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The Double Reed Archaeologist
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Chamber Music and Concertos for
Oboists and Bassoonists
Charles-David Lehrer,
General Editor
No. 74. George Frideric Handel:
Concerto Grosso Op. 3, No 4 in F Major
This work can be found in some MSS as the overture to Handel’s Queen Anne
Birthday Ode (Windsor: 1714); and its first movement was utilized as the
Second Overture in Amadigi di Gaula (London: 1716). The complete work, as
it now stands, is not a concerto, but instead, belongs to the genre dance
suite, properly called ordre.
The first movement is a French ouverture. In addition to the usual slow
dotted and quick imitatative sections, both of which are repeated, the second
section includes a return to slow dotted rhythm at its end. The imitatative
section is a fugue with episodes, wind instruments (2 oboes and bassoon)
doubling the appropriate strings throughout; so the episodes are not brought
into relief. The harmonies here are very enriched via suspensions, including
4-3 and especially 9-8. The tactus of the Largo sections is on the quarter
note, and all notation there must be resolved and ornamented in the French
manner, not an easy task for the uninitiated.
The slow movement which follows is an operatic aria for oboe soloist,
and it remains in the tonic. As with many Handel arias, a good part of the
solo line is duplicated in the 1st violin. Its structure is: ritornello,
episode in three sections, cadenza. I have left the working-out of the solo
line of the cadenza to the oboe soloist.
Ritornello form, the expected structure in any concerto, finally appears
in this third, but not final, movement. It is cast in the relative minor,
therefore, another movement will be needed to restore the tonic. There is
a solo episode for solo violin and two others for 2 oboes, 2 violins, and
bassoon. Imitation prevails throughout, but this is not a fugue. In the initial
ritornello, the slow downward descent of the continuo through two octaves
is most fascinating; the final ritornello descends in a similar manner,
but only makes it slightly beyond the octave.
The final movement, a menuetto in binary form, restores the tonic. It
includes a trio, also in the tonic, but with an imaginative change in orchestration:
the line carrying the primary thematic material moves to the 2nd violin part,
and this is doubled the bassoon. During the first time around, an ensemble
of just the 2 oboes, bassoon, and keyboard could be utilized to vary the
texture for both A and B sections of the menuetto.
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