Music for the Royal Fireworks
George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)
Ouverture: Adagio, Allegro, Lentement, Allegro; Bourrée; La Paix: Largo alla siciliana; La Réjouissance: Allegro; Menuets I and II.
In 1749, George Frederick Handel was commissioned to provide music to help celebrate the signing of the Aix-la-Chapelle peace treaty that marked the end (albeit temporary) of the War of the Austrian Succession. The Duke of Montague hired a theatre designer, Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni, to design and erect an enormous structure to support the largest and most spectacular firework display ever seen in England. Handel was instructed by the King to supply music played by ‘naught but martial instruments,’ and no ‘fidles’. Accordingly, he wrote for a wind and percussion band comprising 24 oboes, 9 horns, three sets of timpani, 12 bassoons, a contrabassoon and a serpent. The music was couched in the French tradition: a grand overture followed by a sequence of dance movements.
A public rehearsal of the music at Vauxhall Gardens drew an audience of 12,000, blocking nearby streets for over three hours. To add to the mayhem, the weight of traffic caused the central span of the newly-built London Bridge to collapse, so alternative routes across the River Thames had to be found. Nevertheless, the public rehearsal was judged to have been a huge success. A week later, the spectacle itself (the one with the fireworks) drew even greater numbers, but was far from trouble-free. Many of the fireworks failed to ignite. One of those that did ignite fell on Servandoni’s structure, setting it alight. The tableau disintegrated and three spectators were killed. Meanwhile, a bas relief of George II fell off its moorings as though in mockery of the monarch’s grand intentions.
Not long after, the orchestra assembled for an indoor performance was drastically reduced in the wind sections, while strings and a harpsichord were added. This is the version performed today: no fireworks, no inferno.
George Frederick Handel (1685-1759)
Ouverture: Adagio, Allegro, Lentement, Allegro; Bourrée; La Paix: Largo alla siciliana; La Réjouissance: Allegro; Menuets I and II.
In 1749, George Frederick Handel was commissioned to provide music to help celebrate the signing of the Aix-la-Chapelle peace treaty that marked the end (albeit temporary) of the War of the Austrian Succession. The Duke of Montague hired a theatre designer, Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni, to design and erect an enormous structure to support the largest and most spectacular firework display ever seen in England. Handel was instructed by the King to supply music played by ‘naught but martial instruments,’ and no ‘fidles’. Accordingly, he wrote for a wind and percussion band comprising 24 oboes, 9 horns, three sets of timpani, 12 bassoons, a contrabassoon and a serpent. The music was couched in the French tradition: a grand overture followed by a sequence of dance movements.
A public rehearsal of the music at Vauxhall Gardens drew an audience of 12,000, blocking nearby streets for over three hours. To add to the mayhem, the weight of traffic caused the central span of the newly-built London Bridge to collapse, so alternative routes across the River Thames had to be found. Nevertheless, the public rehearsal was judged to have been a huge success. A week later, the spectacle itself (the one with the fireworks) drew even greater numbers, but was far from trouble-free. Many of the fireworks failed to ignite. One of those that did ignite fell on Servandoni’s structure, setting it alight. The tableau disintegrated and three spectators were killed. Meanwhile, a bas relief of George II fell off its moorings as though in mockery of the monarch’s grand intentions.
Not long after, the orchestra assembled for an indoor performance was drastically reduced in the wind sections, while strings and a harpsichord were added. This is the version performed today: no fireworks, no inferno.