CHAPTER VII

THE WATER MUSIC, AND A JOURNEY ABROAD

HOWEVER Surly George may have felt on account of Handel's failure to return to Hanover, his anger became appeased. He soon discovered that the name of his runaway Kapellmeister was everywhere. Society had enshrined him as the only figure that counted in English music. It was therefore particularly gratifying to the German monarch to find that the musician he claimed to have cultivated was idolised by his new people. Not that George had much liking for the English; he hated their ways. He came here a Germanand died as German as he came. Only one thing about the English ever allured or interested him, and that was their music, which Handel carried to the skies. For the rest, the English had little appeal to him. Even his mistresses were mainly German importations.

According to Handel's biographers, King George was so furiously angry with him that it required a trick on the part of Baron Kielmansegge, now Master of the King's Horse, to bring them together again. But a document has recently been discovered in the State Archives at Berlin, and given to me by Professor Michael of Freiburg, which disproves that delightful romance about the reconciliation of King George and Handel over the Water Music, which has wandered down the years.

Kielmansegge was a licentious, roving individual who owed his place at the Court to the King's affection for his wife. She was past forty years of age when George came to the throne, and she had the utmost difficulty in getting out of Hanover to come with him, on account of her many creditors. Ultimately she got away in disguise in a post-chaise to Holland,

whence she embarked with the King and arrived at his side in London.1

Madame Kielmansegge in her youth had been a remarkably beautiful woman, but she ultimately became a fat, heavy individual who had " two acres of cheeks spread with crimson, an ocean of neck that overflowed and was not distinguished from the lower part of her body." She remained almost to the time of her death in 1724-except for certain tiffs-the King's chief mistress. The Prince of Wales called her " Aunt." When Society required the presence of the monarch at a supper party, the bait used to draw him was Madame Kielmansegge, albeit she was intensely unpopular in social circles on account of her coarseness and Germanic habits. Kielmansegge, on the other hand, was a philanderer who fawned at the King's feet, who spent his riches like water in trying to please a monarch from whom he received few favours in

return.

4

The romance of the Water Music, as history has recorded it, is as follows: In 1715 the strained relations between the King and Handel had reached such a pitch that Kielmansegge decided to step into the breach and patch up the quarrel. As it happened, the King had organised a triumphal procession in barges down the river from Whitehall to Limehouse on the 22nd of August, for which Kielmansegge was charged with the arrangements. This was the Baron's chance. He went to the Earl of Burlington and arranged for Handel to write certain music, which should be played under the musician's own direction, and from a barge which followed the King's so closely that the monarch, on the stillness of the river, would hear every note.

Everything chanced as the Baron decreed. The King,

1 Lady Mary Montagu, "Letters," vol. i. p. 7.

2 Horace Walpole.

3 Streatfeild relates a delightful story of Madame Kielmansegge which deserves preservation. When she arrived in London she could speak but little English, and that badly. Once, when out driving, her carriage was surrounded by an anti-German mob, whereupon Madame Kielmansegge put her head out of the carriage window and cried: "Good people, why do you abuse us? We come for your goods." Aye, damn you! "exclaimed someone in the crowd, 'and for our chattels too!"

"

4 The story was begun by Mainwaring and has been slavishly copied by the biographers ever since.

The Truth About the Water Music

charmed by the music, sent for the Baron, and, congratulating him, asked for information concerning the composer. What more could the Baron do than drag Handel from his hidingplace on the second barge, and lead him to the King's feet? Then ensued excuses, apologies, the royal melting, and, ultimately, the royal clemency and congratulations.

The story is so ridden with romance that it is precisely what ought to have happened. As a matter of fact, the Water Music was not produced until 1717, and then under very different circumstances. The document in the Berlin Archives, recently disclosed, is the report made by the Brandenburg envoy to the English Court, Frederic Bonnet, and is dated 19th July 1717. It gives the whole story of the Water Music shorn of its romance. It shows that the righteous anger of the King, which had been aroused by Handel's failure to return to the Hanoverian Court did not exist. King may have had his annoyance, but, at any rate, when the Water Music was produced they were the best of friends. The importance of this document is such that it is of interest to give it in detail.

The

"Some weeks ago the King expressed a wish to Baron von Kilmanseck to have a concert on the river, by subscription, like the masquerades this winter which the King attended assiduously on each occasion. The Baron addressed himself therefore to Heidegger, a Suisse by nationality, but the most intelligent agent the nobility could have for their pleasures. Heidegger answered that as much as he was eager to oblige his Majesty, he must reserve the subscription for the big enterprises, to wit, the Masquerades, each of which was worth from 300 to 400 guineas to him.

"Baron Kilmanseck, seeing that H.M. was vexed about these difficulties, resolved to give the concert on the river at his own expense, and so the concert took place the day before yesterday. The King entered his barge about eight o'clock with the Duchess of Bolton, the Countess of Godolphin, Mad. de Kilmanseck, Mad. Were, and the Earl of Orkney, gentleman of the King's Bedchamber who was on guard.

"By the side of the Royal barge was that of the musicians to the number of 50 who played all kinds of instruments, viz. trumpets, hunting horns, oboes, bassoons, German flutes, French flutes à bec, violins and basses, but without voices. This concert was composed expressly for the occasion by the famous Handel, native of Halle, and first composer of the King's music. It was so strongly approved by H.M.

1 The italics are mine.-Author.

that he commanded it to be repeated, once before and once after supper, although it took an hour for each performance.

"The evening party was all that could be desired for the occasion. There were numberless barges, and especially boats filled with people eager to take part in it. In order to make it more complete Mad. de Kilmanseck had made arrangements for a splendid supper at the pleasure house of the late Lord Ranelagh at Chelsea on the river, to where the King repaired an hour after midnight. He left there at three, and at half-past four in the morning H.M. was back at St James'. The concert has cost Baron Kilmanseck £150 for the musicians alone, but neither the Prince nor the Princess took any part in the festivities."

if

Frederic Bonnet's report, made only the day after the performance in question, is undoubtedly reliable, and explodes all the myths that have endured so long about the Water Music. Far from giving any expression to the royal anger, it existed, King George set about patronising Handel ere he had scarcely settled down on the throne. Before he had been in England a couple of months he attended a performance of Rinaldo, which had been revived in connection with the festivities following the Coronation. He joined at once in the national adulation of Handel. Even if he did not call him to the Court, he was sufficiently a musical enthusiast to realise that the work of this brilliant young German must be respected.

Handel, however, clove to his retirement at Burlington House. If he joined in the national rejoicings it was only as an interested spectator. Nothing came from his pen to celebrate the event. Instead, he wrote a very slight work called Scilla, which does not seem to have been performed outside Burlington House.

It was, however, only a prelude to greater things. All the winter he was working on his new opera Amadigi. This was the work intended to greet the royal advent. Everything was in his favour. Heidegger had written him a good book, a book which ranked with that of Teseo as the best he had ever had the joy of setting in these early years. Moreover, Nicolini was back in England, in expectancy of the musical

1 Professor Wolfgang Michael, "Englische Geschichte im 18 Jahrhundert "; quotation from report of Frederic Bonnet, dated 24th December 1714.

For a long time the manuscript of Amadigi was lost in private ownership, but in 1870 it came into a London auction-room and was sold for £35, 10s. The score consisted of 73 pp. If publicly sold to-day its price would be enormous.

Amadigi

Elector making a great boom in music in London, now that he had the power of the throne behind him. Amadigi was a love story, tense with great dramatic moments which gave Handel all the chance he wanted, and it was superbly staged. Never before had such scenery been put on at a London opera, and not the least surprise that greeted the spectators when the work was produced on 25th May was a real fountain playing on the stage. Crowds rolled up to the doors on the first night, and still greater crowds were turned away. It was the greatest opera-night that had been known in London for years.

The King was not present at the first performance of Amadigi, but he was a constant visitor afterwards. The opera, together with Rinaldo, was frequently given during the year, and well on in the year until the season ended in July. During that time the King was in the habit of going to a play of some kind, or a concert, most evenings. There was no form of musical entertainment in London which he did not patronise continually, for he appeared to be concerned more about music than he did about the best way of understanding his new subjects. He invariably went to the Handel operas incognito, in a hired sedan-chair, and bought a private box, which accounts for the fact that there are few, if any, references to his visits to these operas in the newspapers of the time. On every occasion he was accompanied by one or other of his ladies; sometimes by a party of half a dozen. This blatant parading of his amours in front of London, in such thin disguise, did little to add to his popularity. The serious patrons of music became a little disgusted with it. The others found that it added piquancy to Handel's own good

entertainment.

The performing honours in Amadigi fell to Nicolini. Never had he been heard in better voice; never had he been presented with a part that suited him so well. His lovemaking as "Amadigi " carried the house. Brilliant as had been his performances in London before, he had now risen to the heights which were to hold him for so many years.

Associated with him in Amadigi was Mrs Anastasia Robin1 Frederic Bonnet, report dated 17th July 1717.