Royal Commissions

No one better illustrates the growing commercial status of the baroque musician than Handel. Born and trained in Germany, he travelled to Italy at the age of 21 to be at the source of new musical developments. While enjoying considerable success at the opera in Venice he was head-hunted to become director of music at the court of the Elector of Hanover. His Italian reputation also resulted in invitations to England where, during one visit in 1714, he learned that his employer had succeeded to the English throne as George I. Never slow to cash in on royal connections, Handel became a British citizen and the natural choice as a composer of music for state occasions. He remained based in London for the rest of his life, where he made (and lost) several fortunes investing in the production of his own operas and oratorios.

The Music for the Royal Fireworks was commissioned for a grand spectacle in 1749 to celebrate the short-lived Peace of Aix-la-Chappelle: one of those treaties more of political importance than of any lasting effect.

A measure of Handel's popularity at this time is given by the fact that 12,000 people converged on Vauxhall Gardens for a public rehearsal of the piece, causing a 3-hour jam of horse-drawn carriages on London Bridge. The actual performance in Green Park was rather more successful than the accompanying fireworks, which exploded prematurely and set light to the staging.

The bourrée below is just one of a set of dances in the score. Such suites were popular as harpsichord pieces, although some were written for orchestra. Here, the outdoor performance called for a large wind band - Handel's intention also to include strings was firmly quashed by George II who asked for military instruments and "hoped there would be no fidles" in the orchestra. The original scoring of the bourrée was for two oboe parts with bassoon bass.

The dance suite provided a framework of short, highly contrasted movements, each with its own rhythmic style and almost always in two repeated sections. The bourrée was particularly lively; the time signature indicates a feel of two strong beats per bar - 2/2 rather than 4/4 if your sequencer allows this setting. Try a speed of 116 bpm (232 bpm in 4/4 time).

TIP Tight quantization will highlight the insistent baroque rhythms and Handel's characteristic "walking bass" of regular quarter-notes in Track 3. Sequencer users can give much eighteenth century music an even more lively Classic Rock treatment by the addition of electric bass and a drum track.

Notice that both sections start at the end of bars. Because of these upbeats, take care to avoid unwanted gaps or overlaps if you copy the repeats rather than playing them live. A slight rit. (slowing down) will help round off the final two bars of the piece: this is usually done on a tempo mastertrack.

TIP Your performance will really come to life if there is a sharp contrast between the staccato (detached) and legato (smooth) playing of small groups of notes. The precise distribution of these effects should remain a matter for personal experiment, although the long notes will sound best if given their full value. You might try making all quarter-notes staccato except when they form parts of descending scales, as in bar 5 of Track 3 or as shown left.