CHAPTER 22
Grace and Grandeur: The Baroque Dance Suite
OVERVIEW
The dance suite is introduced as a genre that emphasizes the significance of technology in the
evolution of musical instruments during the Baroque era. Handel’s Water Music serves as one of
two case studies of this chapter; not only does it exemplify the standard formal designs of the
Baroque suite, but it also is scored for the latest string, brass, woodwind, and percussion
instruments of the day.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. To understand the technological advancements in instrument design and construction
during the Baroque era
2. To understand the Baroque suite as one of the most important genres of instrumental music
of its day
3. To understand the musical design of the Baroque suite as exemplified in Handel’s Water
Music
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
1. Show your class images of Baroque era instruments and compare them with modern
instruments. The André Mertens Galleries for Musical Instruments at New York’s
Metropolitan Museum of Art maintain an interactive website
(http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/galleries/musical-instruments/684) that allows
users to view images and hear audio clips of the collection. Highlights from the Baroque
collection include string instruments by Stradivari and Amati; trumpets from the Nuremburg
school; and keyboards by Cristofori, Ruckers, and Todini. Gallery 684 includes all of the
string, keyboard, woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments most commonly played
during the Baroque era (including similar ones to those called for in Handel’s Water Music).
2. After reviewing the form of the hornpipe from Handel’s Water Music, play the example from
the playlist, which features Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.
Next, play the version of the hornpipe movement from a recording of a full orchestra with
modern instruments (e.g., the 1961 EMI recording with Herbert von Karajan leading the
Berlin Philharmonic). Ask the class to identify the difference in instrumental sounds between
these various recordings. What are the merits and drawbacks of each?
3. Show clips from the 2009 BBC documentary Handel’s Water Music: Recreating a Royal
Spectacular. The DVD is available for purchase at
http://www.opusarte.com/details/OA0930D#.U8Wjko1dVKg. The documentary features
Andrew Manze and the English Concert in a historical reenactment of the famous 1717
Water Music royal procession on the river Thames.
ASSIGNMENT SUGGESTIONS
1. Identify the forms of the following short dances. Remember to listen not only for phrases
but also cadences and key changes:
Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067, VIII: Badinerie (A-B)
Handel: Water Music Suite No. 3 in G, HWV 350, V: Minuet II (A-B-A)
Lully: “Canarie” from Armide, Act IV, Scene 2 (A-B)
Rameau: Prologue to Dardanus: Tambourin 1 and 2 (A-B-A)
2. Listen to the hornpipe from Handel’s Water Music. Describe the differences you hear
between the A and B sections. What instrumental contrasts do you hear? Review what you
learned about these instruments from the textbook; can you articulate a mechanical or
technological explanation for these differences?
TEACHING CHALLENGES
Make sure to emphasize that in the performance of dance suite movements, repeats are optional.
Make a note beforehand of which listening examples repeat the A and B sections and which do
not. This approach will eliminate potential confusion as your students listen for the forms of
these pieces.
SUPPLEMENTAL REPERTORY
Bach: Orchestral Suites (Overtures) 14, BWV 10661069
Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351
SUPPLEMENTAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carroll, Paul. Baroque Woodwind Instruments. Aldershot, UK, and Brookfield, VT: Ashgate,
1999. Carroll devotes each of the four main sections of this book to a specific woodwind
instrument prominent in Baroque music (bassoon, flute, oboe, and recorder). Each of the
four sections is prefaced with a history of the instruments.
Hogwood, Christopher. Handel: Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. Cambridge
and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Hogwood elaborates on Handel’s two
famous orchestral suites, with an emphasis on their historical and political context; see
especially Chapter 3, “Water Music.”
Lawson, Colin, and Robin Stowell, eds. Cambridge Handbooks to the Historical Performance of
Music. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 19992003. A useful and
informative series on various instruments and their development throughout the early stages
of their evolution (including the Baroque era). At present, the series includes monographs on
historical performance in general, the clarinet, violin and viola, flute, keyboards, and horn.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Grace and Grandeur: The Baroque Dance Suite (Chapter 22)
I. Baroque Instruments
A. Focus on instruments and instrumental music
1. encouraged by wealthy patrons
2. collaboration of craftspeople and musicians
3. music written for specific instruments
B. Dramatic improvements to instruments
1. strings:
a. gut strings, softer more penetrating sound
b. Northern Italy: Stradivarius, Guarneri, Amati
2. woodwinds:
a. all made of wood
b. expanded range, subtlety
c. suggest pastoral scenes
3. brass:
a. valveless, demands virtuosity
b. trumpets: bright sonority
c. French horn: mellow, huntlike sound
II. The Baroque Suite
A. Suite: group of short dances
1. all in same key, contrasting moods
2. performed by diverse array of instruments
3. international influence
a. German allemande
b. French courante
c. Spanish sarabande
d. English gigue
e. other dances: minuet, gavotte, bourée, passepied, hornpipe
4. binary (A-A-B-B), or ternary (A-B-A) form
5. written for solo instrument, chamber ensembles, orchestra
B. Handel and the orchestral suite
1. Water Music, and Music for the Royal Fireworks
2. Water Music: five-movement orchestral suite
a. outdoor performance: royal party, Thames River
b. lively rhythms, catchy melodies
C. Listening Guide 11: Handel, Water Music, Suite in D Major, Alla hornpipe (1717, first
performance)
1. ternary form (A-B-A)
2. A section:
a. major key, triple meter
b. disjunct theme
c. decorative trills in strings and woodwinds
d. regal brass and timpani answer
3. B section:
a. reflective, minor key
b. strings and woodwinds (no brass)