Water Music, HWV 348-350

The Water Music is three suites, HWV 348–350, first performed on 17 July 1717 for George I on a barge on the Thames. The Daily Courant reported about fifty musicians playing on a separate barge alongside the royal one, and that the King liked it enough to have it repeated.

The open-air setting explains the scoring. The D major suite is built around trumpets and horns, which carry over water and crowd noise; the F major suite leans on horns and oboes. There are no delicate textures because delicate textures would have been inaudible.

The order of the movements is not settled. The suites come down to us through several sources that disagree, so two editions may sequence the same music differently — worth checking against a recording if you are learning it, and worth checking editions match if you are buying parts for an ensemble. The Alla Hornpipe and the Air are the movements most often extracted and sold separately.