Water Music Suite No.2 in D

By: George F. Handel
For: String quartet
page one of Water Music Suite No.2 in D

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Composer
George F. Handel
Year of composition
1717
Arranger
Difficulty
Moderate (Grades 4-6)
Duration
10 minutes
Genre
Classical music
License details
For anything not permitted by the above licence then you should contact the publisher first to obtain permission.

There is a story that George Frideric Handel's magnificent Water Music was originally intended as a peace offering to King George I, for duties to the former Elector of Hanover left unfulfilled by Handel. As the story goes, Handel seized the opportunity in 1717 to provide some musical entertainment for the King's now-famous barge party on the River Thames, and was restored in the royal eye. George I was completely enamored with the Water Music (asking for the hour-long work to be repeated three times and not returning to the palace until the wee hours) and all past transgressions were immediately forgotten. There was indeed a grand party on the Thames on July 17, 1717, during which some of Handel's music (possibly but not definitely the Water Music) was played, but the rest of the story is likely highly fictionalized.

It appears that Handel drew upon three already-composed suites of instrumental music when putting together the Water Music; for the Water Music Suite No. 2 in D major, HWV 349, Handel has added a pair of trumpets to the robust ensemble of two oboes, two horns, strings, and basso continuo that he used in the Water Music Suite No. 1.

The first of the Suite's five pieces is the only substantial through-composed movement to be found in it (the rest are all dances of one kind or another). Although given no heading by Handel, this fast-tempo movement is composed in very normal Baroque overture style, starting off with an accompanied trumpet fanfare and soon moving on to ponder a regal dotted-note motive that brings the French Overture to mind. The crystalline brilliance of Handel's scoring is plain from the start: witness the fiery descending string scales that support the opening trumpet blast and, a while later, the virtuoso sixteenth notes of the trumpets themselves.

After this overture movement comes a little musicological trouble, as the hornpipe dance included in some printed editions is very often replaced in performance and print by an entirely different dance (also a hornpipe). The more commonly-played of the two hornpipes is certainly one of Handel's most famous instrumental compositions, filled with wonderful syncopations and, during the middle of the first of the dance's two (quite lengthy) halves, some charming interplay between the trumpets, horns and strings.

Although most often called a minuet on account of its triple meter, the stately, binary-form piece that comes third in the D major Suite in fact carries the heading "Coro," or Chorus.

The Lentement that follows (the indication is Handel's own), is a delicate thing, rolling gently along on dotted quarter-eighth-quarter rhythms and providing just enough minor mode contrast in its second section to make the da capo reprise of the opening taste all the sweeter.

Handel marks the following Air (really in the rapid style of the bourree) to be played three times all told, leaving it up to the musicians to decide what, if any, textural contrasts might be nice each time around.

This arrangement is for standard sting quartet, with an optional bass part for use with string orchestra.

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Holberg Suite - 5. Rigaudon, Holberg Suite - 4. Air, Holberg Suite - 2. Sarabande, Lullaby, Swan Lake - Dance of the Cygnets, Concerto for Two Violins "L'estro armonico" Op.3 No.8 - Movement 3, Concerto for Two Violins "L'estro armonico" Op.3 No.8 - Movement 1, Siegfried Idyll, Brook Green Suite - 3. Dance, Brook Green Suite - 2. Air, St. Paul's Suite - 4. Finale (The Dargason), Brandenburg Concerto No.5 - 3. Allegro, Brandenburg Concerto No.5 - 1. Allegro, Serenade No.10 "Gran Partita" - 6. Theme and variations, Anvil Chorus, from "Il Trovatore", Serenade No.10 "Gran Partita" - 3. Adagio, Un bel di vedremo, from "Madama Butterfly", Sextet: Chi mi frena, from "Lucia di Lammermoor", O soave fanciulla, from "La boheme", Si. Mi chiamano Mimi, from "La boheme", Duet: Sous le dome epais, from "Lakme", Au fond du temple saint, from "The Pearl Fishers", Largo al factotum, from "The Barber of Seville", Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix, from "Samson et Dalila", Habanera from "Carmen", Vissa d'arte, from "Tosca", Song to the Moon, from "Rusalka", Song Without Words No.30 - Spring Song Op.62 No.6, Morning Has Broken, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring, Water Music Suite No.3 in G, Water Music Suite No.1 in F, Sonata in A, KV 331 - 2. Menuetto and Trio, Sonata "Pathetique" Op.13 - 2. Adagio cantabile, Sonata "Pathetique" Op.13 - 1. Grave - Allegro, Sonata in A, KV 331 - 1. Andante grazioso (Theme and variations), Chanson de Matin, Lullay My Liking, Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Op.42 - No.3 Melodie, In The Bleak Mid-Winter, Anvil Chorus, from "Il Trovatore", Bethena - A Concert Waltz, A Cyclone in Darktown, Trio No.3, Trio No.2, Trio No.1, Once in Royal David's City, Unto Us A Child Is Born, Christians, Awake!, Little Jesus, Sweetly Sleep, In Dulci Jubilo, Advance Australia Fair, Gradual, L'Estate ("Summer") - 3. Presto, L'Estate ("Summer") - 2. Adagio, Presto, L'Estate ("Summer") - 1. Allegro non molto, Espana - 2. Tango, Orchestral Suite No.2 - 7. Badinerie, Orchestral Suite No.2 - 5. Polonaise and Double, Orchestral Suite No.2 - 4. Bourree I and II, Orchestral Suite No.2 - 3. Sarabande, Orchestral Suite No.2 - 1. Overture, A Thousand And One Nights, Roses From The South, The Cannon Ball Rag, The Washington Post March, The Stars And Stripes Forever, Semper Fidelis, The Manhattan Beach March, The Liberty Bell March, King Cotton, The High School Cadets, The Gladiator March, El Capitan, Jingle Bells, O Little Town Of Bethlehem (2), We Wish You A Merry Christmas, Joy To The World, While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks, Silent Night, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Good King Wenceslas, The First Noel, Angels From The Realms of Glory, Symphony No.29 - 4. Allegro con spirito, Of The Father's Love Begotten, Symphony No.29 - 3. Menuetto, Symphony No.25 - 4. Allegro, Who Let The Cows Out? - For Sax Quartet (AATB), L'Autunno ("Autumn") - 3. Allegro, L'Autunno ("Autumn") - 1. Allegro, String Serenade - 2. Waltz, Piano Sonata No.14 "Moonlight" - 2. Allegretto, Carmen - Act 1: Prelude, The Amazon Rag, Sleepy Sidney, I Got The Blues, Who Let The Cows Out?, Key-Stone Rag, Orchestral Suite No.3 - 4. Bourree, L'Inverno ("Winter") - 3. Allegro, L'Inverno ("Winter") - 1. Allegro non molto, God Save The Queen, Symphonie Fantastique - 2. Un Bal, Pavane, Op.50, Maple Leaf Rag, La Marseillaise, Slavonic Dance, Op.46 No.8, Slavonic Dance, Op.46 No.7, Ode To Joy, Brandenburg Concerto No.3 - 2. Adagio - Allegro, Brandenburg Concerto No.3 - 1. Allegro, Capriol Suite, Babes in Toyland - March of the Toys, It Came Upon The Midnight Clear, A Midsummer Night's Dream Op.61 - Scherzo, Le Coucou, Trumpet Tune, Brandenburg Concerto No.2 - 1. Allegro, The Blue Danube Waltzes, Lohengrin - The Bridal Chorus, Solomon - Act III, Sinfonia "Arrival of the Queen of Sheba", A Midsummer Night's Dream Op.61 "The Wedding March", Children's Corner, No.6 The Golliwog's Cake-Walk, Brandenburg Concerto No.6 - 2. Adagio ma non tanto, Concerto in D minor for 2 Violins - 3. Allegro, Angels We Have Heard On High, String Sonata No.1 - 2. Andante, Symphony No.40 - 3. Menuetto, Symphony No.40 - 2. Andante, Ave Maria, Op.52 No.6, The Nutcracker - Overture, Preludes, Book 1 No.8 - The Girl With The Flaxen Hair, A Midsummer Night's Dream Op.61 "The Wedding March", Radetzky March, Op.228, Song Without Words No.27 "Funeral March" Op.62 No.3, Jerusalem (And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time), Children's Corner, No.6 The Golliwog's Cake-Walk, Chanson Triste, Op.40 No.2, Minute Waltz, Op.64 No.1, Symphony No.40 - 1. Allegro molto, Canon in D, The Blue Danube Waltzes, Wine, Women and Song, Kinderszenen, Op.15 No.11 Furchtenmachen (Frightening), Kinderszenen, Op.15 No.7 Traumerei (Dreaming), Song Without Words No.45 - Scherzo Op.102 No.3, La Damnation de Faust - Rakoczy March, Pictures at an Exhibition - Promenade, Birthday Minuet and The Barber of Seville - Overture

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