N17000097
Music Technology
Music History II
E85.1068.001.099.SP09
Spring 2009
In the realm of the great masters of the Baroque, Georg Friderich Handel was only truly rivaled by JS Bach. Though he always seems to be somewhat in Bachs’s shadow, and understandably so, Handel’s life’s work nonetheless encapsulates and preserves the entire feeling of an era.
When I took music history in 12th grade, one of the first things that my teacher told when we got to the Baroque period was that if there was one thing to remember was the “Baroque = Big”. By this he meant that this time period was driven by aesthetic of excess; everything was bigger, flashier, and gaudier— dynamic action and movement dominated while subtlety was shunned. One need just to look at Henry XIV’s behemoth Palace of Versailles or listen to one of Bach’s fugues in which trills and ornamentation are as much of the work as the actual continuous, pumping melody itself to see evidence of this.
Following in this tradition, Baroque royalty and elite were also constantly competing against one another to be bigger and better, and much of that was determined by how entertaining one’s court was. Therefore music and it’s patronage gained much more importance, though not necessarily for sake of music as much as for social status, and thus one of the emphases found in Baroque music was a trend in the writing of more secular and instrumental music. Patronage of the best composers and musicians was highly desirable, and like-wise for the composers and musicians employment in the court meant a steady job and steady money. Of all of them, Handel himself was “perhaps the most famous composer to be associated with royal patronage” (“Baroque Music”).
I said earlier that court entertainment was often equaled, and sometimes surpassed, ruling for royalty. So how did they have fun in the good old Baroque days? By dancing, of course! In Baroque times, dancing became more than just a good work out—it was networking, status-representing; “Dancing is essential in a well-ordered society,” claims dance authoritarian Thoinot Arbeau “because it allows males and females to mingle and observe one another”(Hanning 208). In a time dominated by extreme sexual repression, dance created a socially acceptable space where one could show off their to possible mates and allowed for a kind of try-before-you-buy for women as they could then discern if a man was “shapely and fit or unattractive and lame. . . whether he is graceful and attentive or clumsy and awkward”(Hanning 208).
Therefore dance music also came to be more than trite and plebian thing. And we are in the Baroque period so why just have one type of dance when we could group many different kinds together and make a newer bigger new form and thus we get the Baroque suite de danses or just suite. More definitively the Baroque suite comprised of a number of different dance tunes all composed in the same key and that usually had an overture(“Suite”).
On July 17, 1717 Handel’s instant-classic Water Music suite for orchestra or winds was premiered for King George I of England. The king, along with other royal friends, lamped out on the Thames River on the royal barge while 50 musicians, except for the harpsichord as it was too large to fit, played on another nearby barge (“Water Music”).
Rumor has it that Handel wrote Water Music as a “reconciliation between the king and Handel” (“Handel”). In either case, these “finest Symphonies, compos’d express for this Occasion, by Mr. Hendel; . . . his Majesty liked so well, that he caus’d it to be plaid over three times in coming and going”( The Daily Courant).
Water Music actually consists of 3 suites , one in F major (HWV 348), one in D major (HWV 349), and one in G major (HWV 349) and contains some of the most memorable melodies in Western “Classical” music. More specifically, the “Alla Hornpipe” movement of the D Major suite, is not only a personal favorite but is also one of the most recognizable around the world and has been used in countless other forms of media from commercials to movies.
“Alla hornpipe” tempo indication that Handel subtitled the movement refers the popular dance rhythm in northern England in the 17th century and was used in both popular and art-music. A hornpipe is supposed to be in a lively, upbeat, 3/2 metered dance which had its origins “around the 16th century on English sailing vessels”(“Hornpipe”, Mackay).
I’ve chosen two different versions of the Handels hornpipe to analyze: one is by the die Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Rafael Kubelik and was recorded in 1987; the other is by the English Baroque Soloists led by Sir John Eliot Gardener and was recorded in 2001.
An Excerpt of the famous first 2 themes/phrases :
In listening to Kubelik’s interpretation first we start off by hearing a full-bodied and lush string section begin with the two primary major themes (mm. 1-5 and then 5-11) supported by oboes, which are hard to distinguish, and harpsichord 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 a movement 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(Mackay). 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 the piece.
Going on to listen Sir John Eliot Gardener’s interpretation we immediately notice some stark contrasts. Firstly, the tempo seems to quite faster, with the half-note being around 116-118BPM versus the ~110BPM of the Kubelik’s. It may not seem like much but in listening, it definitely makes a difference. Nextly, it seems that Gardener has made his strings a lot more on the stacatto side, which may partly be the tempo, but it just doesn’t sound as lush and full as the Berliner’s. This may also could be that they are not playing with a full orchestra.
The timbre of the instruments, or at least the horns, is also quite different. The English Baroque Soloists, as I learned from their website is one of the “worlds great period-instrument chamber orchestras” and thus only play instruments that Handel would have had and this chamber orchestra is definitely smaller in number. Still, I felt that Sir Gardener would benefit from his horns having more presence, I mean they are horns, they are supposed to generally play loud parts and be exclamatory.
I feel the Baroque Soloists do a fine job and certainly recreate the sound and instrumentation that you would hear in the Baroque era better than the Philharmoniker. Then again that is their purpose, playing period-accurately. Still, while they sound Baroque they don’t have the heart of the Baroque. This is purely a referential and phenomenological decision, but then again the aesthetic of Baroque is all about feeling and being moved. In that case I definitely think that the Philharmoniker wins for the most Baroque performance of the piece and thus overall because it is, at least in my opinion, more moving. Kubelik understands what he is doing and that is recreating a dance. Dancing is a vivacious and energetic part of human life and that is where I feel Gardiner falls off—yes this is supposed to be lively, but lively isn’t necessarily synonymous with a quick tempo. In fact, it works against him because when the piece goes to the minor section where the violins pick up speed Gardiners already increased tempo makes the dance feeling away and leaves it like justa speedy piece of chamber music.
Finally, the hornpipe isn’t just any dance. It’s a dance that was started by English sailor on boats. And when I think of English sailors dancing I also think of drunken revelry and a sort of swagger. With it’s fuller sound, the Philharmoniker is able to translate some of that bravado with sure-sounding and trilling horns while the Baroque Soloists seem to take a very meek and measured approach that doesn’t allow for any release of expression.
I think its clear now where I stand on which performance is stronger. While I think period-instrumentation is definitely a good thing, at least if you’re going for historical accuracy, if you don’t play it with the period-heart then what’s the point?
"Alla Hornpipe"-- Berliner Philharmoniker
"Alla hornpipe"-- English Baroque Soloists
Works Cited
Berliner Philharmoniker & Rafael Kubelik. “Handel: Water Music & Music for the Royal Fireworks”. Copyright 1963, Deutch Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg.
"Baroque music." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 3 Mar 2009, 16:50 UTC. 3 Mar 2009
The Daily Courant. Newspaper Article. No. 4913. Friday 19, July 1717.
Found on Handel Reference Database. Compiled by Ilias Chrissochoidis.
English Baroque Soloists. “About Us”. Website. 11 March, 2009.
http://www.monteverdi.co.uk/about_us/ebs.cfm
English Baroque Soloists and John Eliot Gardener. “Handel: Water Music Suites and Music for the Royal Fireworks. May 21, 2001. Copyright 2001: Universal International Music B.V.
"George Frideric Handel." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 6 Mar 2009, 02:51 UTC. 8 Mar 2009
Handel, Georg-Frediric. “Alla Hornpipe” Excerpt from Water Music. Full Score. Ed. Hans Ferdinand Redlich (1903-1968) Hallische Handel Ausgabe, Ser. IV: Bd. 13
Kassel: Bärenreiter-Verlag, 1962, BA 4018
Hanning, Barbara Russano. Concise History of Western Music. Boston: W. W.
Norton & Company, Incorporated, 2006.
"Hornpipe." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 21 Feb 2009, 14:22 UTC. 11 Mar 2009
"Suite." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 4 Mar 2009, 04:00 UTC. 8 Mar 2009
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