In 1717, King George I of England requested a concert on the River Themes. He wanted to listen to music as he and his royal party travelled about an hour upriver. He commissioned George Frederick Handel to write something, and Handel wrote a suite of 20 festive airs and dances. The big day came on July 17, 1717. That evening, as the King's barge coasted upriver from Whitehall Palace on the rising tide, a second barge carrying 50 musicians travelled behind him, playing the composition. The King was so pleased with the music, he ordered it played over and over. Because of the circumstances of its debut performance, it became known simply as "Water Music."
George Frederick Handel was born in 1685 in Magdeburg, in what is today Germany. He became a British subject in 1727 after many years of composing for royal occasions and for popular audiences.
"Water Music" is one of the most popular pieces he wrote. But it wasn't the most popular, then or now, except maybe with George I himself. The year he became a British subject he wrote a piece for the coronation of King George II which has been played at every British monarch's coronation since, including that of Charles III last May.
It was his operas that first brought him the affection of the English public and he wrote more than 40 of them. After 1729, however he instead began writing oratorios, which are like operas in that they have orchestras and choirs and soloists and a dramatic outline, but there's no staging; they're really a type of concert.
He wrote his most famous work, an oratorio called The Messiah, in 1742. That he spent years writing operas before he started writing things like The Messiah in large part explains its appeal. Handel knew how to write dramatic stage-worthy music. The Messiah is really just an opera without stage setting.
Music historians Howard McKinney and W. R. Anderson wrote that "with its particular blend of piety and passion, [Handel's oratorios like Messiah] possessed a hold on the English public, which has never cared much for complexity in art, for what it calls 'cleverness.""
When Handel died in London in 1759, he was given a lavish state funeral in Westminster Abbey, the site of all those coronations at which his music is still played.
