Concerto Grosso in F major

At a glance

• What it isa movement from Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 9. Marked Allegro, played fast.
• Who, when, whyHandel, then fifty-four, wrote all twelve in London in the autumn of 1739 and published them as a set the following year.
• What to listen forshort figures passing back and forth between high and low instruments.

Listen for

• The startthe full band brightly presents a theme in F major.
• Tradingshort figures pass between the violins and are repeated like echoes. The original organ concerto is known for passages that imitate birdsong.
• The returnthe opening theme comes back and ends brightly.

When it was written

In the autumn of 1739, in little more than a month, Handel wrote twelve concerti grossi in a burst. The following year he published them by subscription, and this set of twelve is today his Op. 6. In a concerto grosso a small group of solo instruments trades with a large string band; Handel took as his model the set of the same name by the Italian composer Corelli.

At the time Italian opera was losing favor in London, and Handel was turning to oratorios and odes with English words. These concertos were played between the acts of such performances to entertain the audience. This movement comes from his organ concerto known by the nickname 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale'. Handel himself sometimes played organ concertos between the acts of his oratorios.