Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427
George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) · sheet music
- Key F major
- Time 4/4
- Levels 7–9
- Passages 12
Your turn · both hands
Preparing your passage…
George Frideric Handel, German-British baroque (1685–1759). The reading release has 12 passages from this piece at levels 7–9; the reader above opens on the easiest, bars 1–4 for both hands together.
The hardest stretch is bars 7–14 at level 9.
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 Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427.
- Hands together · bars 1–4 level 7
- The hardest bars · bars 7–14 level 9
How to play Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427
- Tempo:Choose a tempo for each movement in its own right: a spacious, speaking pace for the Adagios and a brisk but clear pace for the Allegros. Do not link them by one steady beat.
- Right hand:Shape the long right-hand lines of the Adagio like a vocal melody, letting ornaments grow out of the notes they decorate. In the fugue, give the theme a distinct profile each time it appears.
- Left hand:The left hand carries the bass and, in the fugue, takes up the theme too. Play it with the same care you give the right hand.
- Hands together:In the fugue, bring out whichever hand has the theme and play the other hand lighter. Practice hands separately, then together, listening to each line as a separate voice.
- Pedal:Use little or no pedal. Handel wrote for the harpsichord, so clean fingerwork and clear articulation do the job the pedal would otherwise blur.
- Rhythm:Keep the Allegros steady and let the Adagios breathe. A slight stretching at cadences is natural in the slow movements.
- Reading:Look for ornament signs before you play each phrase, and plan the fingering for each ornament. Read the fugue as separate lines so you can see where the theme starts.
- Practice:Practice the ornaments in the Adagio slowly and by themselves, then in context. In the fugue, mark each entry of the theme and play it aloud with one hand.
Common mistakes
- Treating the Adagio as a slow march without any freedom. Fix: Let the melody lean and relax within the beat while the bass keeps time.
- Playing the fugue with all lines at the same volume so the theme disappears. Fix: Practice each entry with a slightly louder theme and a softer accompanying voice.
- Pressing the pedal to hide uneven fingerwork. Fix: Play without pedal until the fingers are even and clear.
- Rushing the Allegro movements and losing the ornaments. Fix: Choose a tempo at which every ornament can be played cleanly.
Structure: four-movement suite in church-sonata order (slow - fast - slow - fast)
The suite has four movements instead of a sequence of dances, laid out like an Italian church sonata. Two richly decorated slow movements alternate with two lively ones, and the last is a four-voice fugue.
- I · Adagio (F major)
- An elaborately ornamented melody spins out over a bass that keeps stepping downward. The music wanders through other keys, including F minor, and stops on a pause before closing in A minor.
- II · Allegro (F major)
- The right hand runs in nearly unbroken sixteenth notes while the left hand fills in the harmony. The second half starts with the opening theme, then keeps moving through nearby keys before settling back in F major.
- III · Adagio
- Another richly ornamented slow movement, but here a motive built on leaps of a fourth passes back and forth between the voices instead of staying in the top line.
- IV · Allegro (Fugue) (F major)
- A four-voice fugue whose subject enters in turn in each voice and later appears in keys a third away. The reading challenge is following several lines at once.
About Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427
Handel's Suite No. 2 in F major, HWV 427, belongs to the Suites de pièces pour le clavecin, the set of eight suites he published in London in 1720, now often called the Eight Great Suites. In his preface he explained that he had to publish them because faulty, unauthorized copies were circulating, and that he had added new pieces to make the set more useful.
There was also a commercial threat: the London publisher John Walsh, working with Jeanne Roger in Amsterdam, was preparing a pirated edition. The 1720 set was a success, was reprinted in London, and appeared in Amsterdam and Paris; around fifteen different editions were printed during the eighteenth century.
Unlike the other seven suites, this one has no prelude and no dances. Its four movements, Adagio, Allegro, Adagio and a fugue marked Allegro, follow the slow-fast-slow-fast plan of the Italian church sonata. The fugue dates from Handel's time at Cannons in 1717-18, and the opening Adagio was revised for the 1720 print.
- Handel's preface complains that surreptitious and incorrect copies of his keyboard lessons had got abroad, which pushed him into print.
- A pirated edition of the suites was being prepared by John Walsh in London together with Jeanne Roger in Amsterdam.
- Arrangements of this suite exist for wind octet, violin and harpsichord, recorders, guitars and organ.
- The suite once had a fifth movement, which Handel cut when the set went to print.
Why the first passage is level 7
That passage is level 7 rather than 6 because a hand covers more than one position, it runs fast figuration.
The passages on this page come from the brisk Allegro: a right hand running in sixteenth notes over a walking eighth-note bass, with one flat in the key signature and a wide range in each hand. Read the right hand in four-note groups and the bass as a steady line.
Questions about Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427
- How hard is Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427 to play?
- Its passages grade from level 7 to level 9 on Real Sight Reader's ten-level reading scale, so the full piece is intermediate to advanced reading. The hardest stretch is bars 7–14 at level 9.
- Is there an easy part of Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427 for beginners?
- Its easiest passage is level 7, so it suits a reader past the beginner stage. Start with bars 1–4 for both hands together, the level-7 passage in the reader at the top of this page; it is level 7 because a hand covers more than one position and it runs fast figuration.
- What key and time signature is Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427 in?
- Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427 is in F major, 1 flat. The engraving on this page is in 4/4 time.
- Who composed Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427?
- George Frideric Handel, German-British baroque (1685–1759). Handel's Suite No.
- Can I practice Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427 online for free?
- Yes. The reader on this page plays any of the 12 graded passages from Keyboard Suite No. 2 in F, HWV 427 in your browser, with an on-screen keyboard or a MIDI keyboard, and marks every note as you play. No signup.
- What are Handel's Eight Great Suites?
- They are eight keyboard suites, HWV 426 to 433, published in London in 1720 as Suites de pièces pour le clavecin. This F major suite is the second.
- Did Handel write his keyboard suites for piano?
- No. They were probably written for the harpsichord, but they work well on the piano when played with clear articulation and little pedal.
- Why does Handel's Suite No. 2 have no dances?
- Handel laid it out like an Italian church sonata rather than a dance suite: four movements marked Adagio, Allegro, Adagio and Allegro (Fugue), with no prelude and no dance titles.
Every passage, easiest first
The reading release grades 12 distinct passages of this piece. Open any of them in the reader:
- Level 7
- bars 1–4 both hands · bars 17–20 both hands · bars 17–24 both hands · bars 21–24 both hands
- Level 8
- bars 9–12 both hands · bars 29–32 both hands
- Level 9
- bars 7–14 both hands · bars 9–16 both hands · bars 13–16 both hands · bars 25–32 both hands · bars 25–28 both hands · bars 33–36 both hands
More pieces to sight-read
Score: public-domain engraving from the corpus (pdmx), graded by the piano-reading-v2-20261023-identity-audit reading release.