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Lesson 77: Handel Sonata in A minor, HWV 362 — Allegro

  • Learn the Allegro (movement II) of HWV 362.
  • Choose an articulation pattern that drives the line forward without flattening the figuration.

Handel's fast movements are not virtuoso displays. They are arguments at speed.

The Allegro answers the Larghetto's lament: confident, propulsive sixteenth-note motion in the same minor key, the affect turned on its head.

The opening

A turning figure around A in continuous sixteenths — the motion never quite stops until the cadence.

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The articulation choice

At quarter = 100–110 the sixteenths want double tonguing (du-gu). Two patterns to test:

  • All double-tongued — even and fast, for purely running motion.
  • Slur pairs, tongue the next pair — adds shape where the contour invites it.

Most performers mix the two; mark the choices in the score before practising.

The contrast with the Larghetto

  • Tempo: 50 → 100.
  • Surface motion: half notes and quarters → sixteenths.
  • Direction: descents (lament) → turns and rises (assertion).
  • Ornament density: distributed → minimal.

Drill — the hardest sixteenth-note sequence

Practise it isolated, slow, with the metronome on the sixteenth.

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Practice plan

Sessions 1–2 — map the movement at half tempo
Read at quarter = 60; mark the hardest two bars and the articulation choices.
Sessions 3–5 — hardest-bar drill, double tonguing
The marked bars, slow, until each plays the same way three times in a row at tempo.
Sessions 6–7 — chunks, then end-to-end
Each half as a chunk, then the complete movement at tempo, recorded.

Now play these

Handel: Sonata in A minor, HWV 362
The library entry contains the Larghetto and Adagio; the Allegro must come from your score.
Handel: Sonata in D minor, HWV 367a — Vivace
A companion fast movement — same idiom, different key.

When the Allegro plays clean at quarter = 100 with an audible affect contrast against the Larghetto, move on to Lesson 78.