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.
Compare HWV 362 with HWV 360 (the G minor sonata of Lessons 61–63) — same composer, same form, different sound.

Lessons 76–77 — HWV 362 movements I and II.
Lessons 61–63 — HWV 360 (reference for comparison).

Compound-meter Allegro finale.
Side-by-side comparison of two Handel sonatas.
Whole-sonata assembly with planned rests.

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

Lesson 76 took the lamenting Larghetto; Lesson 77 took the driving Allegro. This lesson finishes the sonata: the Adagio that returns to slow material with greater harmonic intensity, and the closing Allegro that lifts the piece out of A minor and into motion. Plus the whole-work assembly.

Movement III — Adagio

The Adagio is brief but harmonically the most intense section of the sonata. Where the Larghetto laments at length, the Adagio compresses similar material into eight or so bars, with denser dissonance and tighter resolutions.

Tempo: quarter = 48. Ornament as the Larghetto was ornamented — distributed, restrained, one per gesture.

Movement IV — Allegro

The closing Allegro is in compound metre — a gigue-like dance that turns the A minor of the previous movements into closing motion. The pulse is two-to-the-bar; the affect is bright in a way the rest of the sonata has not been.

Articulation for the closing Allegro

Compound metre + dance affect = the gigue slur pattern from Lessons 51 and 59: slur pairs of eighths within each group of four, tongue between groups. The pulse should feel lifted — never heavy.

The whole sonata, end to end

Four movements: Larghetto (lament) → Allegro (assertion) → Adagio (intense reflection) → Allegro (dance closure). The rests between movements:

Larghetto → Allegro II: Ten beats. The lament must clear before the driving Allegro can begin.
Allegro II → Adagio: Eight beats. The Allegro's drive must settle before the Adagio's intensity.
Adagio → Allegro IV: Six beats. The Adagio is a transition; the closing Allegro should follow fairly quickly.

Comparing HWV 362 with HWV 360

Two Handel recorder sonatas, both in minor, both four movements. The differences live in:

Key: G minor (HWV 360) vs A minor (HWV 362). G minor in Baroque rhetoric is graver, more public; A minor is more lyrical, more interior.
Opening: HWV 360's Larghetto descends through a tetrachord; HWV 362's begins from a held A and turns. Both are laments, but different ones.
Fast movements: HWV 360's Andante is contrapuntal and chromatic; HWV 362's Allegro is more harmonically straightforward and faster. The difference is the difference between two-voice writing and solo-with-implied-bass.
Closing: HWV 360 closes with a Presto that restates the opening lament transformed; HWV 362 closes with a dance that breaks from the previous material.

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 piece of the three-lesson arc. The library entry has the Larghetto and Adagio; the Allegros must come from your full score.
Handel: Sonata in G minor, HWV 360 — Andante: The reference point for comparison. After this lesson, play both sonatas in the same sitting.
Handel: Sonata in F major, HWV 369 — Grave: A third Handel sonata to point toward. After mastering HWV 360 and HWV 362, this is the next.

When the complete HWV 362 plays end-to-end with intentional rests between movements, audible affect contrast across the four, and a recording you would let a friend hear — and you can speak to the differences between this sonata and HWV 360 — move on to Lesson 79.