Graham Cummings
It is likely that the three orchestral suites that comprise Handel’s Water Music (HWV 348-350) were less the products of royal patronage and more those of royal acrimony and competition.
The Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover became heir to the British throne in June 1714, on the death of his mother, the Dowager Electress Sophia, who was the grand-daughter of James I, and Queen-designate by an Act of Parliament. [1]
When the 54-year-old Elector landed at Greenwich on 18 September 1714, he was accompanied by his son and heir, Prince Georg August, whose relationship with his father had been a troubled and, at times, estranged one for many years. [2]
The new monarch, George I, was very much a ‘Soldier King’ who had served with distinction as a Field-Marshall under Marlborough. Politically, he was more interested in his state of Hanover and in the balance of power in Northern Europe, than in the machinations of the various Whig factions and the ousted Tories. He appears to have been a genuinely shy man who hated formal court gatherings, ceremony or splendid public occasions where he was the centre of attention. He liked to dine in private, and frequently to delegate the court ‘drawing rooms’ to his son and daughter-in- law, Prince George Augustus and Princess Caroline, the Prince and Princess of Wales. [3] Concerning the King’s principal interests, one of his Hanoverian ministers commented that there were two – horses and women! However, the King also inherited his parents’ enthusiasm for Italian opera.
His reserved manner and general gravity were observed, if not welcomed, by his English courtiers. That George I was loath to appear in public began to worry his advisers; his ministers urged the King to make himself more visible to his people. The King’s regular attendance at the Italian opera in the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket during the three opera seasons 1714-17, together with the royal water parties on the river Thames in the three summers of 1715-17, could be viewed as his response to this criticism.
Significantly, the difficult relationship between the King and son played a prominent part in the attempt to gain public approval for the new monarch. This relationship was at its best an uneasy one, and at its worst strongly acrimonious. It became highly competitive by the summer of 1715, with open conflict following by late 1717.4 Although George I did not care for royal or state ceremony, the same could not be said of his son, who appeared to revel in public occasions. [5]
This family competition could be observed in the attendance of the two royal figures at the King’s Theatre, where their patronage was important to the success of this expensive musical venture. The King normally attended at least half of the performances in each [of the three] London opera seasons 1714-17, and was particularly supportive of Handel’s operas. [6] Although the Prince endeavoured to match his father’s level of support in the 1714-15 season, in the remaining two he only appeared once per season. However, Prince George’s attempts to win public favour seem to have been more successful on the water than in the opera house, except on one famous occasion. [7]
Royal Water Parties
To most Londoners, that is, those outside court and government circles, George I and the Hanoverian royal family were distant, almost unknown quantities. Initially, there was little popular support for the German King. Therefore the six water parties during July and August 1715 could be viewed as propaganda exercises aimed at presenting the royal family as symbols of stability and prosperity that could be seen by many, however far this might have been from the truth. [8] Nevertheless, that the publicity for the family event on 13 August had a certain success can be gauged from the following report in the newspaper, The Flying Post or The Post Master, (13-16 August 1715):
On Saturday Evening [13 August], His Majesty, with their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess [of Wales], and several of the Nobility in their Barges, went from White-Hall as far as Limehouse, to take the Air. They were diverted with a Consort of Musick on board, which was excellently perform’d by the best Masters and Instruments. The River was crowded with Boats, and the Banks with Spectators, so that both from the River and the Shores, there were repeated HUZZAES, and loud Acclamations, Long live K. George, the Prince, the Princess, and all their Royal Issue, &c.
As they return’d, [an] abundance of Ships were illuminated with Lanthorns in their Rigging, and the Houses on both Sides of the River with Candles. The Musick continu’d playing, and Guns were fired from the Ships and Wharfs ‘till His Majesty landed. [9]
The number of excursions on the Thames taken by the King and his son during this period assumed a competitive element. Of the ten such water parties during the summers of 1715 and 1716, seven were undertaken by the Prince and Princess of Wales without the King, one by the King without his son and daughter-in-law, and only three that followed the intended purpose of presenting a united royal family. At three of them (14 July 1715; 13 August 1715; 6 June 1716) the performance of music was reported, but there are no details of the composer in the newspaper descriptions. If these competitive aquatic excursions were all about ‘public display’, then through them the Prince was making a more determined effort that the King to win public acceptance and approval.
After George I’s return to London in January 1717 from a six-month visit to Hanover, the relationship between father and son worsened. ‘The interference of the Prince of Wales in politics, independent of his father and in part in open opposition to him’ [had] further aggravated an already difficult situation. [10]
As the summer of 1717 approached, the King’s relations with his son rapidly deteriorated. ‘Rival public display [became] the order of the day, and this motive accounts for the extravagance of the water-party’ that the King took in July 1717. [11]
Even at this late stage, the Prince anticipated the King’s design by undertaking another water party himself on 19 June 1717 without his father, even though he must have been aware of the arrangements for the King’s party on 17 July. This last event was deliberately intended to surpass in magnificence and splendour any previous such royal excursions. Most significantly, the Prince and Princess of Wales were not invited. This was to be a festivity only for the King’s supporters, including his half-sister, Madame Sophia von Kielmansegge, and a coterie of court beauties.
The newspaper, The Daily Corant (19 July 1717), provided a clear description:
On Wednesday Evening [17 July] at about 8, the King took Water at Whitehall in an open Barge, wherein were also the Dutchess of Bolton, the Dutchess of Newcastle, the Countess of Godolphin, Madame Kilmanseck and the Earl of Orkney.
And went up the River towards Chelsea. Many other Barges with Persons of Quality attended, and so great a Number of Boats, that the whole River in a manner was cover’d; a City Company’s Barge was employ’d for the Musick, wherein were 50 Instruments of all sorts, who play’d all the Way from Lambeth (while the Barges drove with the Tide without rowing, as far as Chelsea) the finest Symphonies, compos’d express for this Occasion, by Mr. Hendel; which his Majesty liked so well, that he caus’d it to be plaid over three times in going and returning.
At Eleven [at night] his Majesty went a-shoar at Chelsea, where a Supper was prepar’d, and then there was another very fine Consort of Musick, which lasted till 2 [am]; after which, his Majesty came again into his Barge, and return’d the same Way, the Musick continuing to play till he landed. [12]
However, the King did not fund the cost of this extravagant party or commission the music. Both the payment for the orchestra (some £150) and its transport were provided as a compliment to the King by one of his Hanoverian ministers resident in London since 1714, Baron Johann Adolf Kielmansegg. The Baron was an amateur musician with a great interest in opera who had known Handel for more than seven years at the time of the commission of the Water Music, having first met the young composer in Venice in 1709-10. The Baron was close to the King since he was married to the King’s half-sister, and also occupied the important court post of ‘Master of the Horse to his Majesty’.
This famous event, which occasioned the first performances of Handel’s Water Music suites, should be viewed as the high point of a programme of social display during the summer of 1717. However, it was also nothing less than a propaganda exercise mounted by George I in competition with his son for public approbation. Rather than being symbols of the royal family’s unity, the water parties exposed the acrimonious divisions between the King and his son for all who could understand their significance.
Notes
[ 1] By the Act of Settlement (1701) the crown of Britain was settled on Sophia, Electress of Hanover, and her descendants in the event of the death of Princess Anne and her descendants. This was promoted by King William III to ensure that Anne’s successor was a Protestant, and not her Catholic half-brother James Francis Edward Stuart, the ‘Old Pretender’.
[2] Smith, H. (2009). King George I. The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia (eds. A. Landgraf & D. Vickers), 254. Cambridge.
[3] Hatton, R. (1978). George I: Elector and King, 132-133. London.
[4] Ibid., 192-210.
[5] Smith, H. (2006). Georgian Monarchy: Politics and Culture, 1714-1760, 100. Cambridge.
[6] Burrows, D. (1994). Handel, 75. Oxford.
[7] Burrows, D. & Hume, R.D. (1991). George I, the Haymarket Opera Company and Handel’s Water Music. Early Music, XIX(3), August, 333-335.
[8] The dates and details of the royal water parties during the summers of 1715, 1716 and 1717 are taken from Burrows & Hume, op.cit., 341, table 2.
[9] Burrows, D., Coffey, H., Greenacombe, J. & Hicks, A. (eds.) (2013). George Frideric Handel: Collected Documents, Vol..1, 323. Cambridge.
[10] Hatton, op.cit., 197.
[11] Burrows, Handel, 78.
[12] Handel: Collected Documents, Vol.1, 379-380.
Graham Cummings is Visiting Professor in Historical Musicology at the University of Huddersfield.