Handel: Alla Hornpipe from Water Music (Synthesized)

The use of headphones will greatly enhance the listening experience.

When George I planned his barge party, he asked Handel to provide music for a concert on the River Thames in the form of an orchestral composition for about 50 musicians. Handel responded with "Water Music," which, according to one eyewitness, engaged an ensemble of flutes, recorders, oboes, bassoons, trumpets, horns, violins, and basses. (The observer made no mention of the timpani that are customarily included in contemporary performances, but percussion may have been added to the score later when the work was performed on solid ground). The king was so delighted with the new work that he asked to hear the hour-long work three times with the barge not returning to the palace until the wee hours of the morning).

It is rumoured, however, that Handel's magnificent work was originally intended as a peace offering to King George I. In 1710, prior to his ascension to the British throne, the then Elector of Hanover had given the rather vagabond composer a generous position at his court; but Handel never actually fulfilled his duties. After the Elector relocated to London, the composer was more than a little reluctant to face his old master. As the story goes, it was not until 1717, when Handel seized the opportunity to provide some musical entertainment for the King's now-famous barge party on the River Thames, that the composer was restored in the royal eye; George I was completely enamoured with the Water Music 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.

While selections from the suite were published during Handel’s lifetime, the entire collection did not come into print until 1788, nearly three decades after the composer’s death. It was published as a complete collection, the order in which the composer wished the various movements to be played remains uncertain. (Handel might have drawn upon three already-composed suites of instrumental music, each scored for slightly different instrumental forces, when putting together the Water Music; the Suite No. 1 in F major, scored for a pair of oboes, bassoon, two horns, two violins, and basso continuo, is the largest of the three, comprising ten more-or-less separate pieces). It is customary, however, to group the movements according to their keys and instrumentations, creating three shorter suites in F major (HWV 348), D major (HWV 349), and in G major (HWV 350). The groupings contain 5 to 10 movements of varying musical character, and, in some cases, distinct national provenance and social association. For example, the lilting waltz-time Minuet and the lively duple-time Bourrée were historically French dances; the Minuet, however, was an aristocratic form, while the Bourrée was known in both folk and courtly circles. Other dance movements featured in Water Music include the Air (which is perhaps one of the most well-known in the entire work). In addition there’s the bouncy Hornpipe, with its intricate, often syncopated rhythms - a dance of the British Isles, and also the Sarabande, the Gigue, and the Rigaudon. Each of the three sub-suites opens with a stately overture and concludes with a festive movement that, indeed, is reminiscent of the original performance context.

In the Alla Hornpipe from Suite No. 2, we start off by hearing a full-bodied and lush string section as it presents the two primary major themes supported by oboes and bass continuo. The trumpets then answer with the first theme and then the coronets and then all play the second theme. This trading and call-and-response between the strings and horn sections goes on as the two themes get varied and often the whole orchestra comes back together for the cadences. Then we move to B minor in which a third theme comes in, mostly played by the strings, which starts of quiet and restrained. Soon it grows more intense as first violins strings start moving frenetically and we get some signature syncopations and cross rhythms. We then ritard back to a cadence to end the minor section, at which point the original theme in D major bursts back into play to finish out this exuberant piece.

Though my voicing doesn’t adhere to the instrumentation of the original score, I’ve tried to create something my own with specific and reminiscent sounds and effects inspired by Wendy Carlos' version from the 1969 recording of "The Well-Tempered Synthesizer."

Unfortunately, with 24 tracks of instrument layers and effects, my usual choice of using the MAMM visualization wasn’t able to properly display the instruments. Alternately I used MIDITrail (another free visualizer) which in this case, gives a clearer look at things, especially when layers of notes are played simultaneously.