"The Harmonious Blacksmith" is in the fifth of the "Suites de Piéces pour le Clavecin," commonly known as "Lessons," and composed for Princess Anne, Handel's royal pupil, daughter of the Prince of Wales. This suite consisted of the following pieces:--I. Prelude, II. Allemande, III. Courante, IV. Air.
_Handel: "The Harmonious Blacksmith," from the Fifth Suite for Clavichord._
The biographies of Handel give several versions of the story supposed to be connected with this little piece. It seems to be quite certain that the composer never used the title, and that it has one at all is probably due to the fact that the public seems to like a piece better if it is supposed to be "about" something. Many similar uses of supposititious titles will occur to the reader, as, for example, the "Moonlight" sonata of Beethoven, and the "Rain-drop" prelude of Chopin, neither of which grotesque names was ever sanctioned by the composer. If this tune of Handel's ever was sung by a burly smith at his forge he was indeed an "harmonious" blacksmith. In any case, it is a matter of record that the identical anvil was finally "discovered" by a Mr. Clark and found a resting place as a curio in an "Egyptian Hall" in London.
The tune itself has qualities familiar enough to students of Handel's instrumental music. Its final cadence, in particular, is thoroughly Handelian, and all through it there is that decisive and assertive manner that characterizes the melodies of this great man. There is nothing of the mystic about Handel; his oratorios and nearly all his smaller pieces have a straightforward and uncompromising style. He never gropes; his music speaks of an unfaltering self-confidence, unclouded by doubts.
The methods of treatment in the variations is a simple one. The harmonies remain the same throughout, while the melody is changed in various ways. In variation I, for example, the first two notes of the original melody have been made into an arpeggio, or broken chord, and this treatment persists throughout. In variation II the melody loses something of its physiognomy, and is only suggested by occasional notes in the upper or lower part for the right hand, while the left hand plays a familiar pattern accompaniment. Variation III plays lightly with the original theme, hovering around it with delicate scale passages.