Water Music Suite

Composed for a 1717 royal river pageant on the Thames, the *Water Music* is Baroque music at its most openly sociable — designed to carry across water to thousands of spectators, performed repeatedly over hours as King George I dined on a royal barge. Handel organized the sixty-odd minutes of music into three suites in different keys, each featuring a different ensemble at its core: the first in F major built around French horns and oboes, the second in D major featuring trumpets, the third in G major lighter and more intimate. The opening *Overture* announces itself with the kind of fanfare that can cut through ambient noise and crowd chatter, but the suites also contain minuets, airs, and dances of delicate craftsmanship. Heard today in concert, the music retains its outdoor quality — it breathes easily, never overcrowded or anxious, the product of a composer entirely comfortable writing for an occasion and doing so brilliantly. It is music that celebrates the simple pleasure of a fine day.