We will discuss Handel as a composer of opera and oratorio in Chapter 11, on Baroque vocal music. One of his best-loved instrumental works is a dance suite for a huge band to celebrate the end of one of England’s many wars in the eighteenth century, the War of the Austrian Succession. The minuet from this suite was not meant to be danced, then, but music like this certainly encourages body movement. On our recording, the minuet is played twice, the second time with full military honors.

The rehearsal of the Fireworks Music at London’s Vauxhall Gardens (see page 133) was attended by 12,000 people, causing a historic traffic jam. At the celebration itself, which was led off by a hundred brass cannons, things got much worse: The stage set caught fire, the crowd stampeded, two people died, and the man in charge of the fireworks had a mad fit. Music should stay indoors.