Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: When did Handel write his Water Music Suite?
The Water Music composed by George Frideric Handel premiered on 17 July 1717, when King George I requested a concert on the River Thames. The concert was performed for King George I on his barge and he is said to have enjoyed it so much that he ordered the 50 exhausted musicians to play the suites three times on the trip.
In 1733 the Earl of Essex received a letter with the following sentence: "Handel became so arbitrary a prince, that the Town murmurs". The board of chief investors expected Handel to retire when his contract ended, but Handel immediately looked for another theatre. In cooperation with John Rich he started his third company at Covent Garden Theatre. Rich was renowned for his spectacular productions. He suggested Handel use his small chorus and introduce the dancing of Marie Sallé, for whom Handel composed "Terpsicore". In 1735 he introduced organ concertos between the acts. For the first time Handel allowed Gioacchino Conti, who had no time to learn his part, to substitute arias. Financially, "Ariodante" was a failure, although he introduced ballet suites at the end of each act. "Alcina", his last opera with a magic content, and "Alexander's Feast or the Power of Music" based on John Dryden's "Alexander's Feast" starred Anna Maria Strada del Pò and John Beard.
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his 32 piano sonatas between 1795 and 1822. Although originally not intended to be a meaningful whole, as a set they compose one of the most important collections of works in the history of music. Hans von Bülow called them "The New Testament" of the piano literature (Johann Sebastian Bach's "The Well-Tempered Clavier" being "The Old Testament").
George Frideric Handel's operas comprise 42 musical dramas that were written between 1705 and 1741 in various genres. He began composing operas in Germany and then for a brief time in Italy to modest success. It was not until he moved to England that he found great success in the genre. His first opera in England, "Rinaldo" (1711), was met with enthusiasm, and several more Italian operas soon followed. However, Handel's place as the central figure of opera in England during the eighteenth century was not solidified until, under the influence of Thomas Arne, he began composing large-scale works with English language texts. Though almost all his English language works are technically oratorios and not operas, several of them, such as "Semele" (1743), have become an important part of the opera repertoire. Handel's first opera (opera seria - serious Italian opera) was "Almira" (1705).
Mainwaring has Handel traveling to Berlin the next year, 1698. The problem with Mainwaring as an authority for this date, however, is that he tells of how Handel's father communicated with the "king" during Handel's stay, declining the Court's offer to send Handel to Italy on a stipend and that his father died "after his return from Berlin." But since Georg Händel died in 1697, either the date of the trip or Mainwaring's statements about Handel's father must be in error. Early biographers solved the problem by making the year of the trip 1696, then noting that at the age of 11 Handel would need a guardian, so they have Handel's father or a friend of the family accompany him, all the while puzzling over why the elder Handel, who wanted Handel to become a lawyer, would spend the sum to lead his son further into the temptation of music as a career. Schoelcher for example has Handel traveling to Berlin at 11, meeting both Bononcini and Attilio Ariosti in Berlin and then returning at the direction of his father. But Ariosti was not in Berlin before the death of Handel's father, and Handel could not have met Bononcini in Berlin before 1702. Modern biographers either accept the year as 1698, since most reliable older authorities agree with it, and discount what Mainwaring says about what took place during the trip or assume that Mainwaring conflated two or more visits to Berlin, as he did with Handel's later trips to Venice.
This sudden recognition led to eager competition for Handel's services. Among those most keen to employ him was Prince Georg Ludwig, the Elector of Hanover and future King George I of Great Britain. In June 1710 Handel accepted the appointment of Kapellmeister to Georg's Hanover court, under terms that gave him considerable scope to pursue his own interests. On the basis of this freedom, in late 1710 Handel left Hanover for London, possibly in response to an earlier invitation from members of the English nobility. By 1711, informed London audiences had become familiar with the nature of Italian opera through the numerous pastiches and adaptations that had been staged. The former Royal Academy of Music Principal, Curtis Price, writes that the popularity of these pieces was the result of a deliberate strategy aimed at the suppression of English opera. Handel's music was relatively unknown in England, though his reputation from "Agrippina" was considerable elsewhere. A short "Italian Dialogue" he had written in honour of Queen Anne's birthday was well received when performed at St James's Palace on 6 February 1711.
In 1733, a second opera company, The Opera of the Nobility was set up to rival Handel's, employing several of Handel's former star singers including the celebrated castrato Senesino. Handel's lease on the King's Theatre in the Haymarket expired at the end of the 1733 - 34 season, and the Opera of the Nobility moved into what had been Handel's artistic home for years. In addition to Senesino, the rival opera company had also hired the renowned castrato Farinelli, who created a sensation. These were considered serious setbacks for Handel as the French author Antoine François Prévost wrote in 1734:He has so suffered great losses and written so many wonderful operas, which proved to be utter failures, that he will be forced to leave London and return to his home country but, undeterred, Handel moved into a new theatre, the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, built by John Rich largely on the proceeds of the extremely successful "The Beggar's Opera" which had parodied Italian opera of the kind Handel supplied for London. Rich had equipped his new theatre with the latest technology in stage machinery and also employed a troupe of dancers, which had not been the case at the King's Theatre in the Haymarket. Handel opened his first season at Covent Garden with a re-working of his earlier "Il Pastor Fido" with an entirely new prologue, "Terpsichore", featuring the internationally famous French dancer Marie Sallé. The pasticcio "Oreste", which followed, also features dances unlike the operas Handel had previously composed for London.
Handel had presented new operas in London for years with great success. One of the major attractions in Handel's operas was the star "castrato" Senesino, whose relationship with the composer was often stormy and who eventually left Handel's company to appear with the rival Opera of the Nobility, set up in 1733. Handel moved to a different theatre, Covent Garden, and engaged different singers, but there were neither sufficient audience for opera in London nor aristocratic supporters to back two opera houses at once, and both opera companies found themselves in difficulty. None of Handel's three new operas in the 1736-37 season repeated the success of his earlier works, and he suffered a breakdown in his health, as reported by his friend Lord Shaftesbury:
"Great fatigue and disappointment, affected him so much, that he was this Spring struck with the Palsy, which took entirely away, the use of 4 fingers of his right hand; and totally disabled him from Playing: And when the heats of the Summer 1737 came on, the Disorder seemed at times to affect his Understanding."
Salomon brought Joseph Haydn to London in 1791–92 and 1794–95, and together with Haydn led the first performances of many of the works that Haydn composed while in England. Haydn wrote his symphonies numbers 93 to 104 for these trips, which are sometimes known as the "Salomon" symphonies (they are more widely known as the London symphonies). Haydn's esteem for his impresario and orchestral leader can sometimes be seen in the symphonies: for example, the cadenza in the slow movement of the 96th and the phrase marked "Salomon solo ma piano" in the trio of the 97th; the Sinfonia Concertante in B-flat major was composed for Salomon, who played the solo violin part; and the six string quartets opp. 71 and 74, written between the two London visits in 1793, though dedicated to Count Apponyi, were clearly designed for the public performances that Salomon's quartet gave in London. Salomon is also said to have had a hand in providing Haydn with the original model for the text of "The Creation". He was one of the founder-members of the Philharmonic Society and led the orchestra at its first concert on 8 March 1813.
Beethoven's Second Symphony was mostly written during Beethoven's stay at Heiligenstadt in 1802, at a time when his deafness was becoming more pronounced and he began to realize that it might be incurable. The work was premiered in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna on 5 April 1803, and was conducted by the composer. During that same concert, the Third Piano Concerto and the oratorio "Christ on the Mount of Olives" were also debuted. It is one of the last works of Beethoven's so-called "early period".
There are 106 symphonies by the classical composer Joseph Haydn (1732–1809). Of these, 104 have numbers associated with them which were originally assigned by Eusebius Mandyczewski in 1908 in the chronological order that was known at the time. In the subsequent decades, numerous inaccuracies in the chronology (especially in the lower numbers) were found, but the Mandyczewski numbers were so widely used that when Anthony van Hoboken compiled his catalogue of Haydn's works, he incorporated the Mandyczewski number into Catalogue I (e.g., Symphony No. 34 is listed as Hob. I/34). Also in that time period, two additional symphonies were discovered (which were assigned non-Mandyczewskian letters "A" and "B"), bringing the total to 106.Hoboken also includes four other works in his "Symphony" category (Hob. I):
Following Beethoven's death, a number of unpublished works were discovered amongst his papers including the Piano Trio, WoO. 38, the Piano Sonata, WoO. 51, the Rondino, WoO. 25 and this sonata for flute and keyboard. Alexander Thayer noted that when the sonata was discovered, the manuscript was not in Beethoven's handwriting, making attribution to the composer problematic. Keith Anderson, writing in the liner notes to the 2018 Naxos recording of the sonata comments that musicologist Willy Hess argued that Beethoven would not have retained the work in his papers unless he had some personal connection with the composition.
Possibly the oldest surviving music from Sussex is the 14th century Robertsbridge Codex which contains six pieces of music. This manuscript contains one of the earliest pieces of music specifically written for the keyboard. The Robertsbridge Codex is also the earliest evidence of two handed, polyphonic organ music and dates from around 1325.
The "Prelude and Liebestod" is a concert version of the overture and Isolde's act 3 aria, "Mild und leise". The arrangement was by Wagner himself, and it was first performed in 1862, several years before the premiere of the complete opera in 1865. The "Liebestod" can be performed either in a purely orchestral version, or with a soprano singing Isolde's vision of Tristan resurrected.
The Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. It was first performed in Vienna on 7 May 1824. One of the best-known works in common practice music, it is regarded by many critics and musicologists as one of Beethoven's greatest works and one of the supreme achievements in the history of western music. In the 2010s, it stands as one of the most performed symphonies in the world.
The symphony was the eleventh of twelve that were composed for performance in England during Haydn's two journeys there (1791–1792, 1794–1795), arranged and organized by the great impresario, Johann Peter Salomon. Haydn's music was well known in England well before the composer traveled there, and members of the British musical public had long expressed the wish that Haydn would visit. The composer's reception in England was in fact very enthusiastic, and the English visits were one of the most fruitful and happy periods of the composer's life. Haydn composed the "Drumroll" Symphony while living in London during the winter of 1794–1795.
Cultural activities were also held in the auditorium. The recently established Albany Symphony Orchestra, then known as the People's Symphony of Albany, rehearsed there and sometimes performed concerts. In 1934, its founder John Carabella, premiered his original work "The Helderbergs", "a symphonic poem dedicated to the citizens of Albany", at Philip Livingston.
The Symphony No. 1 in D minor (The Gothic) by Havergal Brian is a symphony composed between 1919 and 1927. At around one and three quarter hours, it is among the longest symphonies ever composed (with Gustav Mahler's 3rd Symphony, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji's nine-hour 2nd Organ Symphony and Dimitrie Cuclin's unperformed No. 12) and, along with choral symphonies such as Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony or Mahler's Eighth Symphony, it is one of a few works attempting to use the musically gigantic to address the spiritual concerns of humanity. With a key-scheme that begins in D minor and eventually closes in E major, the work is an example of progressive tonality.
The Symphony No. 38 in C major, Hoboken I/38, is an early and festive symphony by Joseph Haydn. The symphony was composed some time between 1765 and 1769. Because of the virtuosic oboe parts in the final two movements, it has been suggested that the work's composition may have coincided with the employ of the oboist Vittorino Colombazzo in the fall of 1768. The symphony is popularly called the Echo Symphony, a nickname that, like all other named Haydn symphonies, did not originate with the composer.
By 1827, the family had returned to Leipzig. Wagner's first lessons in harmony were taken during 1828–31 with Christian Gottlieb Müller. In January 1828 he first heard Beethoven's 7th Symphony and then, in March, the same composer's 9th Symphony (both at the Gewandhaus). Beethoven became a major inspiration, and Wagner wrote a piano transcription of the 9th Symphony. He was also greatly impressed by a performance of Mozart's "Requiem." Wagner's early piano sonatas and his first attempts at orchestral overtures date from this period.
Most early written classical music was predominantly sacred; collections of written music and literature were held by monasteries, cathedrals, and other religious establishments, such as church music societies, offices, and seminaries. As universities emerged in the 12th century, libraries formed throughout Europe, and obtained donations or gifts from monasteries and private collectors. The advent of national and centralized libraries two centuries later allowed for greater attention to special materials like music collections. Up to the end of the 15th century, music collections had been limited to religious organizations, private collectors, or small areas of university libraries. Public collections grew with the development of printing at the end of the 15th century and the surge of scholarly and artistic endeavors of the Renaissance.
The theme of the "Handel Variations" is taken from an aria in the third movement of Handel's Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B Major, HWV 434 ("Suites de pièces pour le clavecin," published by J. Walsh, London 1733 with five variations). Brahms himself owned a copy of the 1733 First Edition. The appeal of the aria for Brahms might have been its simplicity: its range is restricted to one octave; the harmony is plain, with every note taken from the B-flat major scale; it "made an admirably neutral starting-place". While Handel had written only five variations on his theme, Brahms, with the piano as his instrument rather than the more limited harpsichord, enlarged the scope of his opus to 25 variations ending with an extended fugue. Brahms's use of Handel exemplifies his love of the music of the past and his tendency to incorporate it and transform it in his own compositions.
At the end of his manuscript Handel wrote the letters "SDG"—', "To God alone the glory". This inscription, taken with the speed of composition, has encouraged belief in the apocryphal story that Handel wrote the music in a fervour of divine inspiration in which, as he wrote the "Hallelujah" chorus, "he saw all heaven before him". Burrows points out that many of Handel's operas, of comparable length and structure to "Messiah", were composed within similar timescales between theatrical seasons. The effort of writing so much music in so short a time was not unusual for Handel and his contemporaries; Handel commenced his next oratorio, "Samson", within a week of finishing "Messiah", and completed his draft of this new work in a month. In accordance with his frequent practice when writing new works, Handel adapted existing compositions for use in "Messiah", in this case drawing on two recently completed Italian duets and one written twenty years previously. Thus, ' from 1722 became the basis of "O Death, where is thy sting?"; "His yoke is easy" and "And he shall purify" were drawn from ' (July 1741), "Unto us a child is born" and "All we like sheep" from ' (July 1741). Handel's instrumentation in the score is often imprecise, again in line with contemporary convention, where the use of certain instruments and combinations was assumed and did not need to be written down by the composer; later copyists would fill in the details.
As with "Nero", it is possible that music from "Florindo" or "Daphne" was recycled by Handel for use in later works. The overture to the opera "Rodrigo" consists of eight French-style dances, which Cudworth believes might have begun life as ballet music in one or other of the lost Hamburg operas. In 1709–10 Handel composed the cantata "Apollo e Dafne", which has common ground with the earlier operas. Harris makes the point that when writing the cantata, Handel would have recalled his earlier setting, and perhaps borrowed from it. Dean and Knapp provide further example of works in which the "Florinda" and "Daphne" music may have re-emerged: the oratorio "Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno" (1707); the opera "Radamisto" (1720); and the overture in B flat, HWV336, which Baselt conjectures might have been written as the overture to "Florindo". This last-named has been combined with HWV352–354 and HWV356 to form the "Suite from the operas Florindo and Daphne", which in 2012 was adapted and recorded by The Parley of Instruments under Peter Holman.
Among the eight suites published for harpsichord in 1720, G. F. Handel published his Suite no. 5 in E Major, HWV 430. This suite consists of four movements: The Prelude, Allemande, Courante and Air and Variations; the first three movements having stylized dance rhythms. This suite was promulgated a year after Handel became Master of the Orchestra at the Royal Academy of Music, also known as the first Italian opera company in London. Handel lived the remainder of his life in London after leaving Germany to work as resident composer for Earl of Carnarvon.