King George I, Handel and Water Music on the Thames, 1717

George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), was born in the same year as J.S Bach, in Halle, Saxony. Handel longed to study music but his elderly father obj­ect­ed, because music could never provide a reliable income. Happily, with his mother’s secret cooperation, Handel practised the clavichord. 

Handel was invited to play the organ for the  Duke of Weiss­en­fels where the lad met composer-org­anist Frideric Zachow. Zachow was impressed with Handel’s potential and invited him to become his pupil. There Handel learned composing for the organ, oboe and violin, before he was 10. Then Handel composed church cant­atas and chamber music. 

Handel pointing and King George I on a River Thames barge in 1717.

Musicians play in the background.
Painted much later by Edouard Hamman (1819–88)

At his father’s insistence, George studied law at the University of Halle but he soon left. In 1703, at 18, Handel decided to commit him­­self to music, tak­ing a violinist’s position at Ham­b­urg Opera’s Theatre. Meanwhile he supple­mented his income by giving private mus­ic less­ons. After composing sev­eral popular op­er­as, in 1706 Handel decided to try his luck in Italy, writing dramatic cham­ber works and composing the oper­as Rodrigo (1707) and Agrippina (1709).

In Germany George Elector of Hanover (later King George I) had emp­loyed the young Han­­­del as court conductor in 1710. But after op­eras were being well re­ceived in London, a major European musical cen­tre, the comp­oser sen­sed the chance to get more exposure and travelled to Brit­ain. Handel left for London where the manager of the King’s Theatre commissioned the German to write an opera: Rinal­do. In 1711 the prem­iere performance of Rinaldo, at Queen's Theatre in Haymar­ket, was very successful. Handel loved the gen­erous salary of £200 he received from Queen Anne and Rinaldo gained wide recognition.

Handel spent the next few years writing and performing for Queen Anne. Then King George I arrived in London, after taking the th­rone in 1714. But he didn’t speak English and was not terribly welcome.

Water Music was commissioned by King George to accom­pany a grand royal barge jaunt up the River Thames in July 1717. Eager to please his royal mas­ter, 32-year-old Handel composed a lavish, 3-part suite for 50 musicians (a huge group then), including loud horns and woodwind instruments so that the sound carried across the water. Water Music engaged an ens­emble of oboes, flutes, recorders, bassoons, trumpets, horns, violins and basses.

At 8pm everyone crammed into boats, and set off to travel the 5 ks from The Palace of Whitehall up to Chelsea. The king and his aris­tocratic courtiers watched from the royal barge while a City Barge was employed for the music. The composer himself conducted, and the whole river was covered with boats. The King was so thrilled with Hand­el's piece that he asked for it to be played many times that night, finishing long after midnight.

It was true that Water Music had a political purpose, and used as propaganda to build up the prof­ile of England's controv­er­s­ial new ruler. In his early reign, the German-speaking, unattractive and not very int­el­l­igent George I was unpopular, so opposition polit­ic­ians sup­p­orted his eld­est son, the future George II. The king's ad­visers had staged the grand royal event as a pub­licity spectacle, designed to impr­ess Lond­on­ers and steal the focus from King George’s absent son. Is it pos­sible that the Wat­er Music was a peace off­er­ing from a nervous composer to his former boss?

No-one risked dancing while sailing the Thames, but the 3rd suite was ? pl­ayed for the king over dinner in a grand villa at Chel­sea. Only later would the suite became known for its highly sp­ir­ited dances. Building on ex­per­ien­­ce of his native Germ­any, where suites of dance-like movements were pop­ular, Handel created an energetic series of rhyth­mic tunes. The first suit­es opened with a grand overture, then a lively minuet, graceful airs and a frenetic French bourrée dance. One of the most famous movements was the Sailor's Horn­­pipe dance in the second suite, a clever nod to the wat­ery set­ting, and to Handel and his king's adopted count­ry.

Unlike many pieces Handel wrote, the original score for Water Music didn't survive. The piece was usually split into 3 separate suites made up of 22 self-contained movements, but how did they fit together? in what ord­er did the movements come? was Water Music actually performed in July 1717 entirely, or created for different occasions? And how did Handel fit a harpsichord and timpani, used in most Water Music, into a barge?

The music outlived the efforts of Handel's English rivals at the roy­al court. Even if Water Music was written partly to ingratiate him­self with his new monarch, Handel was his own boss. He had a foul temper and was scornful of his English rivals, saying the music at the royal court was composed and perform­ed by blockheads. Yet Handel must have been re­lieved at the king's react­ion: he wanted to get back in George's good graces. 

Right: Portrait of George I
Studio of Godfrey Kneller, c1720
National Portrait Gallery

Left:  George Frideric Handel, c1727

attributed to Balthasar Denner
National Portrait Gallery

Handel's London successes were now guaranteed, and in 1719, Handel was invited to become the Master of the Or­ches­t­ra at London’s Royal Academy of Music, the first Italian opera co­mpany. When Italian operas fell out of fashion, he started composing oratorios. 

Londoners claimed German-born and educated Han­d­el for their own. He loved his home in 25 Brook St, the place that became the site of the Handel House Museum, perman­ent­ly established in memory of his life and works. In 2001 Handel’s home was lovingly restored to look exactly how Handel knew it in the years 1723-59.

After a life of tumult and musical success, Handel died in 1759 at his May­fair house at 74. His huge state funeral was att­ended by 3,000 people, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Having never mar­ried or fath­ered children, Handel’s will div­ided his assets among staff and char­ities, including the Foundling Hospit­al. Biographical documents soon began to cir­cul­ate, and Handel took on leg­endary status post­hum­ously. Ludwig Van Beet­hoven wrote the tribute. Parts of the Water Music Suite were pub­lish­ed in Han­del’s lifetime, but the entire collect­ion did not come in­to print till 1788, 3 decades after the comp­oser’s death. In that year, 3 com­memorative concerts were held in his honour at the Parthenon and West­minster Abbey.

  

Handel House Museum

London Town

Thanks to Andrew Dickson, Betsy Shwarm & Biography.