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Impertinence, HWV 494

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) · sheet music

  • Key G minor
  • Time 4/4
  • Levels 4–7
  • Passages 3

Your turn · both hands

 

 

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George Frideric Handel, German-British baroque (1685–1759). The reading release has 3 passages from this piece at levels 4–7; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for both hands together.

Practice the hard bars →

The hardest stretch is bars 9–16 at level 7.

Your practice path

Learn it the way teachers do: each hand on its own, then together, then the hard bars. Each step is a real graded passage of Impertinence, HWV 494.

  1. Hands together · bars 1–4 level 4
  2. The hardest bars · bars 9–16 level 7

How to play Impertinence, HWV 494

  1. Tempo:Feel two beats in each bar, as the cut-time signature suggests, and choose a pace where the quarter notes move lightly forward without any scramble in the eighth-note pairs.
  2. Right hand:Shape the tune in short phrases that rise and relax at each cadence, rather than giving every quarter note the same weight.
  3. Left hand:Treat the left hand as a second melody, not an accompaniment: when it enters with the opening figure, make it sound like an answer to the right hand.
  4. Hands together:Practice the places where one hand holds a half note while the other moves, so the held note keeps sounding through the other hand's phrase.
  5. Fingering:Choose one fingering for the opening figure and use it in both hands each time it returns, so the imitation sounds alike.
  6. Reading:Two flats are in the key signature, and F sharp appears near cadences as the leading note of G minor; read it as the signal that a cadence is coming.
  7. Practice:Learn each hand alone until you can sing its line, then put the hands together one phrase at a time, stopping at each cadence.

Common mistakes

  • Playing the left hand as a soft background. Fix: Give it the same tone and phrasing as the right hand, especially when it imitates the opening.
  • Starting on the wrong beat and losing the upbeat. Fix: Count the bar before you start and play the first note as a pickup into the downbeat.
  • Forgetting the F sharp at cadences. Fix: Circle each F sharp in pencil and say it aloud during practice.
  • Pounding out the dance rhythm like a march. Fix: Lighten the quarter notes and lean toward the next downbeat.

Structure: bourrée in two voices

The piece starts with a one-beat upbeat in the right hand, and the left hand imitates the opening figure a bar later. The two lines then move independently in quarter and half notes, with eighth-note pairs at the cadences. Later the music comes to rest on a D major chord, the dominant, and a chain of falling phrases leads back toward G minor.

Opening · Tune and imitation
The right hand plays the opening tune from a single upbeat; one bar later the left hand repeats the opening figure an octave lower while the right hand continues.
Continuation · Dialogue to the dominant
The two lines trade short phrases and reach a pause on a D major chord, with F sharp as the leading note toward G minor.
Close · Falling sequence
Short phrases step downward in a sequence, each a note lower than the last, leading the music home to G minor.

About Impertinence, HWV 494

Impertinence is a tiny keyboard piece by George Frideric Handel, numbered HWV 494 in Bernd Baselt's catalogue of his works. It is a bourrée in G minor, and IMSLP notes that Grove Music lists it under the title Bourrée with Impertinence as a subtitle. The French Wikipedia article dates it to around 1705.

A bourrée is a French dance in duple time, a little quicker than a gavotte, whose phrases start with a quarter-bar pickup. Handel's is written in just two voices: the right hand states the tune after a single upbeat, and the left hand enters a bar later with the same opening figure an octave lower, so the two hands answer each other throughout.

Because it is short, clear and written for two hands of equal importance, the piece is a staple of keyboard and piano teaching. A scholarly edition by Terence Best appeared in 1975 in the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe, the collected Handel edition.

  • A manuscript copy in the British Library's Royal Music collection carries Impertinence as its caption title, according to the RISM catalogue.
  • Bach usually placed the bourrée after the sarabande and before the gigue in his suites, and Wikipedia notes that Bach, Handel and Chopin all wrote bourrées not necessarily meant for dancing.
  • IMSLP lists the instrumentation as harpsichord, so any loud and soft shading on the piano is the player's choice rather than Handel's marking.

Why the first passage is level 4

That passage is level 4 rather than 3 because a hand plays several notes at once, its key signature has 2 sharps or flats, it needs both hands at once.

Two single-line voices, one per hand, in G minor with two flats and an occasional F sharp; the challenge is balance and clean phrasing, not fast notes.

Questions about Impertinence, HWV 494

How hard is Impertinence, HWV 494 to play?
Its passages grade from level 4 to level 7 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 9–16 at level 7.
Is there an easy part of Impertinence, HWV 494 for beginners?
Its easiest passage is level 4, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–4 for both hands together, the level-4 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 4 because a hand plays several notes at once and its key signature has 2 sharps or flats.
What key and time signature is Impertinence, HWV 494 in?
Impertinence, HWV 494 is in G minor, 2 flats. The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
Who composed Impertinence, HWV 494?
George Frideric Handel, German-British baroque (1685–1759). Impertinence is a tiny keyboard piece by George Frideric Handel, numbered HWV 494 in Bernd Baselt's catalogue of his works.
Can I practice Impertinence, HWV 494 online for free?
Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 3 graded passages from Impertinence, HWV 494 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
What is a bourrée?
A French Baroque dance in duple time that starts each phrase with a short pickup; composers often placed it among the optional dances of a suite.
Why is it called Impertinence?
The name is the caption title in a manuscript copy held by the British Library, and Grove Music treats it as a subtitle; none of the sources consulted explains where it came from.
How long does it take to learn Handel's Impertinence?
Many students can read it in a day; making the two voices balanced and dancelike usually takes one to two weeks of short practice.

Every passage, easiest first

The reading release grades 3 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:

Level 4
bars 1–4 both hands
Level 5
bars 13–16 both hands
Level 7
bars 9–16 both hands

More pieces to sight-read

Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (mutopia-ly), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.

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