Suite in F
2 oboes, bassoon(s), 2 horns, strings, continuo
Ouverture
Adagio e staccato
Allegro-Andante-Allegro
Presto
Air
[Minuet]
Bourée
Hornpipe
[Andante]

Suite in D
2 oboes, bassoon(s), 2 horns, 2 trumpets, strings, continuo
Allegro
[Alla hornpipe]
Minuet
Lentement
[Bourée]

Suite in G
Flute, soprano recorders (flauti piccoli), strings, continuo
[Sarabande]
Presto
Menuets I and II
Country Dance

Program Notes by Martin Pearlman

At about 8:00 on the evening of July 19, 1717, according to a contemporary newspaper, King George I "took to the water at Whitehall in an open barge. . . and went up the river towards Chelsea.  Many other barges with Persons of Quality attended."  An orchestra accompanied the party on a separate barge, playing "the finest Symphonies, composed express for this Occasion, by Mr. Hendel; which his Majesty liked so well, that he caused it to be plaid over three times in going and returning.  At Eleven his Majesty went a-shore at Chelsea, where a Supper was prepar'd, and then there was another very fine Consort of Musick, which lasted till 2; after which, his Majesty came again into his Barge, and return'd the same way, the Musick continuing to play till he landed."

It is now generally accepted that what has come down to us as the Water Music -- the autograph manuscript has not survived -- is actually a collection of three suites in different keys and for different combinations of instruments.  The suite in G major, featuring flute and recorder with strings, has the lightest texture of the three and would presumably have been performed indoors during the dinner at Chelsea.  But the other two suites are outdoor music and call for a larger orchestra, including brasses.  The horns in the F major suite make a dramatic -- and historic -- entrance at the beginning of the third movement, this being the first piece in England to introduce horns into the orchestra.  As in Bach's first Brandenburg Concerto, written in the same decade, the horns are elevated to full-fledged members of the orchestra and are no longer limited to simply conjuring up images of the hunt. The suite in D major has the most brilliant orchestration of the three, with both trumpets and horns added to the woodwinds and strings.

The water party of 1717 was not the king's first.  Two years earlier, there had been another one, and an earlier version of the F major suite -- sometimes called the "Horn Suite" -- may well have come from that occasion.  In that earlier version, there are two important and wonderful movements which Handel dropped from the suite and reworked to include trumpets.  He then made them the first two movements of the so-called "Trumpet Suite", the suite in D.  Curiously, though, these trumpet versions, which are usually considered to be later, are shorter, less developed pieces.  The horn versions, however, are popular pieces that can make a brilliant ending to the F major suite.  Without them, the suite ends with a slow movement in the relative minor, which acts as a transition to another suite, rather than a true conclusion.

Boston Baroque Performances

Back to resource library