Music for the Royal Fireworks Music for the Royal Fireworks The Music for the Royal Fireworks (HWV 351) is a suite for wind instruments composed by George Frideric Handel in 1749 under contract of George II of Great Britain for the fireworks in London's Green Park on 27 April 1749. It was to celebrate the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and the signing of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1748. During the preparations Handel and the Duke of Montagu, the Master General of the Ordnance and the officer responsible for the Royal Fireworks, had an argument about adding violins. The duke
Paris in the 18th century houses were being constructed. As the boulevards attracted crowds, they also attracted street entertainers; acrobats, musicians, dancers, and every kind of trained animal performed on the sidewalks. The end of the 18th century saw the opening of the pleasure gardens of Ranelegh, Vauxhall, and Tivoli. These were large private gardens where, in summer, Parisians paid an admission charge and found food, music, dancing, and other entertainment, from pantomime to magic lantern shows and fireworks. The admission fee was relatively high; the owners of the gardens wanted to attract a more upper class clientele, and to keep out the more boisterous