Symphony No. 4 In George Fredrick Handel's Baroque, Water Music

The historical development of the symphony orchestra through the three era’s baroque, classical and romantic are clearly noticeable. The musical elements such as, expressive devices, dynamics and timbre/ role of the instruments is evident through the three pieces, Water Music by George Fredrick Handel composed in the baroque period, Symphony No.4 in G Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed in the classical period and lastly Vltava (The Moldau) by Bedřich Smetana composed in the romantic.

Dynamics and expressive devices strongly show the development of the symphony orchestra. The Baroque period was during 1600 – 1750, a composer of this period is Handel and he wrote a piece named Water Music. During this period there was not much usage

Throughout the baroque period, dynamics were not marked on the score. The dynamics would abruptly shift from loud to soft, there were no crescendos and decrescendos used on the score, but usually can be seen in a live performance or recording. This can be seen in the piece Water Music at 1’16” (appendix 4) as the instruments go down to piano than after a few bars it goes back up to forte instantly. This can be known as terraced dynamics which is, “a sudden shift from one dynamic level to another,” (Carney 2006). In the classical period there was more use of dynamics compared to the baroque, this can be evident on the score of Symphony No.4 in G Major as it starts at piano in bar one then changes to forte in bar 16. There is also a sforzando which is suddenly loud this can be seen in bar 34, lastly at bar 62 there is use of crescendo. During the romantic period, there were a lot more for example dynamics as crescendos and decrescendos are used a lot more. This can be evident in the piece Vltava at bar 26 and 40. At bar 72 mezzo forte is visible, which is medium forte, this was not used in the baroque period piece or the romantic period piece. The same goes for in bar 94 there is fortissimo. Other dynamic markings that have also been introduced include pianissimo and triple piano. Dynamics have clearly changed through the era’s as it started off with just a piano or forte and has built up to mezzo fortes

The baroque period had a limit of instruments as stated, “Baroque orchestras had from 10 to 30 players, primarily strings” (Retromusics 2016), this can be evident in Water Music. The piece consists of the following instruments – trumpet, French horn, oboe, bassoon, violin, viola and double bass as shown on the score. These instruments were commonly used during the baroque period (appendix 1). The strings during the baroque period, were the most important part of the ensemble, this is noticeable in the piece Water Music as they dominated the piece. This is achieved as the strings in the Alla hornpipe section start off with the main melody (bar 1), then the brass and woodwind instruments copy that same section for a few bars, like a call and response. String are alone again at bar 40 and continues all the way to the end alone without brass or woodwind. This makes them dominant as they are being used the most throughout the piece. During the course of the baroque period there was not much of a harmony and just melody, this can also be known as polyphonic as it had more than one melodic part. Which can be seen on the score Water Music as the instruments switch between the same melody an example is in bar 1 - 10. The timbre in the classical period is different compared to the baroque period as some woodwind instruments were added. Instruments that were used in the