Learn to Play Recorder

Lesson 63: Handel Sonata in G minor, HWV 360 — Adagio and Presto

  • Learn the Adagio (movement III) and Presto (movement IV) of HWV 360.
  • Play the complete four-movement sonata end-to-end, with intentional rests between movements.

A sonata that begins in lament must close in motion. Handel always does.

This lesson finishes HWV 360: the Adagio is the brief, suspended third movement, and the Presto is the propulsive triple-meter finale that turns the opening lament into motion.

This lesson finishes HWV 360 (read on your alto staff in C minor, the original-pitch reading): the Adagio is the brief, suspended third movement, and the Presto is the propulsive triple-meter finale that turns the opening lament into motion.

Movement III — Adagio

Eleven bars, a single sweep: the Adagio modulates from the relative major back to the minor — a doorway, not a movement.

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  • Tempo: quarter = 48–52.
  • Ornament: port de voix on the opening held Bb, trill on the final cadence's penultimate note, flattement on the resolution — nothing else.

Movement IV — Presto

Triple meter, fast. The Presto answers the Larghetto: the same descending tetrachord (D–C–B-flat–A–G), now run through the bar at speed.

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The articulation

Slur the first two of each group of three and tongue the third — the gigue pattern from Lesson 59. Double-tongue the sixteenth-note passages only; eighth-note motion stays single-tongued.

Drill — the cyclic descent

Hear the Larghetto's opening descent and the Presto's as the same gesture transformed by tempo and metre.

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The Larghetto opening — the descending tetrachord at slow tempo (review from Lesson 61).
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The Presto restating the same five notes — descending tetrachord, but now in triple meter at speed. The transformation is the point.

The complete sonata, end-to-end

The rests between movements matter:

Larghetto → Andante
Twelve beats — gravity to motion needs space.
Andante → Adagio
Eight beats — brilliance must not bleed into stillness.
Adagio → Presto
Four beats — the Adagio is already a transition.

Record the complete run, listen back twice, build a three-item fix list.

Now play these

Handel: Sonata in G minor, HWV 360 (Andante — library reference)
The only movement fully in the library; assemble the rest from your score.
Handel: Sonata in B-flat major, HWV 377 (Allegro)
The relative-major sister sonata — same period, different affect.
Handel: Sonata in C major, HWV 365 (Larghetto)
A slow movement in the same Handelian style.

When the complete HWV 360 plays end-to-end with an audible cyclic link between Larghetto and Presto, move on to Lesson 64.