Music for the Royal Fireworks

The Music for the Royal Fireworks (HWV 351) is a wind band suite composed by George Frideric Handel in 1749 under contract of George II of Great Britain for the fireworks in London's Green Park on 27 April 1749. It was to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.

Handel's Fireworks Music, performed at his GRACE the Duke of RICHMOND'S at WHITEHALL and on the River Thames on Monday 15 May 1749. Performed by the direction of Charles Fredrick Esq. A hand-coloured etching.

The performing musicians were in a specially constructed building that had been designed by Servandoni, a theatre designer. The music provided a background for the royal fireworks that were designed by Thomas Desguliers, son of the cleric and scientist John Theophilus Desaguliers. However, the display was not as successful as the music itself: the enormous wooden building caught fire after the collapse of a bas relief of George II. However, the music had been performed publicly six days earlier, on 21 April 1749 when there was a full rehearsal of the music at Vauxhall Gardens. Over twelve thousand people, each paying 2/6, rushed for it, causing a three-hour traffic jam of carriages after the main route to the area south of the river was closed due to the collapse of the central arch of newly built London Bridge.

When published, Handel wished to present the work as an overture, but the Crown had it given the title "Music for the Royal Fireworks" as propaganda in favour of an otherwise unpopular Treaty and monarch.[1]

Music and instrumentation

Music for the Royal Fireworks opens with a French overture and includes a bourrée and two minuets.

The work is in five movements:

1. Ouverture: Adagio, Allegro, Lentement, Allegro
2. Bourrée
3. La Paix: Largo alla siciliana
4. La Réjouissance: Allegro
5. Menuets I and II

It was scored for a large wind band ensemble consisting of 24 oboes, 12 bassoons (and a contrabassoon), nine natural trumpets, nine natural horns, three pairs of kettledrums, and an unspecified number of snare drums. Handel was specific about the numbers of instruments to each written part. In the overture there are assigned three players to each of the three trumpet parts; the 24 oboes are divided 12, 8 and 4; and the 12 bassoons are divided 8 and 4. The side drums were instructed when to play in La Réjouissance and the second Menuet, but very likely also played in the Ouverture.

After the first performance Handel re-scored the suite for full orchestra. Handel wrote notices in the score: the violins to play the oboe parts, the cellos and double basses the bassoon part, and the violas either a lower wind or bass part. The instruments from the original band instrumentation play all the movements in the revised orchestral edition except the gentle Bourrée and the first Menuet, which are played by only the oboes, bassoons, and strings alone.

Recordings

There are many recordings. Handel's "Water Music" is often paired with the "Music for the Royal Fireworks" as both were written for outdoor performance. Together, these works constitute Handel's most famous music for what we would now consider the orchestra. Older recordings tend to use arrangements of Handel's score for the modern orchestra, for example the arrangements by Hamilton Harty and Leopold Stokowski. More recent recordings tend to use more historically informed performance methods appropriate for baroque music and often use authentic instruments.

There are also several arrangements for pipe organ, alone or with brass.

This music was performed for the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II on June 1, 2002, at the Buckingham Palace gardens, complete with fireworks of course.

External links

• Free scores by Fireworks Music at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Score (E-book) of Fireworks Music (ed. Friedrich Chrysander, Leipzig 1886)