Minuet from Water Music
Listening Guide
The English Concert, on period instruments. Trevor Pinnock, conductor.
Composer: George Frideric Handel
Composition: Minuet from Water Music
Date: 1717
Genre: stylized dance movement from a suite
Form: [Ternary form AABBAA]
Performing Forces: Baroque orchestral: according to the musical score, 2 trumpets, 2 horns, 2 oboes, 1 bassoons, 1st violins, 2nd violins, violas, cello, and basso continuo (the cellos play the same music as the bassoon)
What we want you to remember about this composition:
- It is a stylized dance
- It is in triple meter and at a moderate and stately tempo
Other things to listen for
- It uses repeated sections or strains, A and B (A is half the length of B)
- We don't know exactly which instruments would have played it but probably different families of instruments would have taken different sections to provide contrast
Timing
Performing Forces, Melody, and Texture
Text and Form:
The analysis below was written Michael Sundblad, not the textbook authors:
Horns playing in a triple meter in F major. The melody starts with repeated notes and an arpeggio of the F major triad. The first 8-bar phrase is repeated at 0:10.
A a
The second phrase begins on V and includes repeating notes and ascending leaps (repeated at 0:34)
A b
Contrasting B section: First of two phrases. Just strings and bassoon, now in F minor. This phrase is repeated at 1:40.
B a
The second section of B is twice as long as the previous phrase. The first eight bars ends with a major chord on V and the 16th measure ends with the tonic chord, F minor. This portion is repeated at 2:13.
B b
The opening A phrase appears in the home key of F major. This is identical to 0:45 above and is repeated at 2:47.
A a
The second A phrase is played by the full orchestra as in 1:07 above. This is repeated at 3:08.
A b