Handel’s Water Music And Royal Fireworks Music Highlights

Two of Handel's famous works used by royalties for celebrations are The Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music.

Orchestral music had attracted Georg Friederich Händel’s attention right from his earliest years in England. Orchestral writing, for Handel, usually took the form of a concerto grosso, in which an inner group of soloists is pitted against the remainder of the orchestra. Two of his famous works used by royalties for celebrations are The Water Music and Royal Fireworks Music.

London was the setting for the Water Music in 1717, when the royal family and members of nobility took part in a royal water-party on barges floating on the River Thames. For this event, Handel created music for a large orchestra of over fifty musicians including horns, oboes, bassoons, flutes, trumpets, and strings. There were twenty-two compositions pieces in three suites: No. 1 in F Major, No. 2 in D major, and No. 3in G Major. Music historians question exactly how many pieces Handel wrote for this event. They concluded that it was very possible that he composed perhaps two-thirds of them for this royal evening, adding others later for similar occasions. After all, in those days such music was written and used for special events as needed. The Allegro is a lively dance, the Air a melodious English-type folk song, the Bourrée and Hornpipe two more jaunty pieces that typify many selections that make up the Water Music.

The Royal Fireworks Music came much later, in 1749. The occasion was a peace treaty signed at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, to end the conflict between France and England. The celebration was set for Green Park, London, on April 27, 1749. These festivities –marred when the fireworks set off a blaze which completely destroyed the structure especially built for the event – were launched by an Overture which, in Handel’s original orchestration, required 24 oboes, 12 bassoons, 9 trumpets, 9 horns, one contrabassoon, three pairs of timpani, and a kind of cornet known as a “serpent horn.” There followed a royal salute from 101 brass cannon and various pieces by Handel, all originally scored for winds and a large force of strings, bringing the number of original players to well over 100. Fortunately, the magnificent ceremonial music was completed before the fire caused complete pandemonium. The Royal Fireworks Music was next heard on May 27, 179, played by a much smaller band in the chapel of the Foundling Hospital during the benefit attended by the Prince of Wales. Again, an introductory Overture is followed by a series of dance rhythms, including a bourré, a Siciliana called “La Paix” (the peace), a brilliant “Le Rejouissance,” and endw with two minuets – all conveying a spirit of celebration and rejoicing. As a biographer Herbert Weinstock has said of Handel, his is “one of the most majestic, tender, and human voices ever lifted in praise of life, love, of beauty, and the art of music.”

The Messiah Oratorio: Handel’s Musical Legacy

As Sir Newman Flower, one of Handel’s biographers rightly noted: “It is questionable whether any music, composed in England or imported into it, has reached the heart of the people so truly as Handel’s.” The most remembered work of Handel is his oratorio Messiah – the single work that made him a household name. Paul Henry Lang, in his exhaustive study of the composer writes, “Messiah is perhaps the only major work about which public sentiment is unanimous. Its freshness, its warmth, its beautifully rounded forms and sculptured melodies offer universal experience to men of all walks of life and all shades of faith. Handel achieved with this work the most widespread critical recognition ever accorded a composer, for among his acclaimers are not only every English-speaking church congregation, small or large, but also Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms and every musician who ever tried his hand at choral writing.”

Handel composed music in almost every form known in his day: oratorios, operas, harpsichord music, organ concertos, masques, church works, anthems, concerti grossi, orchestral suites, etc. Musicologists have explored this wealth of musical compositions and prepared editions of many of Handel’s compositions in order that these can be performed in the most authentic way, the manner in which they were originally written. Only during the twentieth century that the world came to know the full range of his works. This is due to the extensive research and series of studies. For the general public, Handel’s Messiah remains to be an epic

creation of its kind.

The popularity of Messiah began in London in 1749 when Handel led a benefit performance for the Foundling Hospital. This was its premier performance, and for the next nine years that followed, Handel conducted the oratorio annually. Since that time, its universal popularity has hardly wavered, for it is music of strength, sincerity, religious passion and meaning, set down with the greatest skill for chorus and soloists. Handel cast it in three parts, the first telling of the prophecy of the Messiah’s coming, the second relating the suffering and death of Christ, and the third describing the resurrection of the son of God. Jennens, the compiler of the libretto, sent a text to be printed at the head of the oratorio, summing up its spirit: “And without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness; God was manifested in the Flesh, justified by the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached among the Gentiles, gave man belief in the world, and was received up in Glory. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

Hallelujah Chorus Sheet Music

The Brandenburg Concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach

The famous masterful set of Six Brandenburg Concertos was composed bye Johann Sebastian Bach during his service as Kapellmeister to Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen. Christian Ludwig, the Margrave of Brandenburg, commissioned composers to write works for his court orchestra. Impressed after meeting Bach in 1719, he asked him to write a set of concertos. The assignment was finished ahead of time in 1721. Bach named the set ‘Six Concertos for Divers Instruments.’ Humbly, he submitted the compositions to his benefactor with the plea that he not judge ‘their imperfections too harshly,’ and that he try to find in them ‘the profound respect and the very humble allegiance that they seek to convey.’ Bach used the Italian form of the concerto grosso he inherited from Vivaldi and others. This work, a remarkable expression of Bach’s adventurous mind, stands as his earliest essay in absolute music on a grand scale.

His felicitous idea of contrasting the ripieno (large instrumental group) with the concertino (small cadre of solo players) was done by using a different set of solo instruments for each of his concertos – except No. 3 where the orchestra is divided into three parts (violins, violas, cellos) to replace the solos. No. 1 is scored for a wind ensemble of horns and bassoon added to the strings, while the violino piccolo is prominent. No. 2 has a flute, oboe, trumpet and violin in solo positions. No. 4 features a violin and two flutes (or recorders); No. 5 the flute, violin, and harpsichord; and No. 6 only the strings as in No. 3. The originality, variety, vigor, and glorious melody are audacious statements of Bach’s genius.

Karl Geiringer, in his expert study of Bach writes, “The Brandenburg Concertos seem to embody the splendor and effervescence of court life at Cöthen, and, moreover, they reveal the composer’s delight in writing for a group of highly trained instrumentalists. There is an exuberance and abundance of inspiration in this music which only a genius, aware of his newly achieved full mastery, could call forth. Craftsmanship and richly flowing melodic invention, logic and zest for experimenting, counterpoise each other here to an extent rarely equaled again even by Bach himself.” Ernest Human declared Bach’s position far ahead of his own time in his luxuriance of melody, his intensity in harmony “or the way he could force the most complex polyphony into the service of the profoundest emotional expression, or the freedom and variety of musical speech to which he could attain even while he fettered himself with seemingly the most crabbed forms…Within the…older forms that lay ready to his hands…he could indulge himself to his heart’s content in the sounding of the very depths of human soul…There is hardly an emotion that is not expressed, and with a poignancy that remains undiminished even after three generations of post-Tristan developments.”

Facts About the Mozart Effect and Intelligence

In 1993, Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher, scientists from Irvine, California discovered that listening to Mozart can increase intelligence. Within weeks, record shops in the US rode the bandwagon with banners such as “Make Your Child Brighter!” and “Get Brainier Listening to This Music!” One state even allocated substantial funding to enable pre-schoolers to receive a listening diet of this classical ‘wonder music’.

Soon enough, this commercial frenzy triggered skepticism among critics. They had to know how good if this research could really stand up under scientific scrutiny.

Ten years later, after a number of studies, scientists were able to conclude that there is a so-called Mozart Effect – actually and impressive raising of spatial IQ (the ability to solve jigsaw-like tasks for 15 minutes after listening to Mozart) – but no proven case for a longer-lasting benefit.

To investigate the issues further, according to Paul Robertson, a professor in music and psychology, it is helpful to understand the background both of the original research and of the historic role music played in education and healing.

The systems of Western Music are based on the pre-scientific belief that music is a reflection of ‘universal laws’ predating even the Ancient Greek philosophers – Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras et al—who later created our basic cultural view.

The concept of the “harmony of the spheres,” which is now generally misunderstood as merely a poetic fancy, was used by all significant thinkers and scientists in their early scientific experiments and construction of musical instruments to comprehend the structure of the universe.

Though scientific apparatus and concepts have changed greatly since then, whole areas of musicality often seem to offer surprisingly similar insights.

Gordon Shaw, as a distinguished physicist, with the intention of setting an unshakeable foundation in modern science, made an algorithm of intelligence; a theoretical computation, in fact, of how neurons of the brain fire in order to ‘think’.

With this pattern Shaw was able to generate a whole raft of resulting patterns. He then generated color pattern printouts to make the raw information meaningful.

Shaw’s university colleague Frances Rauscher, a music cognition expert, pointed out that the human auditory system is best able to recognize both pattern and incongruity. So Shaw used the same computer brain algorithm to make tonal patterns instead.

What they heard coming out of the machine was something very close to 18th-century music. The next step was inevitable. If brain patterns resembled musical ones, surely those same musical patterns might prime the brain to function better.

Auditory specialist Dr. Alfred Tomatis then discovered that the music of Mozart and Gregorian chants are the most powerful way to reeducate and recalibrate the auditory system and brain coordination. The structural nature of these kinds of music helps clarify time/space perception. The nature of the music echoes the way in which the brain becomes familiar with the development of ideas.

Tomatis believed that because Mozart’s music most perfectly reflects the ideal pre-language vocalizing it creates an ideal learning condition.

Eminent psychiatrist Dr. Oliver Sachs suggests in some of his work that Mozart’s music is neurologically perfect, while the great educationist Lozanov also based much of his ground-breaking ‘suggestopedic’ work on the belief that Mozart provides a uniquely productive learning environment which favors the Alpha brain rhythms known to be associated with enjoyable and open, assimilating states of mind.

Dr. Peter Fenwick, a neuro-psychiatrist completed some studies of the unborn child’s responses to music. Once again, it’s Mozart that has the most beneficial effect – helping sleep and Alpha-wave patterns. From account of a certain woman named Margot Cleg, her husband benefited from Mozart’s music. Some years ago, her husband, Philip fell into a coma following surgery. Three days later, with Philip still unresponsive and in intensive care, Margot, remembering Dr. Fenwick’s lecture, was able to persuade the doctors to allow her to play her unconscious husband his favorite Mozart recording - The Clarinet Quartet performed by Jack Brymer and a certain quartet –the Medici.

Shortly after the music started Philip’s brain monitor began to flicker and by the end of the final variation he was almost completely coherent. The following day he was out of the intensive care and recovering fast.

Perhaps the Mozart effect could be the “real thing.” As far as experts know, there are no dangerous side effects.

Writing Career for Musicians

If you love music and you love writing, this career would be a logical path to follow.

What does it take to become music journalist or critic? You love music and writing. Are these enough for you to hack it in the competitive world of music journalism?

Most music journalists or critics originally planned to be professional musicians. Some start out as instrument majors in the music college while some hold a graduate degree in musicology. It is good not to be careful not to let your musical skills aside. If you love music and you love writing, this career would be a logical path to follow, but it is of great importance that you have a practical and theoretical background in music. The knowledge one must have to enter this field is incredibly vast. There is no clear-cut path to wealth and success in this field yet. As a start, get a musical education first, then journalistic experience second.

Keep abreast of the current music scene, regularly patronizing a library of CD or audio collection (acquired either from stores or online), reading constantly, branching out beyond classical music, and being prepared for what may be a long journey with primarily abstract rewards.

Listen to everything you can in as many versions as you can and get as many scores as you can. Pick apart the details and pay close attention. With that, you have more to say.

Exploring Music Criticism Career

The Role

It is a very broad job that could range from high-intensity, full time writing of features, reviews and previews for one or a large number of different publishers (newspapers, magazines, websites) to low-intensity part time work, perhaps as a supplement to another job.

The Highs

Autonomy, particularly in staff positions; freedom to follow your own schedule; conversations with great musicians; attending concerts; feedback from readers; writing about what you love; community respect.

The Lows

Meager pay; lack of job security; no steady paycheck or medical benefits for freelancers

The Salary

Pay varies hugely. Before accepting a job, try to find out how much the money will buy in the locality. Being paid in US dollars is often a better deal than receiving local currency.

The Training

There is no formal career path but it helps to play an instrument well, have a degree in music performance, musicology, composition, or music history and to obtain some formal training as a writer (like a degree in English, communication, or journalism). Beyond that, experience is what counts.

Where to Find Work

Anywhere. Get your name on every arts and music mailing list, and try to make contacts at newspapers, magazines, and websites that publish music reviews or music feature articles. Get to know the critics and arts editors in your local community in person and meet other professionals in the national field.

Vivian Schweitzer, a New York-based freelance writer said, “If being a music critic is your dream then hold out for it, by all means. But you have to be realistic. If you want to write about classical music full-time, it’s going to be very hard.”

Everyone has a chance, but you may have to wait a little before money comes in.