Handel and Harty - Music for Fireworks

Musical authenticity, intent, and restoration/reconstruction are reoccurring themes in this program, as Canby compares Harty's arrangement to the original "Music for the Royal Fireworks," composed by George Frideric Handel.

This piece by Sir Hamilton Harty, an Irish composer, conductor, and pianist, is an orchestral arrangement of George Frideric Handel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks," composed in 1749 for King George II. The music was meant to accompany the fireworks in London's Green Park on April 27, 1749, in celebration of the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle the year before. Both the music and the fireworks had incendiary effects; the music was wildly popular and the fireworks, designed by Thomas Desguliers, caused an enormous wooden building to catch fire.

Handel's "Music for the Royal Fireworks" was scored for a large wind band ensemble. Handel specified the number of instruments to each written part--24 oboes, 12 bassoons, 9 natural trumpets, etc. The work is in five movements:

1. Ouverture: Adagio, Allegro, Lentement, Allegro
2. Bourrée
3. La Paix: Largo alla siciliana
4. La Réjouissance: Allegro
5. Menuets I and II

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