View source for Music for the Royal Fireworks

{{short description|Suite for wind instruments by Handel}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox musical composition
| name        = ''Music for the Royal Fireworks''
| type        = [[Orchestral suite]]
| composer    = {{nowrap|[[George Frideric Handel]]}}
| image       = Elevationvanda.jpg
| image_upright = 1.3
| caption     = Machine for the fireworks for the peace of Aix la Chapelle in May 1749 performed in Green Park; structure designed by Franco-Italian architect [[Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni]]
| year        = {{Start date|1749}}
| catalogue   = [[Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis|HWV]] 351
| period      = [[Baroque music|Baroque]]
| movements   = Five
| performed   = {{Timeline-event|date={{Start date|1749|04|27|df=y}}|location=London}} [[Green Park]]
| instrumental = <!--{{hlist | 2 trumpets | timpani | flauto traverso | 2 oboes | bassoon | 3 violins | viola | cello | continuo }}-->
}}
The '''''Music for the Royal Fireworks''''' ([[HWV]] 351) is a [[Suite (music)|suite]] in [[D major]] for [[wind instrument]]s 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. The music celebrates the end of the [[War of the Austrian Succession]] and the signing of the [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)|Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle]] (Aachen) in 1748. The work was very popular when first performed and following Handel's death.

== Rehearsal and final production ==
During the preparations, Handel and [[John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu|John Montagu, Duke of Montagu]], the [[Master-General of the Ordnance]] and the officer responsible for the Royal Fireworks, had an argument about adding violins. The duke made clear to Handel that King George had a preference for only martial instruments (winds and percussion), and hoped there would be "no fiddles". Handel omitted the [[string instrument]]s against his will. Also, against Handel's will, there was a full rehearsal of the music in [[Vauxhall Gardens]] and not in Green Park. On 21 April 1749 an audience, claimed to be over twelve thousand people, each paying two [[Shilling (British coin)|shilling]]s and six [[Penny (British pre-decimal coin)|pence]] ([[Half crown (British coin)|half a crown]]) rushed to get there, causing a three-hour traffic jam of carriages on [[London Bridge]], the only vehicular route to the area south of the river.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hunter |first=David |title=The Lives of George Frideric Handel |date=2015 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-7832-7061-3 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=Uwc3CwAAQBAJ&q=Royal+Fireworks+%22no+fiddles%22&pg=PA82 85]}}</ref>

Six days later, on 27 April, the musicians performed in a specially constructed building designed by [[Giovanni Niccolò Servandoni|Servandoni]], a theatre designer, assisted by four Italians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Simon |first=Jacob |title=Handel, a celebration of his life and times, 1685–1759 |date=1985 |publisher=National Portrait Gallery (Great Britain) |page=212}}</ref> [[Andrea Casali]] and [[Andrea Soldi]] designed the decorations. The fireworks themselves were devised and controlled by Gaetano Ruggieri and [[Giuseppe Sarti]], both from Bologna.{{Efn|"The Ruggieri family represents one of the longest surviving dynasties in the pyrotechnical trade; they later fired the celebrations for the French Revolution and were still around to supervise the display in New York Harbour when the Statue of Liberty was rededicated in 1986."<ref name="Hogwood">{{Cite book |author-link=Christopher Hogwood |first=Christopher |last=Hogwood |date=2005 |title=Handel: Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=80 |isbn=978-0-521-83636-4}}</ref>}}<ref>Great Britain. Board of Ordnance ''A description of the machine for the fireworks, with all its ornaments, and a detail of the manner in which they are to be exhibited in St. James's Park, Thursday, 27 April 1749, on account of the general peace, signed at Aix La Chapelle, 7 October 1748. Published by order of His Majesty's Board of Ordnance''. London: printed by W. Bowyer, sold by R. Dodsley, and M. Cooper. 1749.</ref><ref name="Bomgardner">{{Cite book |last=Bomgardner |first=David L. |title=The Story of the Roman Amphitheatre |date=2000 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=113470738X |location=Abingdon, Oxfordshire |page=225}}</ref> [[Charles Frederick (MP)|Charles Frederick]] was the controller, captain [[Thomas Desaguliers]] was the chief fire master.<ref name="Plots">{{Cite book |last=Fraser |first=Antonia |title=Gunpowder Plots: A Celebration of 400 Years of Bonfire Night |date=2005 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-190933-2 |location=London |display-authors=etal |author-link=Antonia Fraser}}</ref> The display was not as successful as the music itself: the weather was rainy, causing many misfires, and in the middle of the show the right [[pavilion]] caught fire. Also, a woman's clothes were set on fire by a stray rocket and other fireworks burned two soldiers and blinded a third. Yet another soldier had his hand blown off during an earlier rehearsal for the 101 cannon which were used during the event.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Holdsworth |first=Rachel |date=March 2013 |title=Fire And 18th Century Traffic Jams: Handel And The Royal Fireworks |url=https://londonist.com/2013/03/fire-and-18th-century-traffic-jams-handel-and-the-royal-fireworks |access-date=3 December 2017 |website=londonist.com}}</ref>

== Music and instrumentation ==
{{Listen|type=music
|filename    = George Frideric Handel - Music for the Royal Fireworks 1 (Overture) The sound quality is better music.ogg
|title       = 1. Overture
|filename2   = George Frideric Handel - Music for the Royal Fireworks 2 (Bourre) The sound quality is better music.ogg
|title2      = 2. Bourrée
|filename3   = George Frideric Handel - Music for the Royal Fireworks 3 (Peace) The sound quality is better music.ogg
|title3      = 3. ''La Paix'': Largo alla siciliana
|filename4   = George Frideric Handel - Music for the Royal Fireworks 4 (La Rejouissance) The sound quality is better music.ogg
|title4      = 4. ''La Réjouissance'': Allegro
|filename5   = George Frideric Handel - Music for the Royal Fireworks 5 (Minuet) The sound quality is better music.ogg
|title5      = 5. Menuets I and II
}}
''Music for the Royal Fireworks'' opens with a [[French overture]] and includes a [[bourrée]] and two [[minuet]]s. The work is in five [[Movement (music)|movements]]:
#Overture (Adagio – Allegro – Lentement – Allegro)
#Bourrée
#''La Paix'' (Largo alla [[siciliana]])
#''La Réjouissance'' (Allegro)
#Menuets I and II

It was scored for a large wind band ensemble consisting of 24 [[oboe]]s, 12 [[bassoon]]s and a [[contrabassoon]] (originally serpent, later scratched out), nine [[natural trumpet]]s, nine [[natural horn]]s, three pairs of [[kettledrum]]s, and side drums which were given only the direction to play ''[[ad libitum]]''; no side drum parts were written by Handel.  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''.

Handel re-scored the suite for full orchestra for a performance on 27 May in the [[Foundling Hospital]]. Handel noted in the score that the violins were 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 ''Bourrée'' and the first ''Menuet'', which are played by the oboes, bassoons, and strings alone.<ref>Preface notes and score, [[Friedrich Chrysander|Fr. Chrysander]], ''Water-Music, Firework-Music, Concertos and Double Concertos for Full Orchestra by George Frederic Handel'', reprinted 1965, Gregg Press, New Jersey, US</ref>

== Recordings ==
{{Listen
| type         = music
| filename     = Paul Ayres - Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351 - I. Overture.ogg
| title        = I. Overture
| filename2    = Paul Ayres - Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351 - II. Bourrée.ogg
| title2       = II. Bourrée
| filename3    = Paul Ayres - Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351 - III. La Paix.ogg
| title3       = III. La Paix
| filename4    = Paul Ayres - Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351 - IV. La Réjouissance.ogg
| title4       = IV. La Réjouissance
| filename5    = Paul Ayres - Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351 - V. Menuet.ogg
| title5       = V. Menuet
| description5 = Organ version performed by Paul Ayres
}}

There are many recordings of ''Music for the Royal Fireworks''. Handel's ''[[Water Music]]'', although it was composed more than thirty years earlier, is often paired with the ''Music for the Royal Fireworks'' as both were written for outdoor performance. 
Older recordings tend to use arrangements of Handel's score for the modern orchestra, for example, the arrangements by [[Hamilton Harty]] (1923) and [[Leopold Stokowski]]. [[Charles Mackerras]]´ 1959 recording for [[Pye Records]] marked a return to Handel's orchestration.<ref name="Gramophone">{{Cite magazine |last=Greenfield |title=Handel orchestral works |url=https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/handel-orchestral-works-8 |magazine=Gramophone}}</ref> 
More recent recordings tend to use more [[historically informed performance]] methods appropriate for [[baroque music]] and often use authentic instruments.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://gfhandel.org/reviews/waterfireglossa.htm | title=Le Concert Spirituel (on period instruments) | last=Vickers | first=David | date=June 2003 | website=Music for the Royal Fireworks | publisher=gfhandel.org | access-date=20 April 2014 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421081719/http://gfhandel.org/reviews/waterfireglossa.htm | archive-date=21 April 2014 | df=dmy-all }}</ref>

There are also arrangements for pipe organ, alone or with brass.<ref>{{Cite AV media notes | title=Handel–Biggs: Firework Music (Suite from the Music for the Royal Fireworks) for Organ Solo (with Pipe Organ Registrations) | year=1944 | first=E. Power | last=Biggs|author-link=E. Power Biggs| publisher=B. F. Wood Music|location=New York }}</ref> In 1970, [[José Feliciano]] recorded for his ''Fireworks'' LP part of the work transcribed for classical guitar by himself.

This music was performed under the baton of [[Andrew Davis (conductor)|Andrew Davis]] for the [[Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II]] on 1 June 2002, at the [[Garden at Buckingham Palace|Buckingham Palace gardens]], complete with fireworks.<ref>{{YouTube|4BQemxvhhDQ|Queen's Jubilee Concerts, Buckingham Palace (2002)}}</ref>
{{-}}

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{IMSLP|work=Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351 (Handel, George Frideric)|cname=''Music for the Royal Fireworks''}}
*[http://mdz1.bib-bvb.de/~db/0001/bsb00016884/images/ Score] of ''Fireworks Music'' (ed. [[Friedrich Chrysander]], Leipzig 1886) pp.&nbsp;99–127, [[Munich Digitization Center]]

{{George Frideric Handel}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Suites by George Frideric Handel]]
[[Category:British court festivities]]
[[Category:1749 compositions]]
[[Category:1749 in England]]
[[Category:George II of Great Britain]]
[[Category:War of the Austrian Succession]]
[[Category:British patriotic songs]]
[[Category:British military marches]]
[[Category:Peruvian military marches]]
[[Category:Organised events in London]]
[[Category:Orchestral suites]]
[[Category:Compositions for orchestra without strings]]
[[Category:Fireworks]]
[[Category:Court of George II of Great Britain]]