Music for the Royal Fireworks

• Handel composed his Music for the Royal Fireworks for a public celebration of the Peace of Aix-en-Chapelle in 1748, which marked the end of the War of Austrian Succession. The ceremonies included a fireworks display upon a triumphal arch specially built by stage designer, Giovanni Servandoni.¹
• Apparently the King wanted only military instruments in the suite, and was not thrilled when Handel decided to reduce the number of trumpets and add strings (a choice which made the suite easier for Handel to program at future occasions).²

“I think Hendel now proposes to have but 12 trumpets and 12 French horns; at first there was to have been 16 of each, and I remember I told the King so, who, at that time, objected to their being any musick; but, when I told him the quantity and nomber of martial musick there was to be, he was better satisfied, and said he hoped there would be no fidles. Now Hendel proposes to lessen the nomber of trumpets, &c. and to have violeens. I dont at all doubt but when the King hears it he will be very much displeased. If the thing war to be in such a manner as certainly to please the King, it ought to consist of no kind of instruments but martial instruments. Any other I am sure will put him out of humour, therefore I am shure it behoves Hendel to have as many trumpets, and other martial instruments, as possible, tho he dont retrench the violins, which I think he shoud, tho I beleeve he will never be persuaded to do it.”

The Duke of Montagu, writing to the Comptroller of His Majesty’s Fireworks, complaining about Handel’s instrumentation.³

• The public’s demand to hear the performance was so great that an outdoor public dress rehearsal was arranged. A contemporary magazine reported that there were 100 performers, 12,000 in the audience, and the whole event caused a 3-hour traffic jam on the London bridge.⁴
• At the official celebration, the music took place before the fireworks display, which is good because part of the performance structure caught fire.⁵

“La paix”

• The movement entitled “La paix” means “the Peace,” a specific reference to the Aix-en-Chapelle peace treaty.⁶
• Genre: A Siciliana was meant to evoke a peaceful pastoral setting. It was usually in slow 6/8 time and used dotted figures. The same characteristics appear in movements labeled Pastorale,⁷ a familiar example being the “Pastoral Symphony” from Handel’s Messiah.

1. Anthony Hicks, “Handel [Händel, Hendel], George Frideric,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 18, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040060.
2. Ibid.
3. Donald Burrows, Handel, 2^nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 397.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid., 398.
6. Betsy Schwarm, “Music for the Royal Fireworks,” Encyclopædia Brittanica (October 24, 2016), accessed October 18, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Music-for-the-Royal-Fireworks.
7. Harvard Dictionary of Music, 4^th ed., s.v. “Siciliana” (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003).