Water Music

The Anacrouse collection offers pianists, beginners and advanced alike, a wide choice of classical works from the Renaissance to the present day. It brings together major works of the repertoire as well as rarer pieces, and also offers transcriptions for piano solo or four hands, selected for their musical and educational interest. Each score, available individually or in a songbook, benefits from careful editorial work: a rigorously established musical text, clear and legible engraving, accompanied by a short biography of the composer and a note on the work.

“Water Music” (in F major), presented here in a piano four-hands transcription by Jean-François Pailler, is a wide-ranging study in the nobility of the Baroque style and the balance of registers. This title is taken from the reference songbook “8 Famous Classical Themes for Piano 4 Hands”, the first volume of the Anacrouse collection, which offers an interactive approach thanks to its 2 included CDs. For each work, three tracks are available: a reference version (Piano 4 hands), a track for practising the Piano 1 part (Piano 2 accompaniment alone) and a track for Piano 2 (Piano 1 accompaniment alone). This system allows the student to perfect rhythmic placement and synchronisation, even when practising alone.

Composed by George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) for a royal celebration on the Thames in 1717, this symphonic suite is a masterpiece of ceremonial music. For the two pianists, the challenge consists in conveying the brilliance of the brass and the liveliness of the strings of the original orchestra. The Secondo part must provide a stable, vigorous rhythmic foundation, while the Primo adorns the melody with the clarity and majesty specific to Baroque ceremony, making this duo a moment of pure musical jubilation.