What instruments were in a Baroque orchestra?

1. What instruments were in a Baroque orchestra?

3. The Baroque orchestra • Violin dominated orchestra became a standard towards the end of the 17th century. • Lully in Paris and Corelli in Rome were writing for large numbers of strings in parts (i.e. Violin I, Violin II) + a basso continuo, with woodwind & brass in pairs. • Basso continuo = a continued bass, sometimes called a “ground bass” or a “thoroughbass” – normally played by harpsichord, cello or bassoon. • Players were required to ‘realise’ the bass – meaning identify the chords needed and improvise by adding arpeggios or other decorations. To play in this stylistic way was a skilful job.

4. Period instruments in Handel’s Water Music Suite no.2 Oboes The oboe (or ‘hautboy’) was a refined French version of an outdoor reed instrument called the shawm. Developed in the 2nd half of the 17th century in the court of Louis XIV, the oboe had a longer reed and smaller bore than its predecessor, allowing greater control of dynamics across its approximately 2 8ve register (lowest note middle C), and producing a more refined tone that blended better with strings. It had 3 keys in addition to its finger holes, which improved tuning and simplified some of the awkward fingerings of the shawm. The renaissance shawm

5. Period instruments in Handel’s Water Music Suite no.2 Oboes (continued) It quickly became popular in the Baroque period, often doubling the violins to provide greater clarity, usually appearing in the orchestra in a unit of 2 oboes and bassoon. It was also popular as an outdoor instrument with military bands containing large numbers of oboes being a common phenomenon in the early 18th century. In the Water Music, the oboes generally double violins 1 and 2 and occassionally play on their own with bassoon, or support the brass instruments. One feature that suggests they were not yet as agile as the violin is that they do not double violin 1’s quavers in the ‘B’ section of the hornpipe. Note that 2 or more oboes would probably have played each oboe part in early performances of the Water Music.

6. Period instruments in Handel’s Water Music Suite no.2 Bassoon The bassoon developed at around the same time as the oboe, being adapted from an earlier instrument known as the ‘curtal’ or ‘dulcian’. It shared many of the characteristics of the oboe, also being a double reed instrument, and also had a small number of keys to aid tuning and fingering. It generally doubled the bass line in baroque orchestras, its crisp attack helping to give this more clarity. In the Water Music, it sometimes appears on its own with the oboes without the strings to provide timbral contrast (e.g. mvt 4 bar 19). Its combination with horns and cellos/basses in the first movement would have been an exotic sonority to contemporary audiences. Note that 2 or more bassoons would probably have been used in early performances of the Water Music. The curtal and baroque bassoon

7. Period instruments in Handel’s Water Music Suite no.2 French horns The horns that Handel wrote for would have been ‘Cors de Chasse’. Hunting horns that were becoming popular in Germany, and the players would probably have been imported specially for the occasion. This may have been the first time they had been heard in an orchestra in England, so their sound would have been a novelty. Horns of this period had no valves, a smaller bore than modern horns and were played with the bell facing upwards; modern horn players have the bell facing backwards and place their right hand in it to modify the tone and tuning.

8. Period instruments in Handel’s Water Music Suite no.2 Horns (continued) At first, a horn player needed a separate horn for each key they were required to play in, but in about 1715, crooks were introduced: insertable pieces of tubing of variable length that enabled horns to play in different keys. However, as horns had no valves and with no hand-stopping possible (adjusting the position of the hand in the bell to change the pitch), they could only play notes of the harmonic series in which they were crooked. This meant that there were gaps in their register, limiting the melodic material that they could play.

9. Period instruments in Handel’s Water Music Suite no.2 • Handel solved the problem of the horns limited notes in the Water Music by: • Basing the 1st horn’s melodic material around the first 5-6 scale degrees of D major • Devising 2nd horn parts that harmonise the first using the above notes plus the notes of a D major arpeggio below them • These often resulted in ‘horn call’ or fanfare-type ideas in the tonic key • Using the same key, D major, for each movement • Rarely straying from D major in sections where the horns were playing • Doubling the 2nd horn part in other instruments to add essential notes (particularly the leading note, C sharp) that it could not play • Omitting the horns in sections in different keys

10. Handel’s writing for brass Both the trumpet and horn parts in the set works are restricted to certain notes. The highest is the top B for trumpet in mvt.1 bar 17 (written A for horn in mvt.1 bar 21), the lowest being the D in the 2nd trumpet in mvt.1 bar 12 ( written C for horn in mvt.1 bar 14). Note that there are many written G naturals for trumpet in the work (e.g. mvt.1 bar 16), Handel also writes a G# in mvt.1 bar 26. This was possible because the 11th harmonic on a D trumpet falls between G and G#, and can therefore be ‘lipped’ to either note by the player (the same applies to the written F# in the horn part in bar 28 of the same movement). There are occasional trills marked in the trumpet and horn parts (e.g. mvt.2 bar 38). These would have been played as ‘lip trills’, a technique where the player’s embouchure is rapidly tightened and relaxed, producing a trill between two successive notes in the harmonic series.

11. Handel’s writing for brass • Although the brass parts are limited by the notes they can produce, Handel more than compensates for this with varied and striking rhythmic ideas. These include: • Emphatic repeated notes (mvt.1 bars 1-3) • Quaver movement (mvt.1 bars 13-14) • Dotted rhythms (mvt.1 bars 19-21) • Held notes (mvt.1 bars 25-26) • Semiquaver movement (mvt.1 bars 29-30) • Syncopations (mvt.2 bars 12-14) • Dialogue between trumpets and horns is used extensively in the Water Music Suite no. 2, especially in movements 1 and 2. Note that the trumpet parts sounded an octave higher than the horn parts, so the interplay between them exploit contrasts of register as well as timbre.

12. Strings • The stringed instruments in Handel’s day were similar to their modern counterparts, violins, violas, cellos and double basses: by this time, older Baroque stringed instruments, such as the viol family and viola d’amore had generally disappeared from orchestras. This gave the string section a homogenous tone and enabled them to function effectively as a self-contained unit. • Instruments of the time would have used gut strings, which were quieter than modern steel strings, and the playing style would have been different, involving: • Little of no vibrato • Lighter bowing • More use of open strings • The normal numbers of stringed instruments Handel had at his disposal in London at this time were 14 violins, 5 violas, 4 cellos and 2 double basses, but these forces would probably have been expanded for performances on the river.

13. Strings Handel’s treatment of individual string parts is fairly consistent throughout the set work: First violins play the melody line, which is usually the highest part in the texture. Second violins play the second highest line, which often has the same rhythm as the top line, adding harmony. They are usually less than an octave below the firsts (an exception being mvt 3 bars 9-12), often shadowing the top line a third below (e.g. mvt 3 bars 1-8). Occasionally they double the firsts in unison (e.g. mvt 2 bars 22-27) and very rarely rise above them (e.g. mvt 3 bar 15). Violas provide extra harmony between the upper parts and the bass line. Apart from in movement 1, they tend to be rhythmically more similar to the bass line than the violin parts. They tend to have the lease melodic interest out of all the parts. Cellos and basses play the line labelled ‘Basso’, which means that this line is doubled in octaves.

14. Strings • An exception to the above is the ‘B’ section of movement 2 (Alla Hornpipe), where the violins are divided into three, giving a mainly 5 part, rather than a 4 part texture. The parts are distributed in several ways in this section: • Violins 1 and 2 playing the melody in unison, the rest playing the accompaniment • Violin 1 playing obbligato quavers, violin 2 on the melody, the rest on the accompaniment • Violin 1 playing the melody, the rest on the accompaniment • Violin 2 on the melody, lower parts on the accompaniment • Violin 1 and 2 playing the melody in thirds and sixths, other parts accompanying • Task: Find bar numbers for the above examples

15. Strings • An exception to the above is the ‘B’ section of movement 2 (Alla Hornpipe), where the violins are divided into three, giving a mainly 5 part, rather than a 4 part texture. The parts are distributed in several ways in this section: • Violins 1 and 2 playing the melody in unison, the rest playing the accompaniment (bars 40-43 and 62-63) • Violin 1 playing obbligato quavers, violin 2 on the melody, the rest on the accompaniment (bars 43-48 and 57-61) • Violin 1 playing the melody, the rest on the accompaniment (bars 49-56) • Violin 2 on the melody, lower parts on the accompaniment (bars 66-67) • Violin 1 and 2 playing the melody in thirds and sixths, other parts accompanying (bars 68-74)

16. Notable absences Two instruments that would normally be in a Handel orchestral work of this time, but which were omitted owing to their unsuitability for a performance on a cramped barge, were harpsichord and timpani. The harpsichord would normally fill in harmony from a figured bass part, and was more or less standard in performances in conventional venues at this time. Timpani, which frequently accompanied trumpets in late Baroque orchestral music, were included in indoor performances of the Water Music during Handel’s lifetime, but were not listed as being among the instruments on the 1717 barge and are not included in the score.