When was handel water music written

He was obviously well practised at writing music that would carry when performed outside, using bassoons, horns and trumpets to help the sound carry. See more Handel News. See more Handel Music.

See more Handel Pictures. Discover Music. See more Handel Album Reviews. The works is comprised of 22 movements divided into three orchestral suites of contrasting dances. Suite number 1 had actually been written in for an earlier river trip. The amount of pieces, and with no concrete evidence, has led to an array of interpretations. Handel was perhaps a little disorganized, as movements in the larger editions of Water Music had already appeared in other works which makes it hard to pinpoint the origins.

Some theorize that Handel wanted Water Music to be one long sequence, while others speculate that it was meant to be heard as separate suites. The most common interpretation of Water Music is to separate it into three suites with the keys G, D, and F. Handel could have revised the movements over the years as most music written in the Baroque era was to be performed once.

Perhaps Handel wanted each suite to be performed on its own. Since then, Water Music has remained a favorite. Most probably he didn't take the risk, and added them to the score later.

Even if Water Music was written partly to ingratiate himself with his new monarch, Handel was no one's lapdog. He had a famously foul temper and was scornful of his English rivals, once declaring - at least according to an anonymous pamphlet - that most of the music at the royal court was "compos'd and performed by Blockheads". Another legend has it that he once threatened to dangle a soprano out of the window if she didn't do exactly as he said.

Given that the composer became grossly overweight in his later years, you wonder how he would have managed it. Quiz: How many of these Mastermind music questions can you answer? Eight mysteries buried in the music of this year's Proms. Why Daniel Barenboim's Proms got people talking. The brilliance of Scott Walker - explained! Sign in to the BBC, or Register.

This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving. Proms What makes Handel's Water Music so great? By Andrew Dickson. Thursday 20th July Proms at