Music for the Royal Fireworks

 ONE LAST THING

As promised: the story of Handel's most disastrous performance, for his Music for the Royal Fireworks.

As the story goes, Handel was under contract for King George II of England, tasked with writing music to accompany a fireworks display that would be taking place to celebrate the end of the War of Austrian Succession. The very first thing that frustrated Handel was this: the king asked for "no fiddles," as he apparently only liked winds and percussion instruments. So Handel left out the strings entirely, and that would have been that, except the king requested a rehearsal that would be open to the public.

On the day of the rehearsal, an enormous crowd of over 12,000 people descended on London's Vauxhall Gardens. The combination of too many carriages and too many wide hoop skirts caused a bottleneck on London Bridge, and the resulting traffic jam lasted for more than three hours. Poor Handel just wanted to rehearse his music! But alas, this was not the only thing that would go wrong.

The day of the performance arrived. The music was perfection, the specially-crafted theater building in London's Green Park was loveliness itself, the crowd was having a wonderful time -- but there was one big problem: it was raining. Not great for a fireworks show.

Not only did the unfortunate weather make it difficult to see the fireworks, but it also caused several misfires. Remember, this was 1749 -- they didn't have quite the same quality control as we have today. This was when the real disaster started. Stray rockets (never a good sign) hit the musicians' pavilion and set it aflame. A woman's dress caught fire, and two soldiers were burned as well. The architect and designer of the pavilion drew his sword against the fireworks controller in a fury. Winds rose; the fire spread; the audience scattered. Pandemonium!  

And yet, while the fireworks show was not a success, the music was a triumph. It's still one of Handel's most beloved works. And if I have to hear local teens setting off fireworks every night until August, I might as well listen to this while I do it.

Kendall Todd, WCRB, The Note