I, 1.34) and the solos for oboe and violin (e.g. 1.58 and 2.27). There is a pedal point at 3.28 and here Handel increases the tension with a furious semiquaver figuration for cellos and bassoons which heralds an imperfect cadence, leading into the Adagio.

II. Adagio e Staccato

An unsettling inverted dominant chord in D minor introduces the oboe solo. The movement is similar to dozens of Handel’s operatic arias in which a soaring oboe obbligato seems to be trying to upstage the soloist. Here, in the absence of a soprano the oboe is free to decorate the melodic line. The harmonic intensity increases throughout the movement and is typified by the aching suspensions from 1.35 onwards where close imitation and an ascending sequence of descending scalic passages lead to a false climax (2.01) and a sometimes lonely oboe draws the movement to a close.

III. Allegro & IV. Andante

Handel’s sense for the theatrical is demonstrated through his having saved the entry of the horns until now. The addition of these instruments gives this movement a real feeling of outdoor confidence.

The horns, mostly playing in 3rds or 6ths engage in a conversation with the rest of the orchestra until, at 0.10, they have a 4-bar sequential passage of their own. The harmony of the movement is mainly tonic / dominant allowing the natural horns to make as full a contribution as possible. Where Handel does stray away from F major (e.g. around 1.18) he keeps the tessitura of the horns high allowing them to play the occasional chromatically altered note.

The opening question and answer returns at 2.02 and leads to a section where Handel unexpectedly introduces the rhythms of the Hornpipe and the two main rhythmic patterns vie for importance until the conclusion of the Allegro.

The Andante which follows sees the winds playing a theme before acting as a sort of continuo, providing a foundation for some particularly high playing (e.g. 3.15 and 3.28) as the strings repeat the theme. A cadence decorated with suspensions (4.40) leads into the dal segno and a return to the Allegro.

V. Passepied [ Presto ]

A passepied is a type of fast minuet, though, unusually, this movement lacks the characteristic upbeat. Handel is probably borrowing an earlier horn duo which he has expanded here. The final six bars of each section (e.g. 0.14) are the clue.

The movement is in three main sections, the first two of which are repeated the first time round such that the movement has the structure A A B B C A B.

VI. Air

The written dotted rhythms (see Ex.3) are probably a notated form of French notes inégales. This music appears in many other guises throughout Handel’s catalogue, indicating that the composer must have kept a mental store-cupboard of music ready to be recycled or manipulated whenever the need arose.

The harmony of the opening is functional and the music is in even four-bar phrases. By the end of bar 8 (at 0.22) Handel has modulated to the dominant, C major. The next two phrases see the music moving through G minor (0.29) and B flat major (0.36) before an extended phrase (6 bars in length) returns us to F major via a perfect cadence.

There follows (0.56) a double where one horn part is written out in the score for two players to allow for breathing after the particularly long notes we hear in this section.

VII. Menuet

Note: You may wish to consult the chapter on ‘Binary and Ternary Form’ in the Study Area before reading this analysis.

The sixteen bar introduction in a characteristically lively triple metre tells us that this movement is most likely another orchestration of an earlier horn duo. Here, Handel’s recycling leads to some interesting harmonic anomalies – for example, at 0.46 where the repeated Gs of Horn II clash with the F in the oboe II and violin II.

The Trio is in F minor with a ‘middle register’ melody played by violin II, viola and bassoon with a violin I descant – this technique appears again, later, in the ‘Country Dances’, the final two Bourrées towards the end of Suites 2 & 3.

The ternary form movement is rounded off by the return of the Menuet, this time without the horns playing on their own.

VIII. Bourrée

The melody is constructed using an Italian technique known as perfidia – using a single device to deliberate excess – as we see by the insistent presence of the falling 2nd in almost every bar.

This fast, jaunty movement is played three times: first, by strings alone (0.00 – 0.19); then by the woodwinds or ‘all the Hautboys’ as Handel writes in the score (0.20 – 0.38); and finally a tutti repeat from 0.39.

IX. Hornpipe

The Hornpipe (a ‘longways country dance’) was associated with the British Isles, but not the sea. It had featured, often as the last movement of a suite, in the theatre and keyboard music of Locke, Purcell and their English contemporaries, and by Handel’s time had gathered a quirky and care-free connotation, sometimes under the title of a Maggott, Whim or Delight.

This movement has identical scoring to the preceding Bourrée and, also like the previous movement, is played three times.

Though, here, the two sections that make up the Bourrée are not repeated in themselves it does fit into a typical binary format. By the midpoint (0.11) it has modulated to the dominant (C major). Then, Handel skilfully whisks us through the keys of D minor and G minor before arriving back at the tonic by the final cadence.

It is also worth listening carefully to the interesting metrical feel of the Hornpipe. There are points at which the 3-in-a-bar pulse becomes quite indistinct, perhaps most notably at the penultimate bar of the first section (0.08).

X. Allegro

A stately Allegro rounds off the first suite. The theme (Ex.5) is first stated by Oboe I in an 8-bar opening section for oboes and bassoon only. When the strings come in at 0.27 the woodwinds, as they have done earlier in the suite, become a quasi-continuo for a few bars, providing support for the strings.

Rather than opt for antiphonal writing which, at any rate, wouldn’t have been effective on the water, Handel plays the two groups of instruments off one another in a kind of stile concertato. This is particularly sophisticated counterpoint in places suggesting again, perhaps, that the Water Music is collected from a range of sources.

The theme, though sometimes fragmented, is never far away in this movement but there is rarely any sense of monotony. Handel’s harmonic structure and skilful part-writing lend a great sense of momentum to the music. It moves to A minor at 1.02 then, soon after (1.08) to F major. Then, at 2.16 we hear a dominant pedal in the new key of G minor leading to a passage of imitative, sequential descending scales at 2.46 where the music begins to wind its way steadily back to the tonic and the Adagio conclusion.

Suites Nos. 2 & 3

In this apparent bringing together of elements of two separate suites the scoring and tonality of the music changes much more often than in Suite No. 1.

No 2: I. Allegro

We now find ourselves in the regal, triumphant key of D major, with its increased possibilities of antiphonal interplay between the trumpets and horns. Each section of this prelude is different but seems to complement its neighbour nonetheless. The opening section (Ex.6) is borrowed from an aria in Keiser’s La forza della virtu.

Each short section is presented quite simply with the trumpet statement being repeated and octave lower by the horns. Natural trumpets did not play in F, but horns crooked in D could offer an answer to the trumpets. Handel does not develop his themes, but brings in new material, which is similarly repeated. Bars 26-8 (around 0.56 – the inverted pedal A in Trumpet I) see a brief hint towards a move to the dominant but we soon return to the tonic. The opening theme reappears at the end, this time not in antiphony but scored for full brass as a ‘grand chorus’ to end the movement.

Variation is achieved through the use of repeated quavers in place of the dotted crotchet (1.29) and a linking scale just prior to these quavers gives the impression of a bigger landscape than when this material was heard previously. The final adagio bars (1.45) modulate with a Phrygian cadence, hinting at a da capo, but Handel moves straight onto the Hornpipe.

No 2: II. Alla Hornpipe

Perhaps the most well known section of the Water Music, this movement features rhythmic vitality and instrumental brilliance which give an enormous sense of forward motion. By altering the instrumentation Handel is able to repeat sections while varying the overall timbral effect. The opening motif, for example, is played first by strings and woodwind, then trumpets, then, finally, horns.

The movement is in ternary form, with a da capo at the end of the second section.

Features to note in this movement include the hemiola at the end of the opening section (1.01), the insistent off-beat syncopations played by the oboes and violins (e.g. 1.18), the virtuosity of the violins' running quavers and the unusual phrase lengths in the second section. Indeed there are only two definitive cadence points here. The first is where the music modulates to the dominant (1.35), and the second is after 10 bars when we are back in the tonic (1.49). There is a coda of 9 bars before the da capo.

No 3: I. Sarabande

A new sound is offered here in the combination of ‘Travers e Viol I’ on the top line. This denotes a transverse flute (probably played at the time by one of the oboists) and the 1st violin. It’s a simple dance in 2- and 4-bar units and, typically for a sarabande, there is a distinct accent on the second beat of every other bar. The movement is in binary form.

No 3: II. Rigaudon I and II

Rigaudon I, which forms the two outer sections of what is a ternary form movement is a very lively dash in G major with a modulation to the dominant at its midpoint (0.13). Rigaudon II is a more sedate affair with an overall feel of G minor despite a modulation to B flat after 12 bars (0.45).

The fact that these two Rigaudons are called ‘Aria’ in some scores suggests that this movement might be another of Handel’s borrowings.

No 2: IV. Lentement

The trumpets give a ceremonial feel here, though it might be considered odd that flutes are not used instead.

This is another da capo form movement. The first section, in an uncluttered homophonic texture, starts and ends in the tonic, D major. At the opening of the middle section in B minor Handel seems to be adopting a more stile concertato approach but soon abandons this idea and reverts to homophony.

No 2: V. Bourrée

As with other Bourrées we have heard, Handel states that ‘this Air [ is ] to be played three times over’, first by strings, then by woodwinds and, finally, tutti.

No 3: III. Menuet I

The bassoon gets a specific mention in the score in this binary form Menuet. Indeed this is a combination of instruments we have not heard thus far. The movement features a dark, linear melody which modulates to the relative major (G minor to B flat major) at the end of the first 8-bar section. The second section is slightly extended to allow space for the rising, ornamented phrase (0.29) which builds towards the final cadence in the tonic.

No 3: III. Menuet II

With strikingly different melodic construction to the previous Menuet, Handel makes large leaps a feature of this movement:

Other points to note here are the addition of flauti piccoli at the top of the texture, the suspended sevenths in almost every second bar and the perfect fourth between the violins and the bass at 0.05 – perhaps a miscopying of a dotted minim as at all other similar places there is a three beat note.

No 3: IV. Bourrée I

Sometimes known as a ‘Country Dance’ this stately miniature finds the flauto piccolo at the top of its register. Handel has clearly chosen to keep to melody line high as the violins make rather an awkward leap of a 7th in bar 7 where they could have carried on downwards. The music is very much in the style of an English jig with a 12/8 feel illustrated by the addition of triplet quavers on the score and the playing of the dotted quavers in a much more relaxed manner than is printed.

No 3: IV. Bourrée II

In contrast to the high tessitura of Bourrée I, this melody is played on the bottom string of violin II with viola and bassoon and the bass line goes as low as bottom C. At times the melody is reminiscent of some familiar nursery rhymes.

No 2: III. Menuet

Scored in royal grandeur, the final Menuet remembers the trills of the horns we first heard when they were introduced in the Allegro of Suite No. 1. The harmony stays within foursquare tonic / dominant boundaries with no modulations, thus remaining in the key of D major throughout to draw the Water Music to its triumphant conclusion.

Further Listening

• Try the Music for the Royal Fireworks (8.550109) – another of Handel’s outdoor masterpieces
• Also, try his Concerti Grossi Op.6 (8.550157 / 8.550158) which, as stated earlier, are considered to be amongst the finest ever written.
• To hear Handel’s instrumental writing in other contexts, listen to some Sinfonias from his operas (e.g. Acis and Galatea – 8.553188) and oratorios (e.g. Messiah - 8.550667-68).
• To further place his work in context, listen to some other major works of the early 1700s, such as Couperin’s  Concerts Royaux (ACD22168) or Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.