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Lesson 78: Handel Sonata in A minor, HWV 362 — Adagio, Allegro, and Whole-Work Assembly

  • Learn the Adagio (movement III) and the closing Allegro (movement IV) of HWV 362.
  • Assemble all four movements into a complete sonata performance.

Two Handel sonatas, four movements each. After tonight, you can claim them.

This lesson finishes the sonata: the harmonically intense Adagio, the closing Allegro that lifts the piece into motion, and the whole-work assembly.

Movement III — Adagio

Brief but the most harmonically intense section: eight bars of denser dissonance and tighter resolutions.

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Quarter = 48; ornament as in the Larghetto — distributed, restrained, one per gesture.

Movement IV — Allegro

A presto-style finale of running sixteenths, felt in a brisk two — bright in a way the rest of the sonata has not been.

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Articulation for the closing Allegro

Slur the sixteenths in pairs within each beat, tongue between beats, detach the eighth-note pairs — lifted, never heavy.

The whole sonata, end to end

The rests between movements:

Larghetto → Allegro II
Ten beats — the lament must clear.
Allegro II → Adagio
Eight beats — the drive must settle.
Adagio → Allegro IV
Six beats — the closing Allegro follows quickly.

Comparing HWV 362 with HWV 360

  • Key: G minor is graver, more public; A minor more lyrical, more interior.
  • Opening: HWV 360 descends through a tetrachord; HWV 362 begins from a held A and turns.
  • Fast movements: HWV 360's Andante is contrapuntal and chromatic; HWV 362's Allegro simpler and faster.
  • Closing: HWV 360's Presto restates the opening lament transformed; HWV 362 breaks into perpetual motion.

Play both sonatas in the same week if you can; the comparison is the education.

Now play these

Handel: Sonata in A minor, HWV 362 — complete
The library entry has the Larghetto and Adagio; the Allegros come from your full score.
Handel: Sonata in G minor, HWV 360 — Andante
The comparison reference.
Handel: Sonata in F major, HWV 369 — Grave
The next Handel sonata to point toward.

When the complete HWV 362 plays end-to-end with audible affect contrast across the four movements, move on to Lesson 79.