The MCO understands the importance of music education, which is why we’ve developed a unique instructional resource for teachers and parents. Written by music educator Beryl Peters, Ph.D, MCO’s Listening Guides provide a clear and thorough analysis of the repertoire featured in our concerts. They offer a perfect primer to the great works of Bach, Beethoven, Britten and beyond for K-8 and 9-12 students — with engaging historical anecdotes and simple theory for younger students, and more complex information for older students. Indeed, just about anyone can learn a thing or two from our MTS Future First Listening Guides … so dig in!

GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL: VIOLIN SONATA IN D MAJOR HWV 371

Mystery surrounds the violin sonatas written by the Baroque composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759). In recent years, musicologists have questioned the origin of some violin sonatas attributed to Handel. Experts from around the world, however, have authenticated Handel’s Sonata in D major HWV 371; his Sonata in D major manuscript dating from around 1750 still survives today. But even this authenticated sonata has been associated with intrigue and uncertainty, as it can also be found in pirated publications and with falsified title pages. The Violin Sonata HWV 371 known as the “Great D major” is considered a masterpiece in the solo violin genre and is one of Handel’s last violin sonatas, never published in his lifetime.

FOR EDUCATORS

Manitoba Music Curricular Connections

9-12 Making: The learner develops competencies for listening by listening critically with discrimination and purpose to:

• situate and contextualize music (e.g., cultural/ ideological/historical/social contexts, music style, genre, tradition, or praxis, etc.)
• support enjoyment and understanding of music
• make and interpret music expressively and creatively
• inform analysis, interpretation, judgement, appreciation, and evaluation

K-8 Understanding Music in Context: Demonstrate awareness of the intended meanings and/or purposes of music encountered in own performance and listening experiences

9-12 Connecting: The learner develops understandings about the significance of music by connecting music to diverse contexts.

Here are some ways to help you listen to this work:

Music compositions have a certain architecture called musical form. Can you hear that the structure of this sonata is made up of four different sections or movements? In the classical period, the term sonata referred to a particular kind of musical form, but the word sonata as used during Handel’s time described almost any kind of composition written for an instrumental ensemble.

A Baroque instrumental work in three or more movements that included stylized dance movements (e.g., allemande, sarabande, gigue, gavotte, etc.) was known as a “Sonata da camera.” An instrumental work in four movements often in the order of slow-fast-slow-fast was known as a “sonata da chiesa.” The Handel Sonata in D major takes the form of a “Sonata da chiesa” with the following four movements:

1. Affectuoso (with feeling,tenderly)
2. Allegro (lively, fast)
3. Larghetto (somewhat slowly)
4. Allegro (lively, fast)

1. Each of the four sections or movements also has a particular form. In this sonata, the first movement resembles a slow operatic aria. Can you hear the expressive, singing melodies? The following Allegro is written in a fugal, contrapuntal style. Can you hear the opening melody introduced in the violin then repeated 5 bars later in the keyboard part? The third slow Larghetto movement is also in the form of a dramatic operatic aria and the closing Allegro movement is in the style of a two-part (AB—binary form) lively dance in 3/4 time.

2. What instruments can you hear in this sonata? In the Baroque time, this sonata would have been performed with a solo instrument and a “basso continuo.” The “basso continuo” or “continuo” for short, was the group of accompanying instruments that provided harmonic support for the solo melody. Basso continuo means "continuous bass" and in the Baroque period was often made up of a keyboard instrument (e.g., harpsichord or organ) that filled in harmonies on top of a bass line played by another lower or bass instrument, such as the cello, viola da gamba, double bass, or bassoon. The number and type of instruments in the continuo group varied widely according to Baroque music practices, but always included at least one instrument that could play chords (e.g., harpsichord, organ, lute, harp, or guitar) in combination with a bass register instrument or instruments.

   In performances today, the keyboard sometimes plays all the parts of the basso continuo. In this performance, how many musicians are playing onstage? Do you hear a piano or a harpsichord playing the keyboard part? Is the keyboard playing alone or do you also hear a bass line performed by a cello or bass? Do you hear the solo violin playing above the accompanying continuo?

3. Handel uses tempo (the speed of the music), dynamics (the volume of the music), and expression (musical elements that express certain feelings or dispositions) to create contrast between the sections of the sonata. Contrast as a dramatic element was an important feature of Baroque music. Where do you hear contrasts of tempo (slow, fast, slow, fast) and contrasts of dynamics in this work?

   A single mood or expressive idea is often associated with Baroque music. Can you identify a particular mood for each movement? Which movements use mostly fast music? Which movement uses mostly slow music? How does the tempo affect the mood of the work?

   Was the music played at all the same volume ( dynamics)? When do you hear music played loudly? Quietly? What dynamic level is mostly used for the slow second movement? When do the dynamics change and what effect does that create? Can you hear places where the violin plays the same or similar phrase a second time but either louder or softer in an echo effect?

   Do you hear musical sounds that are short sounding (staccato) or very smooth sounding (legato)?

   Handel also adds expressive qualities to this sonata by the use of ornamentation. Ornamentation was common in the Baroque period and performers would often add certain musical flourishes or decorations to their parts. Ornamentation was also written into parts, as for example, when Handel decorates the melody notes by adding trills. In the opening of the first movement, can you hear short, decorative trills in the violin part?

4. How is rhythm used in this sonata? Do you hear sections that have a steady rhythm or beat that you could tap to? The underlying steady pulse heard throughout the sonata is a feature of Baroque music.

   Handel uses dotted notes (long-short sounds) at various points in this sonata. Can you hear long-short-long-short sounds in the opening of the first movement and throughout this section? Can you hear these dotted rhythms again in the third, slow movement and at the opening of the fourth movement?

   Can you hear notes of longer duration in the first and third movements of this sonata? Can you hear how the rhythmic patterns change in the second and fourth movements? Can you hear where the violin plays rapid rhythmic passages in the fourth movement? The quick sixteenth note runs together with the dotted notes give this movement a sense of lively, positive energy.

5. How is melody or pitch used in this sonata? Can you hear the upward skipping melodic outline of the first movement of the main theme? The violin begins with a melody that outlines an upward broken triad that then unexpectedly leaps up a fifth instead of the more expected sounding fourth to complete the notes of the opening chord. This creates a surprising and dramatic sounding opening to the sonata. A similar figure of skips and leaps is heard throughout the first movement balanced with a downwards stepwise, dotted rhythm, melodic pattern. Can you draw the shape of these melodies in the air to show when sounds are going up or down?

   In the second movement can you hear that the melodic contour of the solo violin is often made up of back and forth alternating notes? Can you identify melodic patterns in the third and fourth movements?

   Handel often borrowed melodies from one of his works to use in another. Handel reused the last movement of the Sonata in D major for the appearance of the angel in his oratorio “Jephtha.” “Solomon,” another oratorio by Handel also shares music with the Violin Sonata in D major. The fugal melody heard in the second movement of the sonata is also heard in the opening act of “Solomon as a choral double fugue.

6. Can you hear different kinds of texture in this work? Musical texture refers to the layers of sound that are heard in the music.

   Can you hear where the texture of this sonata features independent lines or voices played by the solo musician and in the accompaniment? Two or more voices played simultaneously each with their own independent melody is known as polyphonic texture. The second movement features polyphonic writing that is also fugal. In a fugue, the main theme is introduced at the beginning of a work and then heard in subsequent imitation by the other voices or lines. Can you hear the opening melody introduced in the violin then repeated 5 bars later in the keyboard part?

   Can you hear where the texture of this sonata is not simultaneous lines of independent melody but is rather texture made up of just one main melodic voice in the violin accompanied by chords? Co you hear that this accompaniment sounds similar or “like sounding” and that the music of the accompaniment all moves in the same rhythm rather than as independent melodic lines with their own rhythms? Chords that are like sounding and used to support a main, independent melody line are known as homophonic in texture.

   Listen for the texture in other movements. Can you hear that the accompaniment in the first and third movements does not have independent lines as in the second movement but is instead more chordal and homophonic?

7. What kinds of instrumental timbre do you hear? Timbre is the different qualities of sound created by different instruments. For example the kind of sound that string instruments make when they play together is a different quality of sound to that produced by brass instruments like the trumpet or French horn. How would you describe the timbre of the violin? Of the harpsichord or piano? Of the keyboard playing with the violin? Can you hear different qualities of sound depending on what instrument or instruments are playing? Can you tell which instruments are playing just from hearing them?

FOR EDUCATORS

Reflections and Responses (K-8 Valuing; 9-12 Responding)

Grades 9-12 Responding

The learner develops and uses critical reflection and thinking for music learning:

• the learner generates initial reactions to music experiences
• the learner critically listens to, observes, and describes music experiences
• the learner analyzes and interprets music experiences
• the learner constructs meanings about music experiences

Grades K-8 Valuing

Students analyze, reflect on, and construct meaning in response to their own and others’ music:

• students analyze their own and others’ musical excerpts, works, and performances
• students form personal responses to and construct meaning from their own and others’ music