Water Music of the suites has no set order today. The first performance of the "Water Music" suites is recorded in "The Daily Courant", the first British daily newspaper. At about 8 p.m. on Wednesday, 17 July 1717, King George I and several aristocrats boarded a royal barge at Whitehall Palace, for an excursion up the Thames toward Chelsea. The rising tide propelled the barge upstream without rowing. Another barge, provided by the City of London, contained about 50 musicians who performed Handel's music. Many other Londoners also took to the river to hear the concert. According to "The Courant", "the whole
Baroque music of the British Isles for the Royal Fireworks". His opera, including "Rinaldo" (1711, 1731), "Orlando" (1733), "Ariodante" (1735), "Alcina" (1735) and "Serse" (1738, also known as "Xerxes"), helped make Britain second only to Italy as a centre of operatic production. His sacred drama and choral music, particularly the coronation anthem "Zadok the Priest" (written for the inauguration of George II in 1727) which has remained part of the ceremony for British monarchs, and above all, the "Messiah", helped set the British taste in music for the next 200 years. He was a major influence on future classical composers including Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. Ballad