Musical contribution - October 2024

Overture (1st movement Concerto) / G.F.Händel (1685-1759)

(LiVE Sampleset: Amsterdam, Vater-Müller)

This month, we have the final movement of the Concerto in Bb. We should have four movements now, which should be performed in this order:

               -Overture                           October 2024

               -Allegro                              February 2023

               -Minuet                              May 2024

               -Passacaglia                      October 2023

Normally a concerto is in three movements: Fast - Slow - Fast. However, some also have a fourth movement. Or rather it’s an opening (Overture) prior to the first movement. Where did this start?

Many composers were employed by a court. In the evening, when a concert was about to start, the orchestra would already be seated and the king would enter in silence. One of the early royals didn’t like ‘entering in silence’ and asked his court composer if he could come up with something. ‘I’d like a short introduction’, he said, ‘that lasts the same amount of time as I need to get from the back of the hall to my seat at the front. Preferably stately music so I can walk regally along to it’. That’s how the Overture originally began. It later took on a completely different function.

Händel composed such an opening for his second Concerto. I’ve actually scaled it back slightly so it has more of the original purpose of an Overture.

With respect to the registration we can try two different approaches:

               1..          Louder than the second movement, which immediately puts us in a royal realm.

               2..          Softer than the second movement. This makes it clear that the Concerto really

                              starts with the second movement.

We hope you enjoy this four-movement Concerto in Bb.

Kind regards,

André